Joel 2:12 – “Turn to Me.”
“Turn to Me,” you who had turned away from Me and were converted to your various allurements and enticements of desire. “Turn,” I say, “with your whole heart”—with your whole mind, your whole soul, your whole spirit, your whole affection. For I am the Creator and Lord of the heart and mind; therefore I demand—indeed I reclaim—the whole of it for Myself, nor do I permit that any part of it be secretly stolen from Me and given over to idols, to lust, or to the belly.
See Saint Gregory, Moralia I.7, ch. 12, on that passage of Job, “The paths of their steps are entangled”, where he teaches that sinners often form good resolutions, but when temptation arises, immediately relapse into their vices, because they do not change the heart, nor do they seriously and wholly convert themselves to God. “They wish,” he says, “to be humble, but without contempt; content with their own, but without necessity; chaste, but without mortification of the body; patient, but without insults. They desire to acquire virtues, yet flee the labors of virtue. What else is this but to show contests of war in the field and yet long to triumph in the city without battle?”
On the contrary, as Saint Bernard says, humility is attained by humiliation, patience by suffering, chastity by mortification, abstinence by fasting. True conversion, therefore, consists in a firm, serious, and effective purpose of the will to change one’s life, if it is frequently renewed and carried into action.
“A turning away from God,” says Hugh of Saint Victor, “happens in three ways: by vanity of the world, by pleasure of self, by curiosity about one’s neighbor. Conversion, however, takes place through confession of the mouth, compunction of the mind, and mortification of the flesh—so that there may be truth in the mouth, purity in the mind, and modest sobriety in the flesh.”
Moreover, show this inward conversion and compunction of heart by fasting, by which you punish the sins of the flesh and of gluttony; and by weeping and lamentation, whereby you not only pour forth tears, but also with groans, sighs, striking of the breast, clapping of the hands, and the like, bewail and lament your former crimes, your blindness, your ingratitude, and the injuries done to Me.
Tertullian rightly (De Paenitentia, ch. 9) prescribes these acts and gestures for penitents according to the ancient custom of the Church: “Exomologesis,” he says, “is the discipline of prostration, enjoining conversion and enticing mercy. Concerning even the dress and manner of life, it commands the body to lie in sackcloth and ashes, to obscure the soul with mourning, to exchange what sinned for sad austerity; moreover, to know no food or drink except for the soul’s sake; for the most part to nourish prayers with fasts, to groan, to weep, to cry out day and night to the Lord.” And again (Contra Marcionem III.18), he says that those afflicted should commend prayer with knees bent, hands fallen, breast and face upon the ground.
Therefore, “Turn to Me with your whole heart,” that is, refer all your affections to the one God. Hear Saint Bernard (Sermon 2 on Lent): “Attend carefully to what you love, what you fear, what makes you rejoice or grieve; and see whether under the habit of religion you carry a worldly soul. Under rough garments you will find a perverse heart.” For the whole heart consists in these four affections, and of these it is said that you must turn to the Lord with your whole heart. Let your love, then, be converted, so that you love nothing at all except Him, or at least for His sake. Let your fear also be converted to Him, for every fear is perverse by which you fear something apart from Him or not for Him. So too let your joy and your sorrow be converted to Him. This will be so if you grieve or rejoice only according to Him.
Joel 2:13 – “Rend your hearts.”
The Jews were accustomed, in blasphemy and similar grave crimes, as well as in great mourning, to tear their garments from head to breast, so that by this tearing they might show the inner sorrow and displeasure of the soul. But in many this tearing was a mere ceremony, clinging only to the garment and not proceeding from the heart. Therefore God commands here that the heart be torn rather than the garment.
Five attributes of God’s mercy.
“For He is gracious…” By five epithets the immense piety and clemency of God toward penitent sinners is declared.
First, He is benign: Hebrew חַנּוּן (ḥannûn) — gracious, merciful, kind.
Second, He is merciful: Hebrew רַחוּם (raḥûm) — compassionate from the inmost bowels, viscerally merciful.
