Commentaria in Exodum
Allegorically, the perpetual sacrifice signified the sacrifice of Christ Himself in the Eucharist, which is offered every day and will be offered until Antichrist, who shall take it away, at least that it be not done publicly, as is plain from Daniel 11:34. First, then, Christ is this perpetual lamb, but the true one, who taketh away the sins of the world, which the perpetual and legal lamb could not do. Hence Christ is called a lamb by Isaias, Jeremias and the other Prophets. “A lamb is chosen,” says St. Augustine, “that simplicity and innocence may be signified; a male is sought, that virtue may be proved; without blemish, that he may be without crime.” Secondly, Christ is the lamb who in the morning of the world, that is, from the very beginning of the world, was slain for the sins of the ancient fathers; and who in the evening, that is, from the coming of Christ to the end of the age, is immolated as a sacrifice for the children of the New Testament. Thirdly, with the lamb were offered fine flour and wine, because Christ not only willed to be slain for us, but also in the very sacrifice left us the Sacrament of His body and blood under the species of bread and wine, by which our souls are wonderfully nourished, strengthened and refreshed. The fine flour is mixed with oil, because Christ instituted this Sacrament of the Eucharist out of most sweet charity and mercy; the measure of the oil and of the wine was equal, because as great as is the mercy of Christ, so great is the power of His blood shed for us.
the archbishop, when by reason of old age he could no longer say Mass, was carried to the oratory and heard Mass daily, says Eadmer in his Life, book II. St. Thomas Aquinas, even amid his highest studies, daily said Mass and heard another, and often served at it. In the Chronicles of Spain, Captain Pascal Vivas is renowned, who at the time of the battle against the Moorish king of Cordova, while he was hearing Masses in the church of St. Martin, was seen to fight valiantly in the battle, and to slay the standard-bearer, and to be the cause of the victory, although he had not been present at the fight, an angel fighting in his form. Our Pinelli collected many who were delivered from dangers, from death, and from poverty because they heard Mass daily, in his book On the Fruits of the Mass. And what wonder! The very angels assist at Mass and minister. Hence in the Canon the priest prays: “Command these things to be borne by the hands of Thy holy angel.” St. Chrysostom, as the blessed Nilus his disciple testifies, saw angels bringing help and strength to the priests as they distributed the Eucharist. Cyril writes in the Life of St. Euthymius that he often saw a dread multitude of angels ministering to God together with him and handling the sacred things. St. Ephrem says: “The pure angels minister with trembling, and, covering their faces, dare not look.” St. Ambrose on chap. I of Luke: “Doubt not, he says, that an angel assists when Christ is immolated.” St. Chrysostom, book VI On the Priesthood, says that the altar is full of choirs of angels, who raise their cries while Christ is immolated.
40. A TENTH PART (of an ephi, as is added in Numbers xxviii, 9) OF FINE FLOUR TEMPERED WITH POUNDED OIL, WHICH SHALL HAVE THE FOURTH PART OF A HIN, AND WINE FOR THE LIBATION OF THE SAME MEASURE OF A HIN (that is, with) ONE LAMB.—Repeat: thou shalt do, that is, thou shalt offer and sacrifice.
The tenth part of an ephi is a gomor, as I said in chap. xvi, last verse, which in the wheat of Palestine was 8 pounds, but in flour about 4 pounds. Secondly, this fine flour was to be tempered, that is, kneaded, with oil in place of water, or together with the water with which flour is wont to be kneaded. Thirdly, this oil was to be not pressed out by the grinding of a mill, which is less pure, but well pounded in a mortar, or at least flowing of its own accord, which is purer and clearer.
Fourthly, the measure of the hin, says Josephus, contains two Attic choes; two choes make twelve sextaries. The Hebrews say that the fourth part of a hin is the measure of eighteen eggs, so that the hin contains seventy-two eggs, or twelve logs: for a log is the measure of six eggs, namely of Palestine, which are larger than ours; the fourth part of a hin, therefore, was about three pounds of oil.
41. THE OTHER LAMB THOU SHALT OFFER IN THE EVENING,—between the two evenings, namely one of the setting of the sun, the other of darkness and night after sunset, at which time the paschal lamb also was to be immolated, as I said in chap. xii, 6.
