Chapter V.
Zabulon's blessing is to designate the Church and its leaders.
Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore; And he shall become a haven for ships, And his border shall extend to Sidon (Gen. XLIX, 13). The interpretation of the name itself promises good things; because the Latin expression signifies deliverance from the night, which is certainly good, and of him who hopes in the wings of the Lord, whom his truth surrounds, so that he may not fear the nocturnal terror, and the business that walks in darkness.
So here, Zebulun, he says, will dwell by the sea. He will see the shipwrecks of others, himself immune to danger, and watch others tossed by the waves in the strait of this world, who are carried about by every wind of doctrine, himself persevering immovable with the root of faith, just as the holy Church is rooted and founded in faith, watching the storms of heretics and the shipwrecks of the Jews, since they denied the governor whom they had. Therefore, it dwells amidst the waves, not disturbed by the waves, and is more prepared to provide assistance than subject to danger, just as if those who are driven by severe storms to seek refuge in a harbor, the Church is present as a harbor of salvation, which with open arms calls the endangered into the embrace of its tranquility, showing them a place of trustworthy refuge. Therefore, in this age, the Church, like a harbor along the spreading shores, comes to the aid of those who are struggling, declaring that it is a prepared refuge for the believers, where weather-beaten ships can seek shelter.
In the churches there are princes of Zebulun and princes of Naphtali, as the 67th psalm teaches, some of whom are liberators from the night storm, crying out: Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light (Rom. 13:12): others are of apostolic latitude, who can say: Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged (2 Cor. 6:11). They are the ones who, when they were in darkness, saw a great light, as the prophet testifies, saying: The region of Zebulun and the region of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan: the people who sat in darkness saw a great light: those who sat in the region of the shadow of death, light has arisen for them (Isa. 9:1-2).
Therefore, the Lord our God, who is the patriarch of this inheritance, placed explorers along the approaches of the ships, whose care extends even to Sidon, that is, to the Gentiles, so that by the mercy of the Lord, the sins of the nations may be washed away. For Sidon is the firstborn son of Ham, the same one who, due to his irreverence towards his father's piety, was condemned by his father's curse. Therefore, this nocturnal liberation, like a sentry of the spiritual rampart, extends even to the most serious sinners, and even to the Sidonians themselves, who were previously known as fervent hunters of wickedness due to superstition, and, as the interpretation teaches, it absolves them from the cursed inheritance and bestows upon them the blessed inheritance; so that where there was great guilt, there may now be abundant grace.