Fr. Pedro (Petrus) Serrano, S.J., was a theologian and biblical scholar in the mid to late 16th century. He wrote commentaries on Ezekiel, Leviticus and the Apocalypse; along with a commentary on the first book of Aristotle's The Nicomachean Ethics.
Commentary on Ezekiel 37:1-14 by Fr. Pedro Serrano
Ezek 37:1: "The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of a field which was full of bones. And He led me around among them in a circuit; and behold, they were very many upon the face of the field, and exceedingly dry."
Ezek 37:2: "And He said to me: Son of man, do you think these bones will live? I said: O Lord God, you know."
Commentary on Verses 1–2:
"Great things are prophesied to us in this chapter…"
Great things are prophesied to us in this chapter, since indeed, to preach these things, the Prophet is shown at the very outset to have been withdrawn from the body and all its affairs, and entirely elevated by the prophetic spirit through consideration of the mind into a cemetery, dealing with dead bones. And so it is that he predicts things great, spiritual, and entirely supernatural by a supernatural state: namely, the liberty of the Church through Christ Jesus, and of Judah with the ten tribes of Israel, and of the Gentiles, who so greatly desired future unity in the Church, cemented by the bond of peace and charity.
Therefore, what he had hinted at somewhat obscurely in the preceding chapters, he manifests more distinctly here: namely, through the return and liberty of the Jews, he intends the liberty of the Church from the tyranny of the demon and the servitude of sin through Christ. This is immediately gathered from the force of the vision. For to what end, if the captive Jews were strong in bodily life, does He compare them to the bones of the dead, and order all things to be contemplated in a circuit so that he might omit not one, and says they are "very many" and "exceedingly dry"? Unless it is that the whole people of the Jews were spiritually dead, just like those whose bones fill cemeteries, and this by the antiquity of sin and long custom of sinning. Just as bones too dry indicate no moisture at all from the life which they had served, but are almost made earth, the appearance of bone now being lost.
Ezek 37:3-4 Moreover, He asks the Prophet whether he thinks these things can live, so that he might respond himself: "You know, O Lord"—knowing plainly that just as the weakness of a dead man is unable to resume bodily life, so neither is the life of the soul and spirit able, unless the Lord cooperates and effects it. By these things, He instructs the preacher eminently: that he should pray to the Lord for what He wishes to be said to the people for His glory, calling him away from the body and its affairs by abstinence and diligence of prayer; and that he should diligently unfold and inspect what has been supplied to be said; and finally, that he should understand himself only as a minister, but the Lord as the Author and Planter of His word.
Ezek 37:5–6: "Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will send spirit into you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to grow upon you, and will cover you with skin, and will give you spirit, and you shall live: and you shall know that I am the Lord."
Ezek 27:7–8: "And I prophesied as he had commanded me. And behold, as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a commotion. And the bones came together, each one to its joint. And I saw, and behold, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin was stretched out over them above, but they had no spirit."
Ezek 27:9–10: "And He said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, O son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O spirit, and breathe upon these slain, and let them live. And I prophesied as he had commanded me. And the spirit came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army."
Commentary on Verses 5–10:
"This also manifests no less plainly…"
This also manifests no less plainly that which he assumes as an argument and persuasion for the resurrection of the soul from sin and liberation from the yoke of the demon: namely, the future resurrection of bodies, which is most known to him from faith. Just as the death of the body followed the death of the soul through proper sin, and exists as its monitor, so the resurrection of the body exists as an indicator of the resurrection of the soul; by a certain correlation they look upon one another mutually.
Moreover, the Jews held the resurrection of bodies as most known, both from Job, saying he would see God in his own flesh, again to be clothed with his skin which he then suffered; and from Daniel, asserting: "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting confusion" (Daniel 12:2); and in other places.
But the Lord requires three things from the sinner, that He may grant him the liberty of His grace and the faith of the promise by which He has promised liberty and remission of sins:
Hope: That he affect this through penance.
Self-Knowledge: From his own workshop, so to speak.
Infirmitude: And finally, the weakness and impotence to free himself from sin by his own powers, and to attain divine grace by his own virtues.
For He required all these things from that people, that He might assert them into liberty through the death of Christ Jesus, yet under the figure of that liberty from the captivity of the Chaldeans and return to their own seats and region. For, as Cyril says upon Isaiah, and indeed St. Paul to the Galatians (3:24), the Law and the preaching of the Prophets were a certain guidance and pedagogy which by invitation and promise of a fleeting thing cared to attract to virtue, to the exercise of letters, and to the love of knowledge. Not otherwise than mothers, who that they may provoke their sons to their will and allure them to their love, sometimes hand over an apple, a fig, and other things; not that they may sustain them by similars, but that they may win their will to appetizing greater things.
