Cornelius a Lapide

Ye shall see heaven opened: not that the heaven was to be in reality cleft, but because it was to afford a passage to the angels going in and out, like as it were a door that is opened. Thus heaven shall appear to be opened. This is the figure of speech called catachresis . In like manner, the heaven seemed to be opened at Christ’s baptism. So too S. Stephen, when he was stoned, saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. By this vision it is signified that heaven, which had been shut for four thousand years because of the sins of men, was now to be opened by Christ The angels of God, &c., to obey Him as their King. This is the force of the Greek M, which answers to the Hebrew al. Wherefore Vatablus translates under the Son of Man , as though Christ said, “under My power and sway, as I will and command.” So Frank Lucas. Observe (1.) that Christ, in calling Nathanael an Israelite in whom was no guile, evidently alludes to the vision of angels ascending and descending in the ladder from earth to heaven, which the Patriarch Jacob saw at Bethel (Gen. xxviil 12). So S. Augustine. For Israel, Digitized by V^rOOQie 74 or Jacob, was a type of Christ. For Christ is the true Israel, i.e. t having power with God Christ is the Patriarch of Christians, the founder of Bethel , the House of God f i.e., the Church both militant and triumphant. 2. Christ, by what He says about this vision of the angels ascending to Himself, signifies that He is the Prince not only of men, but of angels, and therefore true God, the Son of God. For the angels ascend and descend to Him as His ministers, that they may obey and fulfil all His commands both in heaven and earth. So S. Cyril and Chrysostom. You will ask, When did this descent and ascent of the angels to Christ take place? i. S. Chrysostom thinks it took place when Christ suffered His agony and bloody sweat in the garden, when an angel appeared, strengthening Him (S. Luke, xxii. 44). Also when the angels appeared to the woman to announce His resurrection (S. Matt xxviii.) 2. S. Cyril thinks it took place at His baptism ; for then it was that by the ministry of angels a dove was formed, and flew down upon Christ, which was the sign of the Holy Ghost But this had already taken place when Christ spoke to Nathanael. 3. Euthymius thinks it took place at the ascension ; for then all the angels accompanied Him as He went up, like servants their prince, and soldiers their king. 4. Toletus thinks that it is continually taking place in the Church, which Christ rules by means of the angels. 5. Maldonatus thinks it will take place in the Day of Judgment ; for then all the angels, both good and bad, will stand in His presence — the good, that they may after the Judgment lead the righteous to heaven ; the bad, that they may carry the wicked to hell 6. Frank Lucas understands the words to refer to the miracles of Christ, and the heavenly gifts, in which the angels were employed by Christ in this life, and afterwards. Jesus means, he says, that at the bidding of the Son of Man from henceforth heaven should seem to be open, with the angels going and coming, because in a short time the angels, being commanded by the Son of Man, would bring Digitized by V^rOOQie VISION OF ANGELS. 7 5 great abundance of God’s great gifts to the earth, which all would behold,— even the healing of the sick, the cleansing of the lepers, giving sight to the blind, the justification of the wicked, the effusion of the Holy Ghost And since all of these are manifest gifts of God, heaven could not seem other than to be opened, and the holy angels, by whom heavenly things are ministered, to serve, at the bidding of the Son of Man, by those who beheld Him bestowing them upon many. Christ therefore is here speaking of all kinds of miracles and heavenly gifts, which, immediately after the calling of Nathanael, He was about to manifest in the whole period of His mortal life, and after His ascension, in the government of the Church until the end of the world. All these meanings are true and apposite. But because Christ specially promises this vision of angels to Philip and Nathanael to strengthen and augment their faith in Him, this ascent and descent of the angels upon Him was not fulfilled either at His baptism, passion, resurrection, or ascension. Therefore we say that the words more plainly, simply, and expressly imply that this was an open, or manifest, and peculiar vision of angels coming to the living Christ, such as was given to Jacob, who was a type of Christ Wherefore that vision of Jacob presignified a similar vision of angels to Christ, a vision like that which took place at His birth, when the angels who descended to Him sang, Glory to God in the highest. But where and when this angelic vision took place the Evangelists do not tell us, just as they omit many other acts in the life of Christ. So Jansen. This vision took place (i.) to show that Christ had reconciled men and angels, earth and heaven, and had restored the mutual communion and friendship which existed in Paradise. 