Third, He is patient: Hebrew אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם (’erekh ’appayim) — literally “long of nostrils,” that is, long-suffering, slow to anger, easy to forgive. For those with wide nostrils are slow to anger and quick to be appeased, since they easily breathe out the fumes of anger. Conversely, קְצַר אַפַּיִם (qeṣar ’appayim), “short of nostrils,” signifies one quick to anger and slow to forgive, because he cannot vent anger outward and so retains it within, as I explained at Exodus 34:6.
Fourth, He is abundant in mercy, that is, rich in goodness and loving-kindness.
Fifth, He is placable—“repenting of evil,” that is, of affliction and punishment. Hebrew נִחָם (niḥam), meaning “relenting” or “being moved with compassion.” God threatens evils to sinners so that, once they repent, He may Himself “repent” of the threatened punishment and revoke it. Thus translate the Hebrew, Chaldean, Jerome, and others. The Syriac has “turning away evil.”
Hugh of Saint Victor says beautifully: God is gracious because He turns the wrath of enemies into meekness; merciful because He changes cruelty into piety; patient because He converts contempt into compunction; abundant in mercy because He turns hatred into love; placable over evil because He lifts the abyss of despair into the grace of contemplation.
Note here again the elegance—indeed the Latinity—of our translator: praestabilis super malitia (“excellent above evil”) signifies one who excels and prevails over wrath and vengeance. As Ribera notes, anger is like a wild beast—like a tiger or an untamable lion. Who among men can tame and rule raging anger? Anger breaks the reins of reason and rule, enslaves the man, and forces him to serve it. Hence the poet: “Anger is a brief madness.” Cicero likewise (Tusculans IV): “Is there anything more like insanity than anger?”
But God is so powerful, so holy, so gentle, that He commands His anger at a nod. His goodness so excels that He immediately revokes and abolishes every decree of punishment, every desire of vengeance, once sinners repent. Hence נִחָם (niḥam) may also be rendered “consolable over evil,” meaning that God can soften, bend, and sweeten even the harshest wrath—indeed turn it into consolation and supreme benevolence. What power would honey have if it could sweeten gall or a sea of bitterness? Far greater is the power of God’s goodness, which sweetens all evil and bitterness.
Therefore, let the angry set this before themselves and plunge and bury their anger in this abyss.
Lapide then shows from Cicero, Gellius, Ovid, and others that praestabilis means “excellent,” “eminent,” “transcendent,” and applies this supremely to God’s mercy, which flows partly from His infinite greatness and partly from His infinite goodness. Hence that saying of Ovid: “The greater one is, the more easily appeased.”
Moral application: imitation of the divine attributes.
The faithful soul, created in God’s image and restored by Christ, should continually meditate on these attributes of God and strive to imitate them in conduct. Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote on this matter (Opusculum 62, De divinis moribus), teaching that fifteen divine attributes ought to be imitated. Lapide then rehearses them—immutability, love of good and hatred of evil, providence, patience, justice, rectitude, liberality, placability, kindness toward enemies, truthfulness, impartiality, equanimity, self-forgetfulness for others, perfection in works, and the refusal to punish twice for the same fault—showing in each how God exemplifies it and how the saints should conform themselves to it.
All this, Lapide concludes, shows how the promises following threats in the prophets must often be understood spiritually and in reference to Christ, lest Scripture seem inconsistent. Thus Joel’s prophecy culminates not merely in temporal relief but in the evangelical restoration wrought by Christ.
Joel 2:14 – “Who knows if He will turn and forgive?”
So the Septuagint, Vatablus, and others translate it, for although the conditional particle “if” is not present in the Hebrew, it is nevertheless implicitly understood according to the Hebrew idiom. The expression “if” signifies the Prophet’s uncertainty as to whether pardon will be obtained from God for the Jews even if they repent. For although he knew with certainty that God always remits the offense (that is, guilt and eternal punishment) to the penitent, he also knew that God does not always remit temporal punishment, such as the devastation of Judea by the Chaldeans which He had decreed and threatened here. Concerning this, therefore, the Prophet hesitates and says: “Who knows if He will turn and forgive?” that is, whether perhaps He will forgive. As if to say: I hope He will forgive, but I dare not assert or promise it.
