Commentaria in II Machabaeorum
Caeneus ordered his spear to be counted among the gods, and an oath to be conceived by it; whence the proverb: “Caeneus’ spear;” and in Plutarch, in the Life of Pelopidas, Alexander the tyrant wished the spear with which he killed Polyphron to be sacred, adorned it, and as a god honoured it with sacrifices, that is, with divine honours. So Habacuc, chapter i, 16, says of Nabuchodonosor: “Therefore they offer sacrifices to their net, and burn incense to their draw-net,” where by net and draw-net he means his forces, arms and armies. For these he himself worshipped as his gods, as being the things which had subdued so many nations for him.
NEVERTHELESS HE PREVAILED NOT,—because the Jews themselves resisted, and would not on the sabbath fight against Judas and the Jews.
as if to say, Bringing forward sayings from Holy Scripture in which God promises victory to the Jews who worship and invoke him rightly, Deuteronomy xxvi, and elsewhere.
11. SO HE ARMED EVