Bede

I will rest in the day of my tribulation, that I may ascend to the people of my transmigration. For he rests not only in the day of retribution, but also of tribulation, who does not doubt that he will obtain eternal joys through temporal afflictions, according to the saying of the Apostle: For we are saved by hope (Rom. VIII, 24). And again: Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation (Rom. XII, 12). And this is the rest of the elect in this life, that, leaving the desire for lowly things, they strive with the whole intention of their mind and with daily steps of good works to ascend and migrate to the fellowship of those who have preceded them in Christ; and, with the struggles of their sufferings finished, they may receive the crown of life in the example of those who, having been once transported to Babylon from Judea, returned again to their homeland under the leaders Zerubbabel and Jesus, whom the scripture calls the sons of the transmigration. It is recorded that with great devotion they restored the sacred things which the enemy had destroyed; which is the clearest figure of our state. For we were transported in our first parent from the heavenly homeland and brought into this world’s Babylon, that is, confusion; but by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great King and High Priest, whose type Zerubbabel and Jesus bore, we are rightly recalled again to the homeland and the vision of supreme peace, which the name Jerusalem signifies; provided that, meanwhile, laboring in the Jerusalem of the present Church with pious works, we prepare ourselves in due time for entry to the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all. If it is read indifferently, as it is found in some Codices: I will rest in the day of tribulation, and my is not added, it can be understood according to that which is sung in the Psalm about the just man: In the evil day the Lord will deliver him (Ps. XL, 2), that is, in the day of judgment, when eternal tribulation will seize the reprobates, eternal rest will oppose and receive the just; but even before that final and general judgment, the saints rest in the day of tribulation, ascending to the people of their migration, when through good works transported from the world, they are united to the joys of the just who preceded them in the heavens, while equally their persecutors, taken from this life, undergo the eternal torments of hell, to be punished forever. Moreover, the day of tribulation can also be understood in this life, when, with the scarcity of temporal goods increasing, those who loved such things excessively, as if surrounded by miseries, grieve; but each chosen one, although enduring the same troubles bodily, has rest in the Lord with fixed hope of mind, knowing that the more he is weighed down in the lower things, the higher he will ascend after the pressures to the eternal fellowship of the celestial citizens. And this understanding aptly agrees with what follows:

And beneath me, my strength was disturbed. However, he rightly says that his strength was disturbed not in himself, but beneath himself, because the prophet, having been taken up to the contemplation of heavenly mysteries, saw himself, as it were, elevated above himself; and the higher he is made by the light of contemplation, the more he sees himself as imperfect by the merit of his actions. For being lifted up to the sight of the highest things, he is rightly disturbed by the things he has done in the lowest. Yet the prophet's strength was disturbed, his bones trembled, his belly shuddered, not only because he knew himself to be less perfect in action, but also because all who wish to live piously in Christ are said to suffer persecutions; and he saw that even Christ Himself, who entered the world without sin, would not leave the world without the punishment of sin, as he had also indicated at the beginning of his song. Nevertheless, the same fear and trembling did not remain devoid of consolation, for the hope diminished the adversity present, and made lighter the rewards of the future. This is what follows:

For the fig tree will not bear fruit, and there will be no generation in the vineyards. The work of the olive will lie and the fields will not yield food. The sheep have failed from their food, and there will be no oxen in the stalls. But I will glory in the Lord, and I will rejoice in God my Savior. For when the opulence of worldly things fails, carnal and lovers of this life are troubled, the righteous do not grieve over the loss of temporal goods but rejoice in the possession of the heavenly kingdom promised to the poor of Christ, mindful of the promised consolation of Him who said: Do not fear, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom. And what wonderful faith, hope, and love of the prophet! The Son of God had not yet appeared in man receiving the name Jesus from His parents, and he, foreseeing the same name in the Spirit, testifies that he rejoices in Him amidst adversities, who would open the gate of the heavenly homeland for His faithful long after being born in the flesh. If anyone also seeks to expound these verses figuratively, the fig tree, vineyard, and olive were the synagogue of the Jews, which brought forth the sweetness of good works, the fragrance of fervent love, and the richness of a merciful soul devoted to God. Sheep and oxen were typically in the same people; the sheep, namely, in those who humbly heard the voice of the supreme Shepherd; the oxen, on the other hand, were in those who, zealously bearing the yoke of the law, by diligently teaching and correcting the hearts of listeners, as it were plowing the land of the Lord, prepared for the fruits of good works; and for those living spiritually, the fields of the divine Scriptures most widely made spiritual foods, with whose nourishment he who was made like a beast before the Lord delighted, and always adhered to Him, saying: The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want, in a place of pasture, He has placed me there (Ps. 22:1). But this fig tree, to which the Lord came the third time, that is, in the legislation through Moses, in the diligent rebuke and exhortation through the prophets, in the offering of grace through Himself, neglected to bear the fruit of virtue, because of which it was condemned to eternal dryness by His curse. The generation in the vineyards of the Lord once failed, that is, the fruit of charity failed among the crowds of the Jews, because they offered vinegar to Him who thirsted instead of wine, that is, the sweetness of virtues He sought in them, they brought forth the bitterness of vices desiring virtues. The work of the olive lied, when that people anointed the heads of the wretched with the oil of flattery, and echoed the true words of the prophet falsely, saying: But I, like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, have trusted in the mercy of God (Ps. 51:10), wherefore at the time of the final retribution, bringing forth extinguished lamps, with their own darkness, they will be excluded from the entrance to the heavenly homeland. The fields do not yield food when the same people, opening the pages of divine writings, cannot rightly understand and find the pastures of truth. The sheep fail from their food, for those whom the refreshment of internal sweetness is absent, whence the innocence of a simple life may not come forth. Thus it was said: the sheep have failed from their food, that is, because food was lacking, as the Prophet in the Psalms: And my flesh, he says, was changed because of the oil (Ps. 108:24), that is, because the oil with which I might be refreshed or anointed was not there. Indeed, some Codices have it this way: The sheep have failed because they did not eat, and there are no oxen in the stalls. For although there are abundantly in the Jews the stalls of heavenly writings; yet because they do not taste the food of heavenly understanding in them, those who bear the sweet yoke of the Gospel are absent. Considering all these things that are to come upon the perfidious part of his people, the prophet immediately shows what he himself would do with the faithful of the same people, or rather with the society of the Church, which was gathered in Christ from all over the world, or elected: But I, he says, will glory not in my own righteousness, but in faith in the divine protection, I will rejoice in God my Savior, that is my Savior, because I perceive salvation to be not in me, but in Him. And as if we were to ask him why he glories in the Lord and rejoices in God his Savior, whom he called his own with great affection of love, he immediately, as if insinuating the most just cause of the same joy, ended his song thus:

The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet as sure as deer’s, and He will set me on high places, so that I may triumph in His glory. As if He openly says: Indeed, beneath me my strength is troubled, that is, while I contemplate the condition of human frailty, which is below; and while I lift the eyes of my mind to the grace of divine help, I trust that I can make strength in Him. He is able to lead the steps of my works to the completion of a firm end; He can set me on high so that we may utterly despise all the loftiness of worldly power by the contemplation of eternal goods. I shall overcome all temptations which come to me either from the adversities or the blandishments of the world in His love through which I will be, that is, while in all things I do not seek my own glory, but His, from whom I remember that I have received whatever good I do. For deservedly, they are helped by the Lord, that having overcome temptations, they, having been proven, may reach the prize of the heavenly calling, who refer the entire cause of their victory to His praise. Some manuscripts have: And I will triumph in His Song, which looks to the same sense. For whoever knows how to give thanks to Him from the heart in all the tribulations he suffers, he triumphs in the Lord's Song, knowing that all things work together for good to those who love God, and as accustomed with blessed Job: Blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21). Finally, the apostles Paul and Silas, amid beatings, darkness, and chains of prison, sang a hymn to God; and thus divinely helped, they suddenly emerged as victors, for indeed, although their feet seemed to be tightly bound in stocks, the steps of their works were made complete in virtues. Beautifully, the end of this prophetic song corresponds to its beginning. For he who, having heard and considered the works of the Lord appearing in the flesh, faithfully fears and trembles, is made so that, despising those things which in this life are borne in various states like the waves of the sea, he may glory and rejoice in Him alone whose joys he can perpetually enjoy; helped by Him, so that he is neither broken by the adversities of the present world nor enervated by its allurements; he sings the praises of His grace both in the present, that he may deserve to conquer, and in the future, because he has conquered, he should never cease to sing. It also happens that such a soul overcomes the world in the glory of the Lord, namely, by His same glory, both often recalled to memory in times of struggles, and beheld perpetually in times of rewards, according to what He promised: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8). It should be noted, however, that with the prayer or song of Habakkuk explained, his name, which is interpreted as embracing, corresponds to the sense of the same prayer. For it is clear that he embraced the Lord with the inward love of the heart and adhered to Him, who testifies that he glories and rejoices in Him alone. May it happen, dearest sister and virgin of Christ, that also we, loving Him, may be made worthy of such a name. If indeed we strive to embrace Him with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength, He will deign to embrace us with the arms of His love, mindful of His promise where He says: He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him (John 14:21); and thus we will deserve to be numbered among the members of that bride who is accustomed to joyfully sing to her Creator, her heavenly spouse: His left hand is under my head, and His right hand shall embrace me. Amen (Song of Solomon 2:6).

