Commentaria in Genesim
Eustachius answers that this ladder signifies the cross of Christ. So also St. Augustine, sermon 79: The Lord, he says, leaning on the ladder is Christ hanging on the cross; thence he received a wife, that is, joined the Church to Himself. Fittingly; for the cross is the ladder and way, by which Christ and all Christians have ascended and daily ascend into heaven. So we read in the martyrdom of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, March 7, whose fortitude St. Augustine celebrates in Psalm xlvii, and often elsewhere, that they received from God an omen and sign of martyrdom through a ladder. For when they were held captive in prison, St. Perpetua saw in a vision a golden ladder stretching from earth into heaven, to whose steps were fixed many swords, and those most sharp, so that it seemed no one could climb without grave injury to himself. Below was a horrible dragon, wishing to prevent anyone from ascending. She saw then Saturus (who was one of her four companions, who all together in the year of the Lord 205 were crowned with martyrdom with her) with great courage climbing the ladder, and exhorting others to follow him fearlessly, and not to fear the dragon, because he could not hinder them. She awoke then, and told this vision to her companions; who all gave thanks to God. For they understood that they were called to martyrdom; that this was that ladder armed with so many knives and swords, by which God wished to lead them gloriously into heaven, and that the infernal dragon could not hinder this their journey and ascent.
But more fittingly and genuinely Diodorus, Vatablus and Rupert think that the Holy Spirit by this ladder represented the incarnation of the Word, namely the generation of Christ, to be born of the stock of Jacob.
Symbolically, first, the ladder is reckoned by its various steps, that is generations and begetters, of whom the last is Joseph with the Blessed Virgin, the highest Adam, who was created most nearly and immediately by God. Second, the two sides of the ladder are the mercy and truth, or fidelity, of God concerning the promised Messias; for these two made the Word descend to us, and take our flesh. Third, this ladder touches the earth, because the Word was incarnate on earth, and blessed it by the touch of His incarnation; it touches heaven also, because Christ, who was incarnate, is the Son of God, or God-man: for Christ joined in Himself heavenly things to earthly, lowest to highest, and thus God to man. Whence He Himself says: “No man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended from heaven;” He is therefore our ladder, by which we ascend to God: for no man cometh to the Father, but by Christ. Fourth, the angels descend to announce this mystery of the incarnation to men; the same ascend to carry upward to God the ardent desires and prayers of the Patriarchs. Hence Blessed Peter Chrysologus, sermon 3 on the Annunciation, calls the incarnation the business of all the ages, namely because in it all ages laboured, and through angels it was earnestly treated with God about this common remedy of the world, until within the Virgin’s house the heavenly business was completed. Fifth, the steps of this ladder are Christ’s various virtues, and especially four, namely 1st humility in the nativity; 2nd poverty in the manger; 3rd charity in the course of life; 4th obedience in the passion: this is the way to heaven, walk ye in it.
Lastly, the Blessed Virgin is called the ladder of Jacob in her Litanies; so St. Bernard (or whoever is the author) calls her, sermon on the Blessed Mary, p. 394: “She, he says, is the ladder, bush, ark, star, rod, fleece, bridal chamber, gate, garden, dawn. For she is the ladder of Jacob, which has twelve steps, between two sides. The right side is contempt of self, up to the love of God; the left, contempt of the world up to the love of the kingdom. The ascents of this are the twelve steps of humility. The first is hatred of sin; the second, flight from offence; the third, fear of judgment; the fourth, to be subject to the Creator in all these things; the fifth, to obey a better; the sixth, to obey an equal; the seventh, to yield to an inferior; the eighth, to be subject to oneself; the ninth, to meditate continually on one’s end; the tenth, ever to fear one’s works; the eleventh, humbly to confess one’s thoughts; the twelfth, in all things to be moved at the hand, at the nod, at the pleasure of the Lord. By these steps angels ascend, and exalt men. So ascents are disposed in the heart, advancing by degrees and ascending step by step. So in the house of the Father they perceive the shining mansions. These are the twelve Apostles, who follow in the desert the footsteps of Jesus Christ.”