2 . To show that Christians are strangers and foreigners on earth, and ought to converse with angels, and imitate the angelic life, as “ fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” 3. To assign angels to us as our guardians, to defend us against all the attacks of men and evil spirits, to urge us to the practice of heroic virtues, and when we die to carry us to heaven. For the Digitized by V^rOOQie 7 6 S. JOHN, C. 1. angels ascend to bear our sighs and prayers to Goa : they descend to bring God's gracious gifts to us. 4. To declare the majesty of Christ and the obedience and reverence of the angels to Him. For He, as S. Chrysostom says, has been set “ far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come ” (Eph. Lai). Digitized by V^rOOQie ( 77 ) CHAPTER 11. I Christ tumeth water into wine: 12 departeth into Capernaum, and to Jerusalem, 14 where He purgeth the Temple of buyers and sellers. 19 He fore - telleth His death and resurrection. 23 Many believed because of His miracles, but He would not trust Himself with them. A ND the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee ; and the mother of Jesus was there : 2 And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. 3 And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. 4 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee ? mine hour is not yet come. 5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. 6 And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. 7 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it. 9 When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was : (but the servants which drew the water knew ;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, 10 And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine ; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse : but thou hast kept the good wine until now. 11 This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory ; and his disciples believed on him. 12 If After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples : and they continued there not many days. 13 t And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, 14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting : 15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out ot the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen ; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables ; 16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence ; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise. Digitized by V^rOOQie 78 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The seal of thine house hath eaten me up. 18 ^ Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? 19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. 20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days ? 21 But he spake of the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them ; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said. 23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast-tfoy, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. 24 But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men ; 25 And needed not that any should testify of man : for he knew what was in man. On the third day , &c. The third day , that is, from Christ's departure for Galilee, and the calling of Philip. For this was the last date mentioned by S. John. The following is the sequence of these days in the life of Christ He was baptized by John in the thirty-first year of his age, on the 6th of January, as the tradition of the Church declares. On the same day, after dinner, He retired into the desert, where He fasted forty days. This fast thus began on the 7 th of January, and ended on the 15th of February. Then he returned to Nazareth, where He abode fifteen days. Directly afterwards, that is to say, on the fiftysixth day after His baptism, as S. Epiphanius says (flares. 51), or the 1st of March, the Jews sent messengers to John the Baptist, to ask him whether he were the Christ or not? The day following, on March 2, Jesus came to John, when he pointed Him out with his finger, saying, Behold the Lamb. On the 3d of March, John repeated this testimony before two of his disciples, of whom Andrew was one. On the morrow, or March 4, Jesus went into Galilee, where He called Philip. Since this was the second day from the coming of Andrew with his brother Peter to Christ, it must have been on the third day, or March 5, when the wedding-feast took place. Wherefore S. Epiphanius, in the place already cited, says that it took place on the sixtieth day from Christ's baptism. However, the same Epiphanius, Digitized by V^rOOQie THE FOUNT OF GERAS A. 79 contrary to the rest of the Fathers, and the general consent of the Church, says that Christ was baptized on the 8th of November. This would bring the marriage at Cana to the 6th of January, or the same festival of the Epiphany, on which thirty years previously the Magi had been led by a star to worship Christ at Bethlehem. He adds that in memory of so great a miracle as this conversion of water into wine, even in his own time, on the nth of the month Tybus, which answers to