42. AT THE DOOR OF THE TABERNACLE OF THE TESTIMONY.—To wit, upon the altar of holocausts, which was before the door of the tabernacle, and near it, on its north side. So Abulensis.
BEFORE THE LORD,—at the altar of the Lord, or before the tabernacle of the Lord, where He seems to be as it were in His house. So Abulensis.
that God answered not only from the propitiatory, which was in the Holy of Holies, but also at the door of the tabernacle; as if He said: It is fitting that where I show Myself present, and where I speak, there the perpetual sacrifice be offered to Me, that in the same place I may assign, as the fruit of the sacrifice, My presence and converse. So before the oracle and the Holy of Holies God commanded perpetual incense to be burnt, once in the morning and once in the evening, and that daily, because He seemed to be present in the Holy of Holies and to rest upon the ark, and thence He gave oracles. So Cajetan.
43. AND THERE I WILL APPOINT FOR THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL,—Namely verse 42.
by thee, My messenger. For “I will appoint” is the same word which a little before our Interpreter rendered “I will establish,” namely iaad, which signifies first, to meet, and to fix a place or time for meeting; secondly, to testify and to command. Hence it is plain that the tabernacle, which in the Hebrew is called moed (from the root iaad), which our version renders “of the testimony,” alludes both to the meeting of God with men, and to the testification and the law, which was read and set forth in the tabernacle, that is, in the public assembly of the people. The tabernacle is therefore called, first, edut, that is, “of the testimony,” because in it was the testimony, that is, the law, and the tables of the law, as is plain from Exodus chap. xxv, 21. Secondly, moed, that is, “of the assembly,” to which the people came together at the appointed feasts and solemnities, as it were to pray to God and celebrate Him, and to hear the law of God. Or moed, that is, “of the testimony,” that is, of the law, as I have already said. Again, “of the testimony,” because it was confirmed and established as by testimony by the presence of God and by oracles. For in the tabernacle, and most of all in the Holy of Holies, or oracle, God showed and testified that He was present, the president and guardian of His Church and of His people, by hearing and answering their prayers, by protecting them, by instructing them, both inwardly and outwardly, by the voice of the priests and by His own voice from the oracle, etc. So Alcazar on Apoc. xv, 5. But there he wrongly rejects the former exposition, “of the testimony,” that is, of the law, and tries to establish this latter alone, whereas Scripture expressly teaches that in the tabernacle and the ark the testimony was placed, that is, the law, or the tables of the law, and that hence the ark is called the ark of the testimony.
calls the tables the tables of the testimony. And it is clear that the ark of the testament (as also of the testimony), or of the covenant, is so called not from the assembly of the people, but because it contained the tables of the law, which were the condition of the covenant entered upon between God and the people.
AND THE ALTAR SHALL BE SANCTIFIED BY MY GLORY.—That is, the altar shall be declared holy when My glory shall have appeared about it, and especially when I shall send fire from heaven upon it on the eighth day of the consecration of the priests, to consume My sacrifices, Levit. ix, 24. Thus “to cleanse” is often taken in Leviticus for to declare clean, and “to contaminate” or “to pollute” for to judge contaminated and polluted, as in Levit. xiii, verse 6.
44. AND I WILL SANCTIFY ALSO THE TABERNACLE,—I will declare it holy, and as holy I will guard it from the profane, when by a miraculous outburst of fire I shall forbid strange fire to be brought into it, Levit. x, 2. Then also I will sanctify “Aaron with his sons,” namely Ithamar and Eleazar, by appointing and designating them to Me as priests, and preserving them from the fire in which I shall consume Nadab and Abiu, their brethren and priests, but to be rejected by Me because they offered strange fire.
45. AND I WILL DWELL IN THE MIDST OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL,— that is, I will dwell in My tabernacle, which is among the children of Israel, and in it as in My house I will abide, and there show Myself present, directing and protecting My people, whom I brought out of Egypt. The Chaldee renders: I will place the presence of My divinity, namely in the tabernacle and the propitiatory; for this both he and the Hebrews call sechina, that is, rest, because in it, as in its own seat, the majesty of God rested and abode.