How should we account for these words of Saint Matthew: "Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, yielded up His spirit, and at the same time the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth shook, the rocks were split, the graves were opened, and many bodies of saints who were in the sleep of death revived, and exiting out of their tombs after His resurrection, they came to the holy city, and were seen by many people"?
I have already explained this passage in my comments on Saint Matthew. It should be noted first that God is the only one who can stop and start living a physical life as He pleases. For this reason the centurion, when he saw that Jesus, after saying, "Father, I commend my soul into Your hands," had immediately given up the spirit, was touched by this great miracle, and he said, "This man was really the son of God."
This phrase, "The veil of the temple was torn in two," verifies what was told to Joseph, that the angels guarding the temple said, "Go out of here." The Gospel that Saint Matthew wrote in Hebrew does not say that the veil was torn, but that the top of the portal, which was of prodigious size, was completely reversed. "The earth shook," because it could not support the weight attached to its God on the cross. "The stones split," to see how far was the hardness of the Jews who refused to recognize the Son of God they saw with their eyes. "The tombs were opened," to signify that we must be resurrected one day. "And many bodies of saints out of their tombs, came to the holy city, and were seen by several people." By this "holy city" Jerusalem is meant, and it must not be confused with all the other cities where people adored idols, because in that city alone the people had a temple dedicated the Lord, and where true religion was professed, in which God alone is worshipped. These saints, who "came out of their tombs," did not appear indiscriminately to everyone, but only to numerous people who were committed to Jesus Christ. Now to explain this place in a spiritual sense: "Jesus Christ died, with a loud cry, and at the same time the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." This was so that all nations could see uncovered all the mysteries of the law, before they were hidden. The veil is torn "in two," to tell us that everything is bound up in the Old and New Testaments. It is torn "from the top down," to make manifest what has happened since the beginning of the world and the creation of man, and the sacred history we reported, and all that will be until the consummation of the world.
But we must consider whether it is the first veil, on the outside, or the veil inside, that was torn at the death of the Savior.2 To me, it seems to me that whoever was within the temple at the entrance of the tabernacle, is at what is called the outer veil, because "now we can see and do things very imperfectly, but when we are in a perfect state," then the outer veil tears, and all the mysteries of the house of God, which are now hidden, will be revealed to us. And we will know what is signified by these two cherubim, the oracle, and the golden vase that contained the manna. "We now see as though in a mirror, darkly." Indeed, the veil there, which hid from us the stories of Scripture, is torn, and we can enter the courtyard of the tabernacle of the Lord. But all the secrets and mysteries of the heavenly Jerusalem are always veiled, and we cannot enter there.
The earth shook at the death of the Savior, and we saw the fulfillment of what the prophet Haggai: "A little time and I will shake heaven and earth, and all desired nations will come," so that "many come from east and west and take their place in the kingdom of heaven with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." "The stones split," that is, that the death of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles pierced and broke the hardness of their hearts. For these "stones" can still hear the prophets, which as well as the apostles carried this name in relation to Jesus Christ, who is the true "stone." These stones are "split," so that the saints may unlock, release, and discover all the prophecies that had been obscured from them by the thick veil of the law. These "tombs" are like those about which Jesus spoke in the Gospel, "You are like whitewashed tombs on the outside, but inside are full of dead bones." "These graves," I said, "opened," so that those who had died earlier in their infidelity, "leaving their tombs," and being given a new life with Christ, arise and enter into the heavenly Jerusalem, to be citizens of heaven rather than of earth, and thus the man who died in an earthly manner is raised in a heavenly manner.