our 6th of January, certain fountains ran with wine. He testifies this of the fountain of Gerasa in Arabia. He says that he himself had drank of the fountain of Cibyris in Caria thus turned into wine on the day and hour when the miracle was wrought. He says that many in Egypt bear the same testimony with regard to the Nile. What Epiphanius says has led some to think that it was in the thirty-second or following year of Christ's ministry, and on the 6th of January, that the marriage- feast and the miracle took place. But the chronological table given above shows this to be a mistake. You will say then, Why did God renew the miracle of the conversion of water into wine yearly on the 6th of January? I reply, because the Church commemorates the miracle on that day, though it did not actually take place upon it For the Church wished to celebrate on the same feast of the Epiphany, or manifestation of Christ, the three miracles by which Christ first made Himself manifest to the world : the first, the leading of the Magi by a star ; the second, His baptism, when the Father’s voice was heard like thunder, This is My Beloved Son; the third, the turning water into wine. Two of these miracles happened on the same day of the month, or the 6th of January ; the third, two months afterwards, or the 6th of March. When therefore the Church sings, on the Feast of the Epiphany, “ To-day water was made wine,” it is as though she said, “ To-day is this event recalled to the memory of the faithful” So S. Austin and Baronius. As a parallel to this miracle, in many places of the West at the season of the Passover, when solemn baptism was wont to be conferred in the Church, copious streams of water have been known to Digitized by V^rOOQie 8o flow out of a dry and arid font or fountain ( fonte ) to be used at the baptism. This was done, not because it was the day when Christ was baptized, but because of the solemn baptism then conferred by the Church. Marriage , Syriac, Feast, sc. of a marriage . You will ask, Whose marriage was this ; and who was the bridegroom ? Bede, Ruperti, Lyra, S. Thomas, and others, think that the bridegroom was S. John the Evangelist They are influenced by the authority ofS. Augustine, who says on this passage, “ The Lord called John from the wave-tossing tempest of marriage.” But I say that this bridegroom was not S. John. For S. John was always a virgin, and never married to a wife. For this reason he was most dear to Christ, and was “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” a Virgin loving a virgin. He would never have broken his purpose of virginity by marriage ; yea, he would never have thought of breaking it : but he remained constant to his purpose all through his life. This is the teaching of SS. Ignatius, Jerome, Augustine, and others. Wherefore, what S. Augustine has said, as quoted above, is to be understood not of marriage entered into, but of marriage about to be entered into, or rather that he might have entered into, and which, according to the custom of his nation, he ought to have entered into. Christ called the youthful John to Himself, that he might not think of marriage. With more probability, Baronius, following Nicephorus (Hist L 8. c. 30), thinks that the bridegroom at this marriage was the Apostle Simon, who was surnamed the Cananite from Cana. And Baronius adds from the same Nicephorus that the place where the marriage was celebrated was adorned by a famous church built there by S. Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great. As soon as Simon had seen this miracle of Christ at his wedding, he bade farewell to his bride and. the world* and- followed Him, and was chosen to be one of His twelve Apostles. This was the reason why Christ came to this wedding ; and. by coming, indeed, honoured marriage ; but by calling him to Himself, He showed that celibacy and the apostolate were better than marriage. Digitized by V^rOOQie THE SPIRITUAL BRIDE. Si Tropologically, a holy soul by faith, hope, chastity, and charity is like a bride married to Christ. She becomes the bride of Christ, who, leaving all the allurements of the world, transfers her whole love to Christ, and for Him covers and veils her head, that is, her mind, and all her senses, so as to converse with Him continually above the clouds in heaven, and dedicates and consecrates her whole self to Him. With this idea the etymology of nuptials , as given by Festus, most admirably agrees. Some he says derive nuptia from the Greek, for the Greeks call a bride S. Isidore, however, derives nuptia from obnubere, to cover , because women when married were accustomed to cover their head with a veil An unmarried woman, on the contrary, was called innuba , or one whose head was not covered. Such a bride of Christ was S. Dympna, virgin and martyr, who, on account of her beauty, being asked in marriage of her father, an Irish king, fled into Brabant, and was beheaded by her own father at a town called Geel, not far from Antwerp. Thus she died a noble martyr for chastity. Therefore those who are possessed, and visit her sacred relics, are delivered