Commentaria in Exodum
25. WHO (THE LORD) SHEWED HIM A TREE, WHICH WHEN HE HAD CAST INTO THE WATERS, THEY WERE TURNED INTO SWEETNESS.—That is, he taught him the tree; whence it appears that this was a certain kind of tree, endowed with a secret and wonderful power of sweetening waters, especially if it were copiously sprinkled into the waters, and that it actually sweetened them, both by drawing the saltness out of the waters and by imparting to them a sweetness of its own: for thus physicians use liquorice with barley-water, or water, to sweeten a draught; but the power of this wood was far swifter and more effectual than that of liquorice.
Hence it follows that this sweetening power in the wood was natural, such as is in honey and sugar; but far greater and more effectual in this wood: for if one drop of oil of vitriol or of sulphur infects a whole glass of water with its sourness and savour, why could not the same be done, in sweetening waters, by this wood of most effectual virtue, though unknown to us, yet well known to God? If the tree of life by its innate power could prolong man’s life for ever, why could not God give some tree which by its innate power could sweeten a vast quantity of water? And this Ecclesiasticus signifies clearly enough, chap. 38, verse 4: “The most High hath created medicines out of the earth, and a wise man will not abhor them. Was not bitter water made sweet with wood?” namely in this place of Exodus, to which without doubt Ecclesiasticus alludes: but he speaks of the natural property and virtue which herbs, woods and drugs have for the healing of men. So Lyranus, Cajetan and others.
Though R. Solomon, and after him Abulensis, think otherwise: This wood, they say, is that commonly called adelpha, which is of itself bitter and deadly; God therefore willed to use it for sweetening the waters, that the miracle might be the greater as its bitterness is the more contrary to sweetness, and that the type of the cross and most bitter passion of Christ, of which I shall speak presently, might be the more expressive.
So Abbot Besarion, walking by the sea, when his disciple Dulas was thirsty, by prayer turned the salt water of the sea into sweet, with which the disciple quenched his thirst, as is related in the Lives of the Fathers, chap. 3, no. 2153. By a like miracle Eliseus healed barren waters by salt, which is wont to dry up and consequently to make barren, 4 Kings 2:20. But what I said first is truer.
Allegorically, this wood signifies the wood of the cross of Christ: for by its virtue, memory and meditation all labour and sorrow become sweet to the Saints. So Origen, Theodoret, Nyssen, Rupert, Ambrose in his book On those who are initiated in the mysteries, chap. 3, Cyril (or rather Clictoveus: for he supplied from his own invention the eight middle books of Cyril which had perished, that he might complete and perfect Cyril’s mutilated work) on John, book 8, 17, where he enumerates together various figures of the holy cross; and Cyprian, in his book On Zeal and Envy, at the end, where he teaches how by the cross of Christ anger and bitterness are to be soothed and sweetened:
“Vomit forth,” he says, “the poisons of gall, shut out the venom of discords: let the mind be purged which serpentine envy had infected; let all the bitterness that had settled within be softened by the sweetness of Christ. If thou takest both food and drink from the sacrament of the cross, the wood which at Mara profited in image to the sweetness of taste, will profit thee in truth to the gentleness of a soothed heart. Love those whom thou hast hitherto hated, cherish those whom thou enviedst with unjust detractions.”
[The cross], he says, is the invincible protection of the humble, the casting down of the proud, the victory of Christ, the perdition of the devil, the destruction of hell, the confirmation of the heavenly, the death of unbelievers, the life of the just: of which St. Chrysostom says: The cross is the hope of Christians, the victory of the Romans, the resurrection of the dead, the guide of the blind, the way of the converted, the staff of the lame, the consolation of the poor, the tree of resurrection, the wood of eternal life.
And Damascene, book 4 On the Faith, chap. 11: “The cross of Christ is the key of paradise: it is the staff of the weak, the rod of shepherds, the guiding hand of those who are turning, the perfection of those who are advancing, the salvation of soul and body, the turning away of all evils, the giver of all good things.”
And Rabanus, In Praise of the Cross: “Thou, holy cross,” he says, “art the remission of sinners, the manifestation of piety, the increase of merits, the remedy of the weak, the refuge of the weary, the safety of the sound, the security of the despairing, the happiness of the unfortunate.”