Moreover, to return to the literal meaning of this passage, we must not be surprised that after the death of the Savior, Jerusalem is called "the holy city," since, until its complete collapse, the apostles are shown to have had no apprehension about entering the temple, and even observe the ceremonies of the law for fear of scandalizing those of Jews who had embraced the faith of Jesus Christ. We even see that the Savior loved this city so much that the misfortunes which threatened it elicited tears from His eyes; when He was crucified, He said to His Father, "Forgive them, Father, because they do know what they do." His prayer was answered, for shortly after His death the Jews believed in Him by thousands, and God gave to this unfortunate city forty-two years to do penance. But finally its citizens, having failed to benefit, and still persisting in their wickedness — Vespasian and Titus together formed an anti-type of what is mentioned in our Scriptures, when they came out of the woods and killed and mauled these "children," because of their blasphemous insults to the real Elisha when ascending to the house of God (for that is what "Bethel" means in Hebrew).3
Since that time, Jerusalem has been called "the holy city," but having lost the holiness implied by the name she bore before, it has been called in a spiritual sense "Egypt" and "Sodom," and in its place we have built a new city, "a river delighted by the abundance of its waters," and the center of which releases a spring that has purified the bitterness of the waters of all the earth, so that the unfortunate Jews, stripped of their former glories, are reduced to whining on the ruins of their temple, while Christians have the pleasure of seeing new churches being built every day, and they say to the people of Zion, "The place where I am is too narrow." In this we see the fulfillment of the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah: "His grave will be glorious."
QUESTION #9
How is it that Saint John reports that the Savior gave that Holy Spirit to His apostles by blowing on them, which according to Luke, He promised to send to them after His ascension?
One can easily solve this problem if one considers, as Saint Paul says, that the Holy Spirit gives us many kinds of grace. "There are a variety of spiritual gifts," says the apostle in his first epistle to the faithful of Corinth, "but they have the same Spirit. There are diversities of ministries, but there is a single Lord. There are diversities of supernatural works, but there is only one God who works all in all. But the gifts which testify to the Holy Spirit are given out to everyone for the profit of the Church. One receives from the Holy Spirit the gift of speaking with exalted wisdom; another, by the same Spirit, is given the gift of speaking with knowledge; another receives faith by the same Spirit; another, through the same Spirit, has the gift of healing disease, and another the gift of working miracles, another the gift of prophecy, another the discernment of spirits, and another the gift of speaking different languages, another the interpretation of languages. Yet it is one and the same Spirit at work in all these things, distributing these gifts to each individual as He pleases."
For this reason the Lord, as reported in Luke's Gospel, said to His apostles after His resurrection, "I will send you the promised gift from My Father, but continue living in the city until you are protected by the power from on high." And in Acts of the Apostles, according to the same evangelist, "He ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to 'Wait until the promise of the Father, which,' He said, 'you have heard of from My mouth. For John baptized in water, but in a few days you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit.'" Saint John also reported in the end of his Gospel, about the day when Jesus Christ rose, that is, on Sunday, He entered into the place where the apostles were, the doors being closed, and that they have it said to them for the second time, "Peace be with you." He said, "As my Father sent me, so I send you also." "After which He breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit; the sins of those whom you forgive are forgiven, and they are retained of those whose you retain.'"
On the first day, therefore, when the Savior was resurrected, the apostles received the grace of the Holy Spirit to forgive sins, to baptize, to make men into children of God, and to share with the faithful the spirit of adoption, even as Jesus Christ himself had said, "The sins are forgiven to those whom you forgive, and the sins of those whose sins you retain, they shall be retained." But on the day of Pentecost, the Savior promised more excellent gifts excellent, so that they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit and bear the power from above to preach the gospel to all nations, as we read at the sixty-seventh Psalm: "The Lord will give his heralds the floor of his glory so they will proclaim with great power." Thus they would then receive the gift of healing diseases, performing miracles, and speaking different languages, for they were destined to preach the gospel to many nations, and in this way the people could listen to what each of the apostles was proclaiming about the truth of the gospel. Hence the Apostle Paul, who brought the Gospel in this vast tract of country which is from Jerusalem to Illyricum, and who was to go through Rome to go to Spain, thanked God because he had received the gift of tongues more than all the other apostles, because in order to preach the gospel to many nations, he should also speak multiple languages.
However, it was on the tenth day after His ascension, as Luke relates, that the Savior fulfilled the promise He made to His apostles to send them the Holy Spirit. "When the days of Pentecost were accomplished," says the sacred historian, "the disciples were all together in one place, and we suddenly heard a loud noise like a violent and impetuous wind that came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. At the same time they saw what looked like divided tongues of fire, standing on each one. Immediately they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak different languages, as the Holy Spirit put words in their mouths." And then we saw the fulfillment of what was spoken by the prophet Joel: "In the end-times," says the Lord, "I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh: your son and your daughters shall prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions." This word, "I will pour out," involves an abundance of graces, and goes back to what the Lord had promised His apostles: that in a few days they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Indeed this baptism was so abundant that it filled all the house where the disciples were sitting, and He provided the fire of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, in accordance with His designs, and sent them the gift of tongues, and their lips were purified to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in all its purity, as a seraph had purified those of Isaiah, who complained of having unclean and dirty lips.
