Commentaria in Numeros
Allegorically, the red cow, says Theodoret, Question xxxvi, and St. Augustine, Question xxxiii, and Rabanus, signifies the earthly body of the second Adam, namely of Christ the Lord, because the name Adam is derived from adamah, that is, from red earth, of which his body was formed; the female sex signifies the weakness of the flesh; full age and freedom from the yoke signify perfect age and stature, and the freedom of Christ: she was immolated by Eleazar, that is, by the Jews; the cedar wood is a figure of the cross, the scarlet of the blood, the hyssop of life-giving grace.
Tropologically, we slay the red cow when we extinguish the flesh from the wantonness of its pleasure, which, with hyssop and cedar wood and scarlet,
Verse 4.
its ashes had the power of expiating uncleanness, we offer, “because with the mortification of the flesh we burn the sacrifice of faith, hope and charity. For hyssop is wont to cleanse our inward parts; and by Peter it is said (Acts xv): ‘Purifying their hearts by faith.’ Cedar wood fails by no rot: because no end consumes the hope of heavenly things. Whence also by Peter it is said (1 Peter i): ‘Hath regenerated us unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that cannot fade.’ Scarlet glows with a red colour: because whom charity fills, it enkindles. Whence also in the Gospel Truth says: ‘I am come to cast fire on the earth.’ But scarlet twice dyed is commanded to be offered, that, before the eyes of the inner Judge, our charity may be adorned by the love of God and neighbour; so that the converted mind neither so loves rest for the love of God as to postpone the care and benefit of its neighbour, nor so serves occupation for the love of its neighbour as, wholly forsaking rest, to extinguish in itself the fire of supernal love”; thus far St. Gregory, Moral. vi, xxv.
5. AND SHALL BURN HER—not by himself, but by his servants. “He shall burn,” therefore, that is, he shall cause to be burnt (plain from verse 8), “her,” whole with skin, flesh, blood and dung, as follows.
6. THE PRIEST SHALL CAST CEDAR WOOD, AND HYSSOP, AND SCARLET TWICE DYED INTO THE FLAME—because these were expiatory: the reasons why cedar, hyssop and scarlet were employed for expiation and for the expiatory victim I have given on Levit. xiv.
7. AND SHALL BE UNCLEAN—legally unclean. Note: The priest who immolated, and the other who burnt the red cow, were unclean until the evening, because this cow, while she was being burnt with dung, skin and blood, was something unclean, as is the corpse of a man or the carcass of other animals; therefore she made the clean who touched her unclean; but after she was burnt, her ashes made the legally unclean clean, God so ordaining. For it is ridiculous what Rabbi Gaon says, in Abulensis, Question xiv, namely that the ashes of this cow were like honey, which hurts the choleric and benefits the phlegmatic; so, he says, this ash defiled some and cleansed others.
9. AND A CLEAN MAN SHALL GATHER UP THE ASHES OF THE COW (burnt), AND SHALL POUR THEM FORTH WITHOUT THE CAMP IN A MOST CLEAN PLACE, THAT THEY MAY BE RESERVED FOR THE MULTITUDE OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL (namely, let the ash of this cow be diligently kept by the children of Israel, that it may be) FOR A WATER OF ASPERSION (in Hebrew it is, for a water of uncleanness, wherewith, namely, they may be cleansed from legal uncleanness; hence follows): BECAUSE THE COW WAS BURNT FOR SIN.—because this cow is sin, that is, is the expiatory victim of sin.
Hence it is likely that these ashes of the red heifer were carried in the land of Chanaan from Jerusalem, where she had been immolated and burnt, to the several towns, that each person who had contracted uncleanness might have purification at hand.
So we read, John ii, that at Cana of Galilee six water-pots were set for purification. For these water-pots held water of purification: just as with us the chrism, consecrated by the bishop in the cathedral church, is sent to the several parishes of the diocese and distributed.
This ash is said to have been the common expiation of all uncleannesses (although in many cases they needed other purifications besides, and the washing of garments or even of the whole body); for otherwise many uncleannesses would have been left without cleansing: for no other purification is prescribed for it in Levit. xi, 43 and 44, and because the Apostle, Hebr. ix, 13, attributes to this ash the general cleansing of the flesh.
The contrary, however, is not improbable, that the ash of the red heifer expiated only the uncleanness contracted by the touch of the dead; for this alone is expressed here. So Abulensis, Question xv.
Note: This was the rite of purifying and expiating, as is gathered from verse 19. They cast this ash of the red heifer into a water-pot, or other vessel full of living water, for example of a spring. Then some other clean person sprinkled the unclean with this water, but so that he himself was still reckoned unclean until sunset.
Allegorically, this water of ashes and of purification was a type of the blood of Christ. For “if the ashes of a heifer being sprinkled sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted unto God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?” says the Apostle, Hebr. ix, 13. Secondly, again, this water of ashes and of purification signified our water of purification, or holy water, which we use for the expiation of venial sins. For, as Pope Alexander I, who was the sixth from St. Peter, rightly argues, epist. 4, to all the orthodox: “If the ash of a heifer sprinkled sanctified and cleansed the people, how much more does water, sprinkled with salt and hallowed with divine prayers, sanctify and cleanse the people?” Clement of Rome writes, bk. viii Apostolic Constitutions, chap. xxxv, that St. Matthew instituted the use of blessed water, and he recounts the rite of blessing prescribed by him. God has declared the power and fruit of this blessing by many miracles. For St. Chrysostom, blessing water and sprinkling with it his sick son, restored him healthy to his mother, as is told in his Life.
St. Quintian, in the year of Christ 506, Bishop of the city of Auvergne, healed the household of the senator Hortensius, seized with a violent fever, by sending blessed water to them; Gregory of Tours is witness in his Life.
St. Fortunatus restored to wholeness a Goth’s broken hip by means of blessed water, as St. Gregory relates, Dial. i, chap. x.
St. Malachy, Bishop of Ireland, healed the son of a Scottish king and a woman suffering from cancer with blessed water, as St. Bernard relates in his Life.
St. Odilo, Abbot of Cluny, in the year of the Lord 1048, cured a lunatic with holy water, as Peter Damian relates in his Life.
St. Anselm, in the year of the Lord 1106, restored sight to a blind man by sprinkling blessed water, as Eadmer relates in his Life, bk. ii.
St. Willebrord, Bishop of Utrecht, in the year of the Lord 700, by the same freed a house from the harassment of demons, as Alcuin relates in his Life.