Rightly therefore St. Bernard says: “I may go about, O Lord, heaven and earth, sea and dry land, and nowhere shall I find thee, save in the cross: there thou sleepest, there thou feedest, there thou liest down at noon. For thy cross is faith, whose breadth is charity, length longanimity, height hope, depth fear. In this cross whoever finds thee, finds thee: on this cross the soul is hung, and gathers sweet fruits from the tree.”
THERE HE MADE A STATUTE AND AN ORDINANCE,—God gave Israel at Mara some ceremonial and judicial laws: what these were Scripture does not express; for what Rabbi Solomon says, that these precepts were two: the first, of keeping the sabbath; the second, of burning the red heifer, that of its ashes might be made the water of purification, by which the unclean were expiated, of which Num. 19: this, I say, is a plainly fabulous and erroneous fiction, as Abulensis rightly shows.
AND THERE HE PROVED HIM.—God proved the people of Israel, by making and ordaining the laws just mentioned, by which he determined to try and test the obedience of the people, as is plain from what follows.
26. ALL THE LANGUOR,—flowing from the ulcers, the plague and other Egyptian plagues.
FOR I AM THE LORD THY GOD THAT HEALETH THEE,— _ani rophecha_, that is, I am thy physician. Learn here that in sickness we must have recourse to God as to our chief physician, and rely on him above all. Again, that God often sends languors and diseases for sins, as is here said; and if these cease, the diseases will often cease also.
27. AND THEY CAME INTO ELIM, WHERE THERE WERE TWELVE FOUNTAINS OF WATER, AND SEVENTY PALM TREES,—as if to say: They came into Elim, where there was both wonderful pleasantness of trees and fountains, and abundant drink and food: for palms yield their dates for food. This is the sixth station, at Elim.
Tropologically, St. Jerome to Fabiola says: “Beautiful is this order of virtues: after the victory of the Red Sea follows temptation, after temptation refreshment: from Mara, that is bitterness, we come to Elim, that is to the rams and strong leaders of the Christian flock, where the twelve fountains of apostolic doctrine, and the seventy palms of victorious faith, of the seventy disciples of the Lord, refresh us.” So too Tertullian, book 4 Against Marcion, chap. 24, by the twelve fountains understands the twelve Apostles, by the seventy palms the seventy disciples of Christ.
The palm yields not to a burden, is not bent by weight, but strives upward against the weight: hence it is a symbol of the brave man, who yields not to burdens, to derisions, to detractions; is not bent downward, but strives and rises upward, and by his patience overcomes all things.
Again, note here that the life of the faithful is a continual journey, and that they ought to go from virtue to virtue, that they may come to the promised land in heaven, until they see the God of gods in Sion. Jacob saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven: by this we must ascend, by a long and toilsome road; let us therefore hasten: for a great way remains for us to perfection, to beatitude. To this an excellent practice was used by St. Charles Borromeo, lately Cardinal. For having been delicately brought up, and aiming at eminent holiness, he began to mortify and overcome himself in small things, to undertake easy penances, to perform easy acts of the several virtues. Then day by day he advanced further to the heavier and more difficult; and he held this fixed in his mind not to cease, not to stand still, but daily to go forward, until he should reach the summit of virtue; for example, one week he abstained from wine, another from flesh, a third from fish, a fourth from eggs, etc., and so at length he came to this, that in the last years of his life he lived daily on bread and water alone, except on feasts, on which he added some relish, yet not flesh, nor fish, nor eggs, nor wine: for from these he always abstained. In Lent he abstained even from bread, and lived only on figs and beans. In Holy Week he lived on nothing but lupines (a kind of bitter pulse). His bed was a straw sack, or a chair; for he said that a bishop ought to watch over his flock, and therefore sleep sparingly and sitting, as brave generals do in war. He wore a hard hair-shirt, which the Milanese still preserve; he chastised his body with a rough discipline; he took upon himself continual and very great labours. For he said that it belongs to a generous and unconquered mind always to attempt greater things, and in the spiritual life to advance with great strides. For as merchants intent on gain add something every day; and as gardeners tend their garden every day, painters polish and perfect every day the image they paint: so much more ought he who is zealous for virtue to add something to it every day. So he did himself, till he came to this, that scarcely anything remained further to advance, except to say with St. Paul: “I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ”: whence also a little after he departed this life. So relates the author of his Life, book 8, chap. 21.