We read in the prophet about the shouts of two seraphim who were around the throne of God, and about the posts of the temple door being shaken, "and the whole house was filled with smoke," that is, with the error of darkness and ignorance. But at the beginning of the gospel, and therefore the birth of Christianity, the Holy Spirit fills the whole Church, to purify its fervor and by His grace to purge away all the sins of the faithful by fire, even by the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ had promised to His apostles, by whose lips His name has been carried and shared throughout the world.
Although John said that the Savior gave the Holy Spirit to His apostles on the first day of his resurrection, and Saint Luke said that He was sent to them fifty days later, we should not imagine that these two evangelists are at odds: they only desired to make distinctions between degrees of the grace that Jesus Christ communicated to His apostles, who, having first received the power to forgive sins, then received the power to perform miracles, and all other gifts detailed by Saint Paul, of which we spoke about above — but particularly to speak various languages, which was even more necessary than others so that, in the ministry which they were expected to announce the gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations of the earth, they would not need to use an interpreter. Because of this the Lycaonians, after hearing Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas speak their language, considered them gods bearing a human form.
With regard to this virtue from on high that Jesus Christ had promised to bestow upon His disciples, this is nothing more than the grace of the Holy Spirit, who, having taken possession of the hearts of the apostles, inspired both their strength and courage; they feared neither the courts, nor judges, nor the purple of kings. That is what the Savior had promised before his passion, saying, "When you are delivered into the hands of men, do not worry about how or what you shall say, because what you need to say will be given at that very time, for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of Your Father who speaks in you." For me, I am not afraid to say that since the apostles had believed in Jesus Christ, they always had the Holy Spirit, for without this the gift they could never have done all the miracles they did; but those deeds were the expressions and results of this gift.
That is why Jesus Christ said aloud in the temple, "'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink, and if someone believes in me, rivers of living water will come out of his heart,' as Scripture says. He meant by this the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were yet to receive," and the evangelist adds in the same place, "For the Holy Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." This is not to say there was no Holy Spirit, for the Savior Himself said, "If I cast out demons by speaking through the Holy Spirit," but what is meant is that this Holy Spirit who was in the Son of God had not yet entirely filled the hearts of the apostles. For from their hearts there came the fear with which they were seized at the Passion of the Savior, and on account of this was that renunciation with an oath against knowing Him at all. But after being baptized in the Holy Spirit, they were filled with grace that was prevalent in their hearts; they boldly tell the rulers of the Jews, "We must obey God rather than men." So they can resurrect the dead, triumph in the midst of turmoil, spread their blood for Jesus Christ, and be crowned via their own torments.
So the apostles had the Holy Spirit; yet spiritual graces were not flowing from their heart, because the Lord was not yet glorified. And what is the glory that He expected? He explains himself in the Gospel, when He says, "My Father, glorify me with the glory I had with you before the world was." The glory of the Savior is the cross where He triumphed; there He was crucified as a man, and is glorified as God. Do you want proof of His glory? Observe that there the sun disappears, the moon changes to blood, the earth is shaken by an extraordinary earthquake; the graves are opened, the dead walk; the rocks split. This glory of Jesus Christ is what was foretold through the mouth of the prophet-king when he says, "Arise, my glory; awaken, my lute and my harp," and the glory, that is, the holy humanity, replied: "I will adjourn the morning," to thus verify the title of the twenty-first Psalm, which reads, "For the relief of the morning."
When I say this, I do not separate Jesus Christ into two different people, one divine and one human, as the new heretics falsely accuse us. There is in Jesus Christ one and the same person, who is both Son of God and Son of Man, but in all that has been said about the divine Savior, there are some who recorded His divine glory, and others who did not guard their own salvation. It is to us that it was written: "He did not believe it was for Him a theft be equal to God, but He has nevertheless humbled Himself, and taking up the form and nature of a servant, He became obedient, to the point of death, even the death of the cross," and to us it is said that "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."
