Chapter XI.
In blessing Joseph, Jacob saw the prefigured mysteries of Christ and considered him to be blessed for a longer time. Furthermore, the individual parts of this blessing are applied to each of them.
Now, in order to conclude the story like a kind of epilogue, just as Scripture concludes, let us arrange the prophecy of Saint Jacob concerning Saint Joseph by name: My son Joseph, my son to be enlarged, my zealous and younger son return to me. Those who were consulting this plan cursed and aimed the Lord's bow against him, and their bowstrings were crushed with the power of their bows, and the sinews of their arms were loosened by the hand of powerful Jacob; and thus Israel prevailed by the God of your father. And my God has helped you, and he has blessed you with the blessings of heaven above, with the blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, with the blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of the eternal mountains, the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.
What was the reason that, above all his sons, the father pursued Joseph more abundantly as his son, if not because he already saw in him the mysteries of Christ prefigured? Therefore, blessing him more who was expected than him who was seen, he said: Joseph, my son, is to be multiplied. Who is to be multiplied, if not Christ, whose grace is always increased, and whose glory has no end? Concerning whom also John says: He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30); for through his name, which is salvation and perfection, grace has been multiplied and abounded in this world. My son is to be enlarged; and therefore, because his brothers saw him growing, they began to envy. But Joseph understood and zeal entered into those whom he favored the most. Finally, he said: I came not but for the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15:24). And they said: We do not know where he is from (John 9:29). He cared for them, and they denied him.
My son, he said, is younger. Indeed, he is the youngest, who was almost the last born. Finally, Scripture also says: Jacob loved him, because he was the son of his old age (Gen. XXXVII, 3). This also refers to Christ. For the Son of God, shining forth to the aged and already setting world, came late through the birth of the Virgin Mary, as if receiving a body as the son of old age according to the mystery, who always was with the Father before the ages.
And the Father says to him: Return to me, calling him from the earth to heaven, whom he had sent for our salvation. Therefore, raising up his only-begotten Son, he frustrated the plan of the slanderers. Hence, Isaiah also says: The futile plan of your spirit (Isaiah 19:11). And the one who had been accusing and directing arrows like a hunter, has disarmed everything: he has crushed the power of those who relied on their own strength and not on God. Then, he said, Israel prevailed from the God of your father, and my God helped you. Who is it that strengthened Israel and helped his son, if not the only Father God, who said: Jacob, my servant, I will uphold him; Israel, my chosen one, my soul will uphold him (Isaiah 42:1).
And he blessed him with the blessing of heaven above, and the blessing of the earth that has all things. For he subjected all things, heavenly things as the blessing of heaven, and earthly things as the blessing of the earth, so that he might rule over both men and angels.
Therefore, in that seemingly contemptible body, you have prevailed, he said, because of the blessings of breasts and womb, the blessings of your father and mother. He called them either breasts or two Testaments, of which one was announced and the other was shown. And breasts are good, because they have nourished us with spiritual milk, and the Son offered himself to God: or he speaks of Mary's breasts, which were truly blessed, by which the holy Virgin gave the people of the Lord the drink of milk. And that woman in the Gospel said: Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you nursed (Luke 11:27)! But why did she say: Blessed is the womb of your father and mother, if we want to understand the womb alone of Mary, the reason will be hidden. For she could have said it concerning the womb of the mother alone. But I think it is more beautiful to understand both the generation of the Lord Jesus according to the spiritual mystery, and according to divinity, and according to the flesh, because he was begotten from the Father before the ages. And the Father says: My heart has uttered a word (Psalm 44:2); because it proceeded from that most intimate and incomprehensible substance of the Father, and it is always in Him. Therefore the evangelist also says: No one has ever seen God, except the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him (John 1:18). Just as the spiritual bosom of the Father is understood as a certain inner secret of paternal love and nature, in which the Son is always present, so also the spiritual bosom of the Father is the womb, the secret of the innermost mystery, from which the Son has proceeded as though from a generative womb. Finally, we read in diverse ways, sometimes the womb of the Father, sometimes his heart from which he uttered a word, sometimes his mouth from which justice proceeded, from which wisdom came forth, as he himself says: 'From the mouth of the Most High, I came forth.' (Sirach 24:5) Thus, just as we understand that generation from the Father, let us also understand the generation of Mary, the mother, when the womb of the mother is blessed, certainly the virginal womb of Mary, who gave birth to the Lord Jesus for us. Concerning which the Father says through the prophet Jeremiah: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you (Jer. I, 5). Therefore, the prophet declared the dual substance in Christ, of divinity and flesh: one from the Father, the other from the Virgin; in such a way, however, that he did not lack his divinity when he was born of the Virgin and was in the body.