It is no secret that angels are frequently present, invisibly, at the side of the elect, in order to defend them from the snares of the cunning enemy and uphold them by the great gift of heavenly desire. The apostle attests to this when he says, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation?” Nevertheless, we should believe that the angelic spirits are especially present to us when we give ourselves in a special way to divine services, that is, when we enter a church and open our ears to sacred reading, or give our attention to psalm singing, or apply ourselves to prayer, or celebrate the solemnity of the mass. Hence the apostle advises women to have a veil over their heads in church on account of the angels. And a prophet says, “I will sing psalms to you in the sight of the angels.” We are not permitted to doubt that where the mysteries of the Lord’s body and blood are being enacted, a gathering of the citizens from on high is present—those who were keeping such careful watch at the tomb where Christ’s venerable body had been placed and from which he had departed by rising. Hence we must strive meticulously, my brothers, when we come into the church to pay the due service of divine praise or to perform the solemnity of the mass, to be always mindful of the angelic presence, and to fulfill our heavenly duty with fear and fitting veneration, following the example of the women devoted to God who were afraid when the angels appeared to them at the tomb, and who, we are told, bowed their faces to the earth.

And in the Apocalypse, John the apostle … says, “Who loved us and washed from us our sins in his blood.” Not only did he wash away our sins in his blood when he gave his blood for us on the cross, or when each of us was cleansed in his baptism by the mystery of his most sacred passion. But he also takes away every day the sins of the world and washes us of our daily sins in his blood, when the memory of his blessed passion is reenacted on the altar, when a created thing, bread and wine, is transformed by the ineffable sanctification of the Spirit into the sacrament of his flesh and blood. Thus his body and blood is not poured forth and slain by the hands of the unfaithful to their own ruin, but he is taken by the mouth of the faithful to their salvation.The lamb in the law of Passover rightly shows us a type of him, since, having once liberated the people from their Egyptian servitude, it sanctified the people every year by being immolated in memory of their liberation, until he came, to whom such a sacrificial offering gave testimony. When he was offered to the Father for us as a sacrificial offering and for a sweet savor, he transformed, by the lamb that was offered, the mystery of his passion into a created thing, bread and wine, having been made “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

For what is the meaning of John’s being born to elderly parents? Was it not to indicate the earthly birth of the one who was soon to follow, since by bringing forward the hidden spiritual mysteries of the new covenant, he would teach that the fleshly observance of the law and the priesthood of the old covenant were now to be brought to an end? For “what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” And what does it mean that our Lord’s precursor came from a father who was mute, a leader of the priests of that time? Is it not that, by the time our Lord appeared, the tongue of the ancient priesthood had to a large extent become mute as regards the spiritual sense of the law’s teaching, since the scribes and those learned in the law were only concerned with teaching the keeping of the letter of the law? Moreover, in a number of instances, they were even falsifying the letter of the law by substituting their own traditions, as is proven by our Lord’s having rebuked them more than once in the Gospels. And what does it mean that he was born to a barren mother? Is it not that the law, which was ordered to beget spiritual issue for God with the help of the priestly office, led no one to perfection, undoubtedly because it was unable to open up the gates of the kingdom to its followers? The author of the law himself, born under the law, took away from the law the opprobrium of its barrenness, for he pointed out that it was to be understood spiritually; and he taught that in it was formerly prefigured and, as it were, conceived, the gift of happiness from on high which now shines out clearly in the gospel.

The ark can also be taken figuratively as the holy church that is constructed from incorruptible wood, that is, from holy souls. Extended throughout the four quarters of the world, with faith in the holy gospel, the church expects from God the eternal crown of life. It contains in itself the tables of the covenant by continual meditation on the law of God. It also contains the golden urn with the manna as a guarantee of the Lord’s incarnation, and Aaron’s rod that budded as a sharing in the kingship and priesthood of the Lord; for the apostle Peter says, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood.” Up above, it has the propitiatory to remind it that every good thing it possesses it has received from the generosity of divine grace. And on the propitiatory it has the glorious cherubim, signifying either the angelic assistance with which it is always aided by a gracious God or the Testaments in which it is taught how it ought to live and in what manner it ought to seek the aid of divine propitiation so that it may live properly. Now the cherubim were set over the propitiatory in this way, just as the city of Christ, that is, the holy church, is said to have been built upon the mountain, that is, upon Christ himself; not that his city can be higher than he but because it derives support from his assistance. The ark has cherubim over the propitiatory because both the angelic ministries and the divine eloquences surely give aid to the church insofar as they themselves stand firm upon the foundation of the highest truth.