Thus God forgave David the guilt of murder and adultery when he repented, but not the punishment; for He punished him by the death of his son and by the division of his kingdom through the persecution of Absalom (2 Kings 12).
So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rufinus, Rupert, and others.
From the Hebrew, omitting the conditional “if,” the sense can also be rendered assertively, in this manner: “Whoever knows in himself that he has sins, let him depart from them, and mercy will be applied to him; and whoever does penance, his sins will be forgiven, and blessings and consolations will be granted to him, and his prayer will be like that of one who offers oblations and libations in the house of the Lord.”
The Hebrew reads: וְנִחָם (venicham) — “and He will repent,” that is, He will revoke His sentence, namely, the devastation of Judea by the Chaldeans which He had decreed.
“And leave behind Him a blessing.”
This is a prosopopoeia: God is spoken of as an offended friend who, being reconciled by repentance, lays aside anger and offense, returns kindly and serenely to his friend, and, when departing, leaves gifts behind as tokens of restored friendship. So God, O Jews, will leave behind for you a blessing — that is, abundance of crops and all goods — from which you may frequently and generously offer sacrifice and libation in thanksgiving.
Christophorus a Castro explains “after Him” differently, as meaning: after His vengeance, that is, after the seventy years of Babylonian captivity.
Joel 2:15 – “Blow the trumpet in Zion.”
That by the sound of the trumpet all may be summoned to public supplication and litany in order to avert so great a calamity. The Jews used trumpets to convoke the people by God’s command (Numbers 10:1), not bells; for bells are proper to Christians. At first they were small, but after peace was granted to the Church through Constantine, they gradually became larger. They received the name campanae from Campania, the region where large bells were first made.
(Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, lib. 1, cap. 4, n. 1; Cardinal Baronius, tom. 1, year of Christ 58; Jodocus Lorichius, Thesaurus Theologicus, “Campana”.)
Moral application:
From this passage Luther and the Magdeburg Centuriators (Cent. 3, cap. 10) are refuted, who attribute public processions and litanies to the ceremonies of the Montanist heretics and to the errors of Tertullian. For here God Himself commands them through the Prophet. By them the walls of Jericho fell (Joshua 6:4). David instituted them (1 Chronicles 13; 2 Chronicles 20–21). Christ sanctioned them by His own action when He entered Jerusalem in public procession on Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:8).
Thus Gregory the Great instituted public litanies during plague and pestilence, by which God’s wrath was turned away, as he himself testifies (Epist. lib. 11, ep. 2). Charlemagne decreed: “Let the greater litany be celebrated in the Roman manner on the seventh day before the Kalends of May.” The Council of Mainz (A.D. 813, c. 33) decreed the same.
In the 36th year of Theodosius, when Constantinople was shaken by an earthquake, the people cried out in supplication Kyrie eleison, and a child, taken up into heaven, was commanded to tell the bishop and people to institute litanies and to sing: Sanctus Deus, Sanctus fortis, Sanctus immortalis, miserere nobis. When this was done, the earthquake ceased (Paulus Diaconus, lib. 14).
St. Leo the Great says (Serm. 3 de jejunio septimi mensis, c. 3):
“The fullest remission of sins is obtained when the whole Church has one prayer and one confession. For if the Lord promises to grant all things at the pious agreement of two or three saints, what will He deny to many thousands of people performing one observance together and supplicating concordantly in one Spirit?”
And Tertullian in the Apologeticus:
“By public prayer we almost compel God, as if by a united hand, and force Him — but this force is pleasing to God.”
“Sanctify a fast.”
Proclaim a holy fast. See above on Joel 1:14.
“Call a solemn assembly.”
Mystically, St. Bernard says (Serm. 4 on the Fast of Lent):
“Let our fast have two wings by which it may easily penetrate heaven: prayer and justice — that is, restore unity and peace to your brother. For He says: ‘Call an assembly.’ What is it to call an assembly? To preserve unity, to love peace, to love fraternity.”
The proud Pharisee fasted, sanctified the fast, and gave thanks to God, but he did not call an assembly, saying: “I am not like other men” — therefore, having only one wing, his fast did not reach heaven.