And so he surpassed all mountains, and the desires of the eternal hills. For he excelled not only all those sublime men of merit, the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, but even the sun, the moon, and the archangels, shining like the light of heaven, as he himself says: A disciple is not above his master, nor a servant above his lord (Matt. 10:24). For who among them was there to whom all things were subject, to whom he gave what they were? In which all his saints are blessed, because he is the head of all heads. For the head of a woman is the man, and the head of a man is Christ. And he is exalted above the peaks of the mountains, for he is the highest pinnacle of all: but the highest pinnacle belongs to the righteous. He calls them brothers, acquired through grace, and partakers in a certain regeneration. Therefore, we understand Joseph to be more of a brother to them, of whom it is said in the psalm: I will declare your name to my brothers, I will sing your praises in the midst of the Church (Psalm 22:23).
Finally, when Moses was about to complete the course of his life and bless the tribe of Joseph, he was not blessing the already deceased Joseph, but Christ, as you have it written about Joseph: 'From the blessing of the Lord be his land, from the boundaries of the heavens, and from the dew, and from the depths of the springs below, and according to the hour the course of the sun was made, and from the months that come together, and from the summit of the mountains, from the beginning, and from the summit of the eternal hills, and until the hour of the earth's fullness, and from Him who was seen in the bush, let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon his crown.' He shall be honored among his brothers. The firstborn of his bull is his glory, with horns like a wild ox; he shall gore the peoples, all of them, to the ends of the earth. They are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh. (Deut. XXXIII, 13 et seq.)
The same blessing is that which has the fullness of both heavenly and earthly things, and the special grace of Christ: who appeared in the burning bush and said to Moses: Take off the sandals from your feet (Exod. III, 5): who is above all gods; because He Himself is the head of the body, the Church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in all things He might have the preeminence: for it pleased the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell. And therefore only to him belongs the prerogative of this blessing, from the summit of heaven to the farthest end of the earth. He is indeed before all, in whom all things consist: who also through the blood of his cross has pacified all things, whether those that are in heaven or those that are on earth. In representing his type, Saint Joseph is beautifully blessed, so that he may be honored among his brothers.
The firstborn of the bull is its glory, having horn like that of a unicorn, by which it will scatter the nations. And the good bull is like a sacrifice for sins, and a victim of the whole world, in order to reconcile all things. Its glory is holy; for every holy thing is a firstborn, as we have shown elsewhere (Book II, concerning Abel and Cain, chapter 2, number 3, 12). Therefore, even Levi, not by the order of his age, but by the prerogative of his sacred succession, deserved to be called the firstborn. And truly his holy glory, of whom it is written rising up: Beautiful in form above the sons of men (Psalm 44:3); for he is the firstborn from the dead, having horns like a unicorn. But when he says horns, why did he use unicorn? For the unicorn itself, as experts say, is not found among the generations of wild beasts. And therefore we ought to value the unique Word more, because the substantive Word of God is one, not many words. And Anna also said: The Lord will judge the ends of the earth, and will give strength to his king, and will exalt the horn of his Christ (1 Samuel 2:10). And Isaiah said: A vineyard was made in a horn in a fertile place (Isaiah 5:1); for the Church flourishes with the only begotten Son of God, holding the unique Word of God, in whom is the fullness of power and wisdom, from whose abundance the harvest of faith has sprung. The saints follow this Word.
Ten thousand, he said, Ephraim, and thousands of Manasseh (Deut. XXXIII, 17), that is, he should rule over both the Jews and the Gentiles, and acquire for himself the fullness of the Church from both peoples. Therefore, holy Jacob placed his right hand on Ephraim; because we read in the Song of Songs saying: My brother is white and ruddy, chosen from ten thousand (Cant. V, 10). Finally, even in the case of David and the young Mary, the author from whose line Christ was born through the Virgin's childbirth, they preached in ten thousand: but Saul in thousands, although they should have had more reverence for the king. Therefore, whoever exalts the horn of Christ by confessing His glory, will also receive horns. Hence, the holy ones are also called unicorns in the verse of the psalm: And the beloved is like the son of unicorns (Psalm 28:6). For just as this animal, when horns begin to grow, signifies the progress of a fuller age, so when horns begin to sprout from a certain part of our soul, they seem to signify the progress of a more perfect virtue, and they continue to grow until they are fulfilled. By this horn the Lord Jesus crushed the nations, in order to destroy superstition and bring salvation, as He Himself says: 'I will strike and I will heal' (Deut. XXXII, 39). Therefore, like an imitator of this bull, the Prophet says: 'Through you we will gore our enemies with our horn' (Psal. XLIII, 6), that is, destroying every high thing exalting itself against the knowledge of God. And therefore, according to the Law, clean animals have horns (Deut. XIV, 4 and 5): for the Law is spiritual. For those who are able to repel the allurements of this world with the word of God and the observance of virtue, they seem to be fortified with horns like the helmets of their own heads. And rightly, the power of an astonishing speech is said to be like a horn (Psalm 97:6), which ignites the good soldiers of Christ to battle so that we may snatch the spoils from the enemy, the devil. Therefore, we are on the battlefield, and we see many of us held captive in the enemy's camp: they must be freed from the heavy yoke of slavery.