Commentaria in Numeros
Symbolically and tropologically, this rod signifies what the Pontiff and Pastor ought to be: namely, first, that he ought to be vigilant: for the almond, as I said, is an example and symbol of vigilance. Second, active, agile, expeditious in every work and in the progress of virtues. For so this almond suddenly, and almost at once, produced berries, flowers and fruit. Third, laborious, patient; strong and strenuous. For the almond, since it flowers first among trees, must first bear and overcome cold, rains, hail and winds. Fourth, devoted to an austere life and to mortification. For almonds are bitter. “Rough,” says Nyssen, in the book On the Life of Moses, treating of this rod, “and close and hard ought the outward life of a priest to be; but within, in secret, to contain something sweet to eat, which is then made manifest when it has become ripe, and the astringent surrounding rind has been corrupted, and the wooden shell of the nut broken.” The almond, says Philo, signifies that rough effort and labour are needed for one to attain the sweet fruit of virtue: for to enjoy the fruit of the almond one must first break the hard rind that covers the fruit. Such a rod was St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, when he was made a bishop: for although his former manners had been composed by careful discipline, he was nevertheless not ignorant that the way of a private man is one thing, and another that of one who holds a magistracy, and thought that his whole life and manners should be transformed in keeping with his dignity. So, content with a single refection a day, and that in the evening, he spent the whole day diligently on public business. At supper the reading of the sacred books was never lacking, or at least there were present priests approved in learning and life, by whom he was nourished with some sweeter food of the soul. Retiring from table to his chamber, he was wholly diffused in the field of heavenly contemplations, and refreshed his mind, distracted by the cares of the day and the concerns of others, by nocturnal meditation gathering it together. Amid these delights the better part of the night being spent, he at length refreshed his limbs, laid on the ground, with a very brief sleep. Then also he began to use a viler and more neglected garment than he had been wont to use, in which there was no splendour or ostentation at all, but rather a chastened sign of humility and modesty: for in no other way could he more wisely or more easily cut off the luxury of priests in dress. And yet so far was this from detracting from his reputation, that it even greatly increased it. So his Life has it.
St. Andrew the Carmelite, when he was fifty-eight years old, saw the unanimous election of the canons to the bishopric of Fiesole confirmed by the Holy Spirit through the wonderful testimony of a child’s mouth. For, having once devoutly vowed, and ever well maintained, the guarding of chastity, he continually wore down his body by great sobriety, girded his nakedness beneath his garments with an iron chain, and slept on no other bed than one of vine-cuttings. Moreover, even at that advanced age, he shunned the conversation of women no otherwise than as fruitful seeds of vices, as his Life relates.
Praiseworthy is what we read of Pope Pius II, of whom many other virtues are reported, and this one also: that he was accustomed to moderate food, neither sumptuous nor delicate, and was always content with whatever was set before him; that he used wine very sparingly, and well diluted. He so despised an artful table that he made use of an apparatus not pontifical but humble and almost rustic. While eating he spoke of the studies of the liberal arts, recalling the memory of the ancients. All his pleasure, whenever he was free from public duty, lay in frequent reading and writing. He prized books more than sapphires and emeralds, saying that they held a great store of chrysolites. He wore plain clothing, and used silver more frugal than royal. So Platina and others.
Of Cardinal Julian Cesarini it has been handed down that he almost always lay down in his clothes; that he wore next to his skin an undergarment not of linen but of coarse cloth; that he practised long fasts, fasting on bread and water every Friday; that he said Mass daily; and, to add this also, that he was so lavish in almsgiving that his household called him a second Martin. So our Plati, in his book On the Office of a Cardinal, chap. xiii.
Allegorically, the flourishing rod is Christ as a child; the blossoming rod is Christ as a youth; the fruit-bearing rod is Christ as a man redeeming us. Again, the rod is Christ, and the almond fruit is the doctrine of Christ, because outwardly, at first sight, it seems bitter, but inwardly it is full of a most sweet sense of knowledge and wisdom. Secondly, Christ at the Pasch, like the almond, first blossomed, that is, first rose again; for he is the first-fruits of them that rise. So St. Gregory, bk. xiv Moral., chap. xxix. Christ, therefore, rising from the dead, is the rod by his power, the flower by his fragrance, the fruit by the sweetness of his savour, the leaves by his watchful protection, whereby he shelters and guards his own from the heat of temptation. So Rabanus and St. Bernard, hom. 29 on Missus est. Thirdly, the same Bernard and Rupert likewise understand by this rod the Blessed Virgin, and by the flower Christ, according to that of Isaias xi. 1: “There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.”
So also St. Augustine, serm. 3 On the Season, tom. x:
“The rod of Aaron,” he says, “was the Virgin Mary, by whom he conceived and brought forth for us Christ, the true priest. That this rod therefore produced nuts was an image of the body of the Lord. For the nut has in its body a threefold union of substance: the rind, the shell, and the kernel. In the rind is represented the flesh, in the shell the bones, in the kernel the soul within. In the rind of the nut he signifies the flesh of the Saviour, which had in itself the roughness or bitterness of the passion. In the kernel he declares the inner sweetness of the Godhead, which gives nourishment and supplies the office of light. In the shell, the wood of the cross is set between, which did not divide what was without from what was within, but by the interposition of the mediating wood joined together things earthly and heavenly.”
Anagogically, this flourishing rod signifies the resurrection, in which the berry, flowers, fruit and leaves are the four dowries of the glorified body, namely agility, brightness, subtlety and impassibility. So St. Augustine, serm. 99 On the Season.
Verse 9.
…that all may know that he who is more excellent than all the people, who is more learned, more holy, more eminent in every virtue, is the one to be chosen for the priesthood.
12. AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL SAID TO MOSES: BEHOLD WE ARE CONSUMED, WE ARE ALL UNDONE—as if they said: A great part of the people has been consumed by these plagues of God, namely more than fifteen thousand, as is plain from the preceding chapter; and therefore we must altogether fear lest we all be consumed and perish in like manner if we offend God ever so lightly or murmur, especially since whoever approaches the tabernacle to offer incense or sacrifice to God is straightway slain by him. As if they said: What counsel, then, that we die not? To whom the Lord answers in the following chapter, verse 1, namely that they should employ Aaron, as pontiff designate, as intercessor with God in every offence of the people, and therefore should support him and his posterity, as priests, by giving them tithes and first-fruits. Note: for “we shall perish,” with the Hebrew, the Septuagint and the Roman text, we must correct to “we are undone,” as if they said: We shall surely perish, as though we had already perished; it is as certain that we are about to perish as if it had already been done, or as if we were already buried in the pit (1).