Joel 2:12-14 and following: Now therefore, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, in fasting and weeping and mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, patient and of great mercy, and one who relents over evil. Who knows whether he will turn and forgive and leave behind a blessing, a sacrifice and a libation to the Lord our God?
The Vulgate reads: Now therefore, says the Lord your God, return to me with your whole heart, in fasting and in sackcloth, in weeping and in mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, patient and of great mercy, and repentant over evils. Who knows whether he will return and repent and leave behind a blessing, a sacrifice and a libation to the Lord our God?
In the preceding chapter, from the place where it is written, Blow the trumpet in Zion, wail on my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, up to that point where we read, Great is the day of the Lord and exceedingly terrible; who can endure it?, through the imagery of the invasion of locusts he announces the coming of the Chaldeans and what evils are to come upon the people. Now he summons them to repentance and exhorts them to turn to the Lord, so that, corrected with their whole mind, they may not suffer the things the Lord threatens. And the sense is this: all the things contained in the previous discourse I have spoken for this reason, that I might frighten you by my threats. Therefore, return to me with your whole heart, and indicate repentance of the soul by fasting and weeping and lamentation, so that now, while you fast, you may afterward be satisfied; now, while you weep, you may afterward laugh; now, while you lament, you may afterward be comforted.
And because it is customary in sadness and adversity to rend garments—which we remember the high priest did in the Gospel to aggravate the charge against the Lord Savior (Matthew 26), and which Paul and Barnabas are said to have done when they heard words of blasphemy (Acts 14)—for this reason I command you not to rend garments at all, but hearts, which are full of sins, which, like wineskins, unless they are torn deliberately, will burst of themselves. And when you have done this, return to the Lord your God, whom your former sins had made alien to you. Nor should you despair because of the magnitude of your crimes, for great mercy will blot out great sins. For he is gracious and merciful, preferring the repentance of sinners to their death (Ezekiel 33), patient and abundant in mercy, who does not imitate human impatience, but for a long time awaits our repentance; and one who relents or repents over evils, so that if we repent over our sins, he too may repent of his threat and not bring upon us the evils he had threatened, and by the change of our disposition his sentence itself may be changed.
But “evil” in this place is not to be understood as something opposed to virtue, but as affliction, according to that which we read elsewhere: Sufficient for the day is its own evil (Matthew 6:34), and Is there evil in a city which the Lord has not done? (Amos 3:6). Likewise, because he had said above, gracious and merciful, patient and abundant in mercy, and relenting over evils, lest perhaps the greatness of mercy make us negligent, he adds through the person of the prophet and says: Who knows whether he will turn and forgive and leave behind a blessing? I exhort, he says, as far as it is mine to exhort to repentance, and I know ineffably that God is merciful, as David says, Have mercy on me, O God, according to your great mercy, and according to the multitude of your compassions blot out my iniquity (Psalm 51:1–2). But because we cannot know the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, I temper my statement and rather hope than presume, saying: Who knows whether he will turn and forgive? By saying “who,” something either impossible or difficult is to be understood.
A sacrifice and a libation to the Lord our God—that after he has given a blessing and forgiven us our sins, we may be able to offer sacrifices to God, lest your possessions and cities be overthrown.
Joel 2:15-17: Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call an assembly; gather the people; sanctify the Church; assemble the elders; gather the little ones and those who suck at the breast. Let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber and the bride from her bridal room. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say: Spare, O Lord. The Vulgate adds: Spare your people, and do not give your inheritance into reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, Where is their God?
Again he exhorts them to repentance before the hostile army arrives. Above, he says, I had said: Blow the trumpet in Zion, wail on my holy mountain, and the rest, because the day of the Lord is coming, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and whirlwind, announcing to you that a great and strong people is coming. But now, because I am gracious and merciful, patient and abundant in mercy, again I command and say: Blow the trumpet in Zion and preach repentance among the peoples; sanctify a fast; proclaim healing or an assembly, of which we have already spoken. Gather the people, so that those who sinned while scattered may cease from sin when gathered. Sanctify the Church, so that no one in the Church may be unsanctified, lest perhaps your prayers be hindered and a little leaven corrupt the whole mass (1 Corinthians 5).
Assemble or choose elders, so that not age but holiness may be selected in them. Gather also little ones and those who suck at the breast, so that no age may fail to turn to the Lord. Little ones and infants, of whom we read in the Psalms and in the Gospel: Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have perfected praise (Psalm 8:2; Matthew 21:16). These are those whom Peter calls nourished with rational and guileless milk (1 Peter 2), and of whom Paul speaks: I gave you milk to drink, not solid food (1 Corinthians 3), and whom the Savior also mentions: Do not despise one of these little ones (Matthew 18:10).
Let the bridegroom also go forth from his chamber and the bride from her bridal room, so that in the time of fasting, of calling and assembling, of sanctifying the Church, of choosing elders, and of gathering little ones and nursing infants, the bridegroom and bride may not serve the work of marriage. For even in the Law it is permitted that such do not go forth to war. Hence the Apostle also commanded withdrawal for a time from marital relations, so that we may be free for prayer (1 Corinthians 7).
Therefore, whoever, while conquered by chastisement, fasting, and almsgiving, says that he is doing penance, promises this in vain by such a discourse unless he goes forth from his bedchamber and completes a holy and pure fast with chaste repentance.
And as for what follows, Between the vestibule and the altar the priests shall weep: for vestibule the Septuagint translated κρηπίς (threshold), Symmachus προπύλαιον (forecourt), Aquila πρόδομος (antechamber), while Theodotion retained the Hebrew word itself, ʾūlām (אולם), which we may call the porch before the doors of the temple. And note this also, that he commands the priests, who are the ministers of the Lord, to weep between the temple and the altar and to say with the Apostle: Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not burned? (2 Corinthians 11:29), and to weep with those who weep. And he teaches that the place suitable for repentance and confession is the temple and the altar, and also what the priests should say—indeed, how they should beseech the Lord: Spare, O Lord, your people, who, when they were sinning, were called not your people, but now, after they have withdrawn from vices, are called your people.
And do not give your inheritance to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. The riddle that lay hidden is now made plain. For that numerous and strong people who above was described under the name of caterpillar, locust, beetle, and blight is now shown more clearly who it is. That the nations may rule over them, he says. Now the inheritance of the Lord is given over to reproach when they serve enemies and the nations say: Where is their God?—the one whom they boasted to have as their leader and defender. We may also interpret nations as the hostile powers, which, so long as we do not do penance, rule over us and reproach us and say: Where is their God? The Jews refer this passage to Gog and Magog, most savage nations which they say will come against Israel in the last time, about whom more is written in Ezekiel.
Joel 2:18: The Lord was zealous for his land and spared his people.
After the priests had prayed for the people and said, Spare, O Lord, your people, and do not give your inheritance to reproach, and after the people had done what was commanded—sanctifying a fast, proclaiming healing, gathering the multitude, sanctifying the Church, choosing elders, gathering little ones and those who suck at the breast, and when the bridegroom went forth from his chamber and the bride from her bridal room, and when they no longer served the flesh and pleasure but the soul and tears, fasting and the other things which the prophet describes—then the Lord was zealous for his land, which he had previously despised as though it were foreign and had allowed the locust to devastate and ravage. And he so greatly spared those who repented that he made them worthy of his response and said, in effect: because the locust, the beetle, and the blight have devastated all your crops, therefore I will give you grain and will not hand you over to captivity.
CONTINUE
Comments
Post a Comment