Therefore, dearly beloved, wash your hands in the blood of the sinner (that is, in mercy and intercession), and be altogether solicitous that your fast may have both wings: holiness and peace, without which no one shall see God.
Sanctify the fast, that pure intention and devout prayer may offer it to the divine Majesty. Call an assembly, that unity may agree with it. Praise the Lord with timbrel and choir, that mortification of the flesh may be concordant.
Joel 2:16 – “Sanctify the Church.”
That is: act by admonition, exhortation, warning, and holy example, so that the whole people of the Church may present themselves holy to their God, appease His offense, and reconcile Him to themselves. So St. Jerome.
“Gather the elders.”
That is, gather men of every age and sex, that all may cry to heaven and demand mercy, so that by the voice of all, as by an armed hand, they may extort mercy from God. The elders are named first because, being worn by age, they are usually purer from carnal vices and, through weakened health, more disposed to prayers and vows.
Likewise infants and those who suck the breast, that these innocents by their pitiable crying may strike the ears of God and bend Him to mercy.
Thus St. Augustine says of the children slain by Herod (Serm. 1 de Innocentibus):
“The lamentation of the mothers was mingled, and the offering of the infants ascended to heaven, reconciling God to the mothers and to all Judea.”
So the Psalmist teaches that the young ravens cry to God by a natural prayer (Psalm 146:9), and the lion cubs seek their food from God by their roaring (Psalm 103:21). All animals, he says, look to God for their food (Psalm 103:27). These are, as it were, natural supplications implanted by nature, which God their Creator hears and answers by providing food.
Add that the crying of infants stirs parents and neighbors to pray and weep more fervently.
“Let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber.”
That is, let spouses abstain from the embraces and pleasures of the marriage bed, give themselves to penance and tears, and go to the church so that with one voice all may cry to heaven begging for mercy.
The Prophet teaches here that in times of public calamity, spouses must abstain from marital relations for penitence and supplication, that they may better give themselves to prayer — as the Apostle also teaches (1 Corinthians 7:5). The Roman Ritual commands pastors to admonish spouses of this when joining them in marriage. Nicholas I teaches this in his response to the Bulgarians (cap. 50), commanding abstinence throughout Lent as a time of prayer and fasting.
Noah abstained throughout the time of the Flood while dwelling in the ark, by God’s will, as St. Ambrose says (on Genesis 8:16).
Symbolically, Hugh of St. Victor says:
“The bridegroom — that is, the wise man — must go forth from his chamber, that is, from proud self-sufficiency; and the bride from her bridal chamber, that is, from the privilege of grace. Let contemplation descend into humility; let splendor submit to penance for the obtaining of pardon.”
Joel 2:17 – “Between the vestibule and the altar.”
Note from 1 Kings 6 that the Jewish Temple properly contained only two parts: the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, but in front of it was a vestibule or portico. Aquila translates it as ἀρρόδομον (arrhodomon), “a fore-building”; the Hebrew word is אוּלָם (ulam), meaning “joined” or “connected” to the temple. Symmachus renders it προπύλαιον (propylon), that is, a forecourt or porch.
Vestibules were added for two reasons: first, for the dignity of the building; second, for the majesty of its inhabitants. Thus palaces have vestibules, as Vitruvius teaches (lib. 6, cap. 8). Hence in Rome, before the basilicas of St. Peter, St. Lawrence, St. Clement, Holy Cross, etc., we see vestibules or porticoes supported by columns.
The second reason is practical: they served as stations for those awaiting audience. Hence Macrobius (lib. 7, cap. 8) says vestibulum is named as a standing-place for those waiting to greet the master of the house and seek an audience. Aulus Gellius (lib. 16, cap. 1) gives the same explanation. Servius says it is so called because it clothes (vestiat) the door, or because it belonged to Vesta. Hence brides do not touch the threshold. (Lucan, Pharsalia, lib. 2,).