So truly the indulgence of the mother and the pedagogy was to grant the people temporal liberty, to concede them to enjoy the fruits of their land, by which they might rise to obtaining redemption and the riches of the spirit.
First, therefore, in the vision He orders hope to be had. Wherefore He orders it to be made known through the Prophet, saying: "Dry bones, hear…" etc.
Second, He adverts to consider infirmity and, so to say, the nothingness of man, while He shows that apart from the spirit and soul vivifying the body, man is nothing but a heap of bones, so orderedly disposed and bound as if by strong cords, covered moreover with flesh and skin drawn over for beauty and honesty. Which Job signified and divinely sang before: "You have clothed me with skin and flesh, You have compiled me with bones and sinews" (Job 10:11). If man considers this, how will he not despise his own nothingness, and that which tends to him, that he may provide for the soul? This the Holy Spirit divinely teaches us, with the resurrection of the body here subjected to the eyes. To which, as He reintroduces the spirit [and] soul, so that man rising again may live, so first when man was generated He created it, as is said in Genesis: "And He breathed into his face the breath of life…" (Genesis 2:7).
Ezek 37:11: "And He said to me: Son of man, all these bones are the house of Israel. They themselves say: Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, and we are cut off."
Commentary on Verse 11:
"Thus therefore in natural life…"
Thus therefore in natural life He calls the people of the Jews, whom before He had called "bones too dry" on account of the antiquity of sin as to spiritual life. For thus He says: "And He said to me: Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They themselves said: Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, and we are cut off."
Ezek 37:12–14: "Therefore prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves, and bring you up from your sepulchres, O My people, and will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have opened your sepulchres, and shall have brought you up from your graves, O My people, and shall have put My spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall make you rest upon your own land: and you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it, says the Lord God."
Commentary on Verses 12–14:
"What the Lord requires in the third place from His own is humility…"
What the Lord requires in the third place from His own is humility: the knowledge of proper infirmity and weakness to pursue good without the help of God. For pride is of the devil. Wherefore the other extreme of the Lord's way is humility and abjection. For truly, that He might cast down the pride, haughtiness, and elation of the world, He willed to be born humble, poor, and meek, and proposed Himself as an example to be imitated, saying: "Learn from Me, because I am meek and humble of heart" (Matthew 11:29).
Wherefore, the Jews here confessing the weakness of their own powers, saying "Our bones are dried up," and having no confidence in human help, saying "Our hope is lost," and finally, as shoots from a vine and branches cut off from a tree, cut off from the protection of the Lord on account of their crimes and relegated from their own seats—the Lord succors them.
Indeed, when all human helps are failed, and men think nothing remains but death, He is accustomed to succor only those hoping in Him. Whence first He threatens through the Prophet that the power and empire of the Chaldeans will be vastated, as was done through the kings of the Persians, using the occasion to liberate His people. For this is to break their power and open the tombs and sepulchres of the Jews. For they were detained dead by their dominion and power as if by tombs and sepulchres. That also that captivity signified the death of souls is most openly demonstrated.
Indeed, tumulus and sepulchre are referred to the dead. Wherefore, since they lived in body, what remains to be understood but the death of souls? "And then you shall know," He says, "that I am God"—whose empire, since there was none equal in the orb, what power could avert, marked out by year and time long before, unless divine value? And again, for the same cause, He repeats when He shall have led them out from tumuli and sepulchres, that is, shall have asserted them into liberty and given quiet in their homeland, they will know the Lord. Since equally divine power shines forth for His will in the destruction of the Chaldeans and the liberation of the Jews.
But because He intends first concerning liberation from the tyranny of sin through the redemption of Christ Jesus, I have judged it to be passed over that in this place and others in which He repeats so often "and you shall know that I am the Lord God," He speaks of the knowledge of God. Man indeed being made, then the Lord is known by a special reason: namely, as kinsman, brother, and our friend, because in this habit He has worked our salvation and redemption. Then also the infinite mercy of God is known and approved by men, when they hear Him familiarly, whom up to that point they had feared to hear, so that they said to Moses: "Speak you to us, and we will hear; let not the Lord speak to us, lest perhaps we die" (Exodus 20:19). For through faith the Jews knew God.
It also makes for this that, the mystery of the Incarnation of the Lord being completed, and after His admirable ascension to the heavens, Blessed John subscribed the Apocalypse and prophecy with this note: "I, Jesus" (Apocalypse 22:16). But before the Incarnation, indeed, and in the time of the Law, the sayings and oracles of the Prophets He always confirmed by saying: "I, the Lord" or "Thus says the Lord God."
CONTINUE
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