You will ask thirdly, what does this ladder signify symbolically?
Philo answers, book De Somniis: The ladder, he says, is the soul; the base is the sense and appetite of earthly things; the head is the purest mind, which by steps of contemplation ascends to God, as conversely the base just mentioned descends by steps of desires to earth and earthly things. Let man therefore see that he descend not by following the base, but rather ascend by looking to his head.
Second, the same Philo: The ladder, he says, is the inconstancy of this life, in which some are cast from the top to the bottom, others are raised from the bottom to the top, and that at the nod and will of God, who leaning on this ladder governs and directs it. So Pittacus in Aelian, book II, made the ladder an image of fortune and vicissitude, of happiness and unhappiness; for the happy ascend on the wheel of fortune, the unhappy descend. But these things are philosophical, and do not pertain to the mind of the Holy Spirit in this place.
You will ask fourthly, what does this ladder of Jacob signify tropologically?
Tertullian answers at the end of book three Against Marcion: This ladder, he says, is the way by which the just dispose ascents in their heart to heaven. The Holy Spirit hints the same, Wisdom x, 10, where speaking of this our Jacob, and the vision of this heavenly ladder, he says: “She (wisdom) conducted the just man, when he fled from his brother’s wrath, through the right ways, and shewed him the kingdom of God.” Hence Barlaam says to Josaphat: “The virtues are as it were certain ladders of heaven,” as Damascene attests in the History, chap. xx. The two sides of this ladder are faith and works; or the word of God and the sacraments; or “bear and forbear;” which two words if anyone observe, he will live a life without sin most tranquil and most holy, as Epictetus used to say. The steps are the ascents of various laws and virtues; again these steps are those of beginners, proficients and the perfect, on whose summit God unites Himself, and in them takes delight and dwells. The angels ascending to God, says St. Gregory, book V of the Morals, and from him St. Thomas, II–II, Question CLXXXI, last article, signify the contemplative life; descending to human things, they signify the active life.
Whence Alcazar above fittingly takes by these angels the Apostles and other preachers of the Gospel, who pour out upon men by preaching the wisdom which they have drawn from God in meditation. That the preacher, then, may preach rightly, let him first by meditating go up to God, and then come down to those to whom he speaks. Jacob therefore saw in these angels his offspring and posterity prefigured, namely the heralds of the Gospel, to be born from Christ his son, who were to teach men the knowledge of the saints, which God is therefore said to have given and revealed to Jacob, Wisdom x, 10.
Hence secondly, St. Basil on Psalm i: The ladder, he says, is the ascent to perfection; the summit is charity; the steps are the ten steps of renunciation, of which the first is to abdicate earthly things, that with the Apostles he may say: “Behold we have left all things;” the second, to forget the same, Psalm xliv:
The angels are preachers.
The ladder of perfection of God Benedict ascended into heaven; the two sides are humility of mind and austerity of life; the steps are the various rules and acts of virtues. For the narrow ladder signifies the narrow way of discipline, which leads to heaven. For, as St. Augustine says in the Sentences, Sent. 19: “Narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and yet by it, unless with enlarged heart, one does not run; because the journey of virtues by which the poor of Christ go is broad to the hope of the faithful, though narrow to the vanity of the unfaithful.” St. Antoninus in the Summa says that the religious life was signified by that noble ladder of Jacob, whose steps are none other than of reading, meditation, mortification and other like exercises, of which the religious life consists. On this angels ascend, to offer these works to God; and descend, to bring in turn to religious souls the various gifts and benefits of the Spouse. On it moreover God leans, because by His grace and help all our endeavours are supported, which, He holding, cannot fall; and He is a support to those ascending, and to those arriving at the end is the reward. Whence of it it is truly said: “This is no other but the house of God and the gate of heaven.”