Now the golden urn in the ark holding the manna is the holy soul in Christ that contains in itself all the fullness of divinity. Aaron’s rod that budded although cut off from the tree is the invincible power of his priesthood, concerning which the prophet says, “Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity.” Even after it seemed for the time being to have been cut off through death, in the dawn of the resurrection morn it was found to have blossomed again all the more vigorously, and it became clear that it would remain forever imperishable and unfading. For “Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.” The tablets of the covenant in the ark indicate that all knowledge of the Father’s secrets and all power of judgment are in Christ. For on the tablets of the covenant were inscribed the faith of the eternal divinity which creates and rules the world, and the commandments through which one ought to serve God, and the discerning judgment with which God rightly condemns those who hate God and with due mercy rewards those who love him. This, then, is the testimony that the Lord gave Moses to be put into the ark. It indicated the truth that we ought to confess in Christ about his flesh, his son, and his word. It showed that after the passion of death the same flesh would be glorified in the resurrection and lifted up in the eternal dignity of a king and priest. It taught that he alone is privy to the Father’s secrets, just as truly as he is the judge of all worlds, of one and the same majesty with the Father.

Figuratively, the curtain in the temple represents the same curtain that the apostle declares openly to the Hebrews, in the place where he also explains properly, according to the allegorical sense, the reason that “the priests go continually into the outer tent, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the errors of the people.” This curtain is interpreted as heaven. And the priests entered into the first tabernacle with sacrifices daily throughout the year, which further illustrates the circumstances of this life, in which the saints who serve the Lord as true priests of God and of his Christ ceaselessly atone for the daily errors of their frailty, without which they are by no means able to exist in this life through the daily sacrifices of good works and the daily libations of their own tears. But the apostle understands the high priest who went into the Holy of Holies with the blood of victims once a year to be the great high priest himself, of whom it was said, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” He who as both priest and victim had offered himself through his own blood once for our sins entered “into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.”

“The Jews said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ ” They answered as they understood. But lest we too should perceive our Lord’s spiritual word in a carnal way, the Evangelist subsequently explained what temple it was of which he was speaking.… This number forty-six of years is most apt for the perfecting of our Lord’s physical body. Writers of natural history tell us that the form of the human body is completed within this number of days. During the first six days after conception it has a likeness to milk; during the following nine days it is changed into blood; next, in twelve days it becomes solid; during the remaining eighteen days it is formed into the perfect features of all its members; and after this, during the time remaining until birth, it increases in size. Six plus nine plus twelve plus eighteen make forty-five. If to this we add one, that is the day on which the body, divided into its separate members, begins to grow. We find the same number of days in the building up of our Lord’s body as there were years in the construction of the temple.And because that temple made by human hands prefigured our Lord’s most sacred body, which he took from the Virgin, and in like manner pointed to his body which is the church, and to the body and soul of each one of the faithful, as we find in quite a few places in the Scriptures.

On the day of atonement the high priest was commanded to expiate the sanctuary and the tabernacle of testimony, together with the altar, the priests as well, and the entire people. John showed clearly who that high priest was and what the expiation was when, as Jesus was coming to his baptism, he spoke, saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” This expiation had been established to be celebrated once during the year because, as the apostle says, “Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” As for the fact that after the high priest went into the sanctuary to make intercession, no other person was permitted to be in the tabernacle until after he came out—this indicates the weakness of the holy church, which was not yet fit to suffer for its faith in him. This was made evident in the case of the apostles themselves, who, when his passion had begun, “all forsook him and fled.” When the expiation was completed, the high priest came forth so that an opportunity might be given to others to go into the tabernacle. When the sacrifice of his passion was over, Christ appeared to his disciples; by giving them the grace of the Holy Spirit he strengthened their heart further for offering to God sacrificial offerings, not only of devoted works and prayer but also of his own blood. I have explained these details about the observance of this festivity under the law so fully in order that you, dear ones, may acknowledge how appropriately the proclamations of new grace took their starting point from it, in which, in so many ways, the working out of this grace and the redemption of the whole world is expressed.

The law was indeed given through Moses, and there it was determined by a heavenly rule what was to be done and what was to be avoided, but what it commanded was completed only by the grace of Christ. On the one hand, that law was capable of pointing out sin, teaching justice and showing transgressors what they are charged with. On the other hand, the grace of Christ, poured out in the hearts of the faithful through the spirit of charity, brings it about that what the law commanded may be fulfilled. Hence that which was written, “do not covet,” is the law given through Moses because it is commanded, but grace comes through Christ when what is commanded is fulfilled. Truth came through Christ because “the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities.” And, as the apostle says elsewhere, “These things happened to them as a figure.” But in place of a shadow Christ displayed the light of truth, and in place of the figure of the law he displayed the exact image of the things which were prefigured when, with the giving of the grace of the Spirit, he made clear to his disciples the meaning so that they could understand the Scriptures. The law was given through Moses when the people were commanded to be made clean by the sprinkling of the blood of a lamb. The grace and truth which were prefigured in the law came through Jesus Christ when he himself, having suffered on the cross, “freed us from our sins by his blood.”