Therefore the Lord told his disciples, "I am departing, and I will send you another Comforter." Luke also records that this assuring promise was given by Jesus Christ to the apostles. I am surprised that Montanus and the two crazy women4 accompanying his sect and his errors, who are only failed prophets, argue that this promise of the Savior was not fulfilled until them, long after it was given, because it was to the apostles that the Savior said, "I will send you the promised gift of my Father. But live in the city until you are clothed with the power from on high." It was upon the apostles, not Montanus, Prisca, and Maxilla, that Jesus Christ has breathed, thus giving them the Holy Spirit. To the apostles it is said, "The sins of those whom you forgive are forgiven, and they will be retained of those whose you retain." It is the apostles that He ordered not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of His Father, a promise that Luke allows us to see being fulfilled, when he said, "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak different languages, as the Holy Spirit put their words in their mouths," because The Holy Spirit "blows where He wills." When Jesus Christ promised His apostles that He would send to send them "another Comforter," it was already satisfying to know that He was himself the consolation of his apostles, and to know the apostle Paul's concept of God the Father, when he calls Him the "God of mercy and all comfort." But if the Father is "Comforter," if the Son is "Comforter," if the Holy Spirit is "Comforter," and if we baptize the faithful in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who are only one God, it follows that, having the same name of God, even "Consolation," they also have a similar nature.
Besides, the prophets received the Holy Spirit as well as the apostles. This is why David said, "Do not remove me from your Holy Spirit." We also read in Scripture that Daniel was animated by the Spirit of God, and that it was through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that David said, "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool." Only by the illumination of the Holy Spirit could the prophets have predicted things to come. "By the word of the Lord," said the Psalmist, "the heavens were consolidated, and by the breath of His mouth all their virtue was founded." All the substance possessed by the Father and the Son is also the substance of the Holy Spirit. When He is sent, it is the Father and Son who send Him. The Scripture calls Him in a thousand places "the Spirit of God the Father" and "the Spirit of Jesus Christ." Hence, as was reported in the Acts of the Apostles, that those who had received the baptism of John, and who believed in God the Father and Jesus Christ, but who did not even know there was a Holy Spirit, were baptized again, and we can say that this was the occasion when they truly baptized, because without the Holy Spirit the Trinity cannot exist. We read again in the same place, where Saint Peter said to Ananias and Sapphira, who had lied to the Holy Spirit, that it was to God and not to men that they had lied.
QUESTION #10
How do we understand what the Apostle Paul says to the Romans, from the place, "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid that we have this thought!" To the place, "If the Lord of hosts had not left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and Gomorrah"?
The entire epistle to the Romans needs careful explanation, because it is full of obscure difficulties that cannot be understood without the help of the Holy Spirit who has Himself guided the mouth of the apostle. But the most difficult and most embarrassing passage is the one you have asked about. Some, to maintain whole the righteousness of God, claim that if Jacob was selected and Esau was rejected when they were still in the Rebecca's womb, this could only be for reasons that have preceded their birth. Similarly He also chose Jeremiah and John the Baptist from the wombs of their mothers, and the Apostle Paul was chosen before he was born, to preach the Gospel.
For me, I can only agree with what is received by all the faithful, and what I teach, I can teach publicly without fear in the church, without fear of falling into the illusions and dreams of Pythagoras, Plato, and those disciples who wished to mold the opinions of the pagans into the dogmas of religion, saying that souls are fallen from heaven, and that their individual merits have been expressed together in their bodies so as to compensate for their past sins. I think it is much better to forthrightly admit our ignorance, and to categorize this passage of Saint Paul among the deep mysteries which we cannot fathom. This admission is preferable to the option, taken under the pretext of justifying the conduct of God, of embracing the heresy of Basilides and Manès, teaching monstrous opinions asserted by a certain Egyptian, and the chimerical visions with which he has misled the Spaniards.[5] Therefore I shall explain this passage the best I can, and objectively follow Saint Paul's footprints as far as I can, objectively.