The Architecture of the Temple
Lucanus (Book 2) says: He forbade the feet to touch the translated thresholds. The porch (vestibulum) of this temple was of great magnificence, having a height of 120 cubits, as Villalpando teaches (Book 3 on the Temple, ch. 46). It was, therefore, like a huge tower; on its pinnacle—that is, the summit—the devil placed Christ while tempting Him, saying: "Throw yourself down." This was as if to say: "If you are the Son of God, then this is your temple; throw yourself down so that you may land unharmed between the porch and the court of the priests, so that they and the laity, seeing this miracle, may acknowledge and worship you as the Lord of the temple and Son of God." So says Franciscus Lucas on Matthew 4.
For before this porch of the temple was the court of the priests under the open sky, and in it was the altar of holocausts. After this court of the priests followed the outer court of the laity, which was divided from the court of the priests by a wall three cubits high (according to Josephus, Book 8 of Antiquities), so that the people could watch the priests, the burnt offerings, and other things done in the priests' court, but could not enter it.
The Duty of the Priests
Therefore, the Prophet here commands the priests to pray and weep as suppliants between the porch of the temple and the altar of holocausts—that is, in their own court, but closest to the porch and the temple.
They were to do this for three reasons:
It was fitting for them to supplicate closest to the temple in such a great necessity of the people.
So that the people could see them and, by their example, be kindled toward communal prayers and lamentations (as Jerome, Lyranus, Ribera, and others say).
Because the priests first offered sacrifices and, through sin offerings and holocausts, prepared for themselves a path to God, so that they might then approach the porch of the temple to offer their vows and prayers as suppliants.
Symbolism and the Martyrdom of Zechariah
Tropologically (symbolically), this signified that one approaching prayer must first practice mortification; for the altar of holocausts was a symbol of mortification, and the temple a symbol of prayer.
Finally, in this place designated by Joel, the Prophet and Martyr Zechariah was killed and fell, of whom Christ says in Matthew 23:35: "Even to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar," which is here called "between the porch and the altar." For the porch was connected to the temple and was like the outermost part of the temple; therefore, Christ included it under the name "temple."
On Weeping and the "Maniple"
"They shall weep"—that is, prostrate and covered in ash and sackcloth, let them weep and say, "Spare, O Lord." The Hebrews often use the future tense for the imperative or subjunctive.
Note here that it is the duty of priests to weep and mourn for the sins of the people. Thus, of old, pious priests overflowed with tears during the sacrifice. For this reason, they used a sudarium (sweat-cloth), just as they still use one today. Listen to Amalarius (Book 3 on Church Offices, ch. 24):
"The sudarium is said to be carried to cover the effusion of tears, as is read in the Martyrology of Bede for July 19th—that our Father Arsenius always had a sudarium in his breast or hand to wipe the redundancy of tears."
It is carried in the left hand to show that in this temporal life we suffer the weariness of "superfluous humor," that is, carnal delight. Furthermore, Bede calls this sudarium a mappula or amapha, named for cleaning sweat (sudore) and moisture, and says the priest wears it on the left. From this, it appears that this mappula was the maniple; for "maniple" seems to be named as if it were a "hand-cloth" (manus mappula). Because of a decline in the devotion and tears of priests, our maniple succeeded the place of the cloth.
The Plea for Inheritance
"Give not your inheritance"—Your people, of whom You said: "The Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance" (Deut 32:9). "Lest the nations rule over them"—lest they say: "Where is their God?" If You hand us over to the Chaldeans, the Gentiles will mock and blaspheme both us and You, O Lord, saying the God of the Hebrews deserted His Jews because He was too weak to protect them, or, if He was able, He was unmerciful and would not.
Joel 2:18--"The Lord was jealous"—He will be jealous; that is, He pursues His land with love and zeal. "He spared"—He will spare His people when He moves Cyrus to release them from Babylon after He has punished them with seventy years of captivity.
Hugo of St. Victor on Penance:
"O fruitful and virile penance! O virago to be embraced, most faithful mediatrix of the sinner! O second plank after shipwreck! O refuge of the poor, help of the wretched, hope of exiles... You alone, while others are silent, boldly ascend to grace."
He illustrates this with examples: You lead David by the hand to reconciliation; You illuminate Paul; You boldly insert the Publican, taken from the tax office, into the choir of the Apostles; You lift Mary from the brothel into the heavens; and You bring the one fixed to the cross, still green with blood, into paradise.
CONTINUE
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