Commentaria in Exodum
Spirit, he says, gives a pledge of salvation, strength of life, light of knowledge: a pledge of salvation, that He Himself may render testimony to thy spirit that thou art a son of God; strength of life, that what is impossible to thee by nature may by His grace become not only possible but even easy; light of knowledge, that, when thou hast done all things well, thou mayest think thyself an unprofitable servant, and whatever good thou findest in thyself mayest ascribe to Him from whom is all good. In these three the Holy Spirit will teach thee all things that pertain to salvation.” And sermon 5: “Breathing more vehemently on the fervour in the hearts of the perfect, He kindles a strong fire of charity, so that they glory not only in the hope of the sons of God, but also in tribulations, bearing away glory from contumelies.”
And St. Basil, On the Holy Spirit: “As,” he says, “bright and transparent bodies, touched by the ray of the sun, themselves also become resplendent and pour forth from themselves another brightness: so souls also, breathed upon and illumined by the Holy Spirit, themselves also become spiritual, and send forth grace upon others. Hence the presence of things to come, the understanding of secrets, the comprehension of hidden things, the distributions of gifts, the heavenly conversation, the dance with the angels; hence joy never to end, hence perseverance in God, hence likeness to God, and, than which nothing more sublime can be desired, hence it is that thou becomest God.”
Would that we daily beheld this pillar leading us to heaven, and studiously followed it! St. Charles Borromeo, to one of his own who asked for some instruction as to how he might come to heaven and please God, gave this:
“He who desires to advance daily in the way of God must first begin daily; that is, he must daily strive to serve God with that fervour as if on that day he were first beginning; secondly, let him walk actually in the presence of God; thirdly, let him set God alone as the end of all and each of his actions.” In these three he embraced the whole spiritual life, and the whole state and progress of the interior man. So the author of his Life relates, book 8, chap. 16, at the end.
Secondly, the pillar of fire can signify Christ, who is within the light of the world; but the pillar of cloud the Holy Spirit, and His overshadowing and sanctification: for Christ and the Holy Spirit are one pillar, that is, one Godhead. So many Interpreters on 1 Corinthians 10, verse 4.
Rightly St. Gregory: “The Holy Spirit,” he says, “admonishes, moves and teaches: He admonishes the memory, moves the will, teaches the reason; nor does He suffer the least straw to remain within the heart which He possesses, which He does not burn up with the fire of circumspection and compunction: against folly He suggests wisdom, against dullness understanding, against rashness counsel, against fear fortitude, against ignorance knowledge, against hardness piety, against pride the fear of God.”
Tropologically, then, the pillars of light are the strong and illustrious Saints. “Abbot Hilarion came once to Abbot Antony, and Abbot Antonius says to him: Welcome, Lucifer, who risest in the morning. And Abbot Hilarion answered: Peace to thee, pillar of light, who upholdest the world,” as is had in the Lives of the Fathers, book 5, tract 17, no. 4.
Such a pillar of light was also Simeon Stylites, who, to draw all from earth to heaven, stood on a pillar for eighty years, scarcely eating and sleeping, and ever either praying or giving counsels of salvation to those who came. And the Angel of Apocalypse 10, verse 1, had feet like pillars of fire.
So Peter, James, John in the Church “seemed to be pillars,” says Paul, Galatians 2, 9.
For this reason Christ, Apocalypse 3, 12, promises to the angel, that is, the Bishop of Philadelphia: “He that shall overcome,” He says, “I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.”
TO SHEW THE WAY.—For although the common way from Egypt to Chanaan was beaten and commonly known, yet no one knew that way by which God wished to lead the Hebrews through the deserts of Arabia into Chanaan. Genebrard adds on Psalm 104, verse 39, that God showed them the way because in those Saracen deserts there exist no traces of roads, on account of the sands, movable and effaceable by the light fanning of the winds; and therefore travellers in them, like sailors at sea, are compelled to use certain instruments, like nautical quadrants, to indicate the regions of the world, and according to them direct their journeys.
You will ask, whether this pillar only showed the way, or also overshadowed the camp and protected it from the heat? Cajetan and Abulensis, Question 13, think that it only showed the way; the reason is, because one pillar, being small and slender, could not overshadow the whole and so great a camp. Secondly, if it had overshadowed the whole camp, it would have taken away the sight of the air, of the sky and of the heavenly light, which is most pleasant to men.
But others more probably think that this pillar not only showed the way but also protected the camp from the heat of the sun; for since the Hebrews were making their journey through Arabia, which is scorched by the rays and heats of the sun, especially in valleys in which, by the interposition of opposite mountains, the reflected rays of the sun excite great heats, they would have had a most troublesome journey unless God had tempered these heats by setting this cloud of the pillar against the rays of the sun. It is proved: for this is said in Psalm 104: “He spread a cloud for their protection”; and the Psalmist, Psalm 120, alludes to this, saying: “The Lord is thy keeper, the Lord is thy protection upon thy right hand. The sun by day shall not burn thee, nor the moon by night.” Wisdom 10: “She conducted them through a wonderful way, and was to them for a covert by day”; and chap. 19: “The cloud overshadowed the camp”; and chap. 18: “Thou gavest them a harmless sun to entertain them honourably,” as if to say: Thou madest that pillar to be to the Hebrews a guide, and like a shining sun to point out commodious and convenient halting-places in the desert for 40 years: a sun, I say, without harm, that is, innocuous, not hurting, not burning the Hebrews. Hence finally the Apostle, 1 Corinthians 10, 1, says that all our fathers were under the cloud. So Blessed Nyssen, Ambrose on Psalm 118, Justin against Trypho, Lyranus, Pererius and others.
You will say: How could a small pillar overshadow the whole camp?
I answer: This pillar, when the Hebrews were journeying, went before the camp, and at the same time spread out from itself, and as it were scattered from itself another cloud, which overshadowed the camp. Where note that this cloud was in the higher part of the air, set directly opposite to the sun, and opposed to it wherever it moved, so that by its interposition the heat of the sun, and its rays refracted and repressed in it, reached the Hebrews so moderated that they brought the Hebrews light, but not heat: that this is so is plain from Numbers 14, 14, where it is thus said: “Thy cloud protecteth them, and in a pillar of a cloud thou goest before them”; where manifestly the cloud is distinguished from the pillar going before the camp, and is said to have protected them, namely from the heat; for Moses prays that God continue this His protection. The same is signified also in Numbers 10, 34, where it is said: “The cloud also of the Lord was over them by day when they marched.” Where the Septuagint render: “and the cloud of the Lord was overshadowing over them.” Whence it follows that this cloud, set opposite to the sun, was huge and immense. For it was greater than the whole camp, which, as I said above, extended to ten Italian miles; to as many miles, therefore, the cloud also had to extend, as veiling the whole camp, overshadowing it, and protecting it from the rays of the sun.
Again, when the camp was halting, this cloud was square. For the camp when pitched was square, as is plain from Numbers 2; but when the camp was moving, and the Hebrews, spreading out in a long column, set out tribe by tribe in an ordered series, then this cloud, which before had been square, likewise spread itself lengthwise over all the columns, and was made equal to them in length as in breadth. For all the Hebrews walked under this cloud as under a covering or umbrella, and therefore God is said to have led them in a wonderful way, Wisdom 10, 17. More of this pillar I shall say on Numbers 9, 15.