from the deviL I myself once visited her shrine, and did her reverence. Cana of Galilee. This is added to distinguish it from another Cana, or Chana, which was situated in the tribe of Aser, near Sidon. Hence it was called Cana of the Sidonians, though it also was in Galilee. And the woman of Canaan, from whose daughter Christ drove out the demon, was an inhabitant of it But this Cana where the marriage took place was in the tribe of Zabulon, above the valley of Cas-melon, and about three leagues from Nazareth. (So Jerome in Locis Hebr.) And the Mother^ &c. “ She was invited as a friend by those who were celebrating the marriage,” says Euthymius. For Simon the Cananite, who was the bridegroom, was the son of Cleophas, the brother of Joseph the husband of the Blessed Virgin. There is no mention of Joseph in this place, nor subsequently ; for he was now dead, as S. Epiphanius {Hares. 78), Baronius, and others gather from the silence of this passage. VOL. iv. jf Digitized by V^rOOQie &2 §. JOHN, C. It. Jesus also was called as the cousin of the bridegroom. “ Jesus being called,” says S. Chrysostom, “was present at the marriage, not having regard to His dignity, but to our profit.” He was present (i.) to pay respect to His kinsfolk, and to honour their nuptials by His presence. 2. To give an example of humility, in being present at the marriage of poor people. As S. Chrysostom says, “ He who did not disdain to take the form of a servant, was not ashamed to be present at the wedding of servants.” Or, as S. Augustine says (de Verb. Dom. y Sertn. 41), “ Let man blush to be proud, since God became humble. Behold, He came to the marriage, who, when He was with the Father, instituted marriage.” 3. That by the miracle He might make Himself known to His disciples, and show them that He was the Messiah. 4. That He might give His sanction to marriage, and sanctify it by His presence, and so condemn the Encratites, and the followers of Tatian, who were to arise in after times, and revile marriage as a filthy invention of the devil So SS. Austin, Cyril, and Bede. Hear what this last says {Horn, in Domin. 2, post Epiph.) : " If there were any fault to be found with wedlock, duly and chastely celebrated, the Lord would not have been present at a marriage. Good is holy wedlock, better is the continence of widowhood, best of all is perfect virginity. Thus Christ was born of a virgin ; He was blessed by the prophetic lips of the widow Anna ; He came an invited guest to a wedding.” And His disciples. You will ask, Who were these disciples ? For Jesus did not gather together His apostles until after the imprisonment of S. John the Baptist : and this had not then taken place. I reply, it is probable they were Nathanael and Philip, and perhaps Andrew and Peter. For they had visited Jesus three days before, and for a time adhered to Him as their Master; though afterwards they went back to their fishing until they were called to the apostolate. And when wine failed , Greek, Oentfearroe, was deficient , because the bridegroom, being poor, had only provided a little, the Mother of Jesus , &c. As though she said, " Our relations, the bride and bridegroom, have no wine. Consider their modesty, O my Son, that Digitized by V^rOOQie REQUEST OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 83 they be not put to shame before their guests. I know Thou art able to do this, for Thou art the Son of God, and it is becoming both to Thy kindness and Thy providence, so that by now performing a miracle Thou mayest make manifest both to Thy disciples and all the guests that Thou art the Messiah.” So S. Cyril. Observe the modesty of the Virgin. She does not bid, or even ask. She does not say, My Son, provide wine for them. She did not doubt that Jesus in His providence and love would provide it Hear what S. Bernard says (Serm. 2, de B. Virg .) : “ Those words of hers are a most sure index of innate meekness, and virgin modesty. Accounting the reproach of others her own, she could not bear it; she could not profess ignorance of the wine having failed. When indeed she was reproved by her Son, forasmuch as she was meek and lowly in heart, she neither answered again, nor yet despaired. She only bade the servants do what He told them.” Moreover, the Mother having a certain confidence that she would obtain, here tacitly asks her Son to procure wine. During the thirty years that they had lived together in close companionship she had learnt from Him that He had been sent by the Father, that, by His heavenly doctrine and miracles, He might convert men to Himself and God. It is impossible to doubt that when Christ bade good-bye to His Mother, when He was going to John’s baptism, and after that to enter upon His office of preaching, He had expressly told His Mother the same. Wherefore, she deeming that the present was a fitting occasion for Jesus, by a miracle, to gain authority and belief in Himself, fearlessly asked for a miracle, not doubting that Christ would perform it, and by so doing would gratify His Mother and His relations, and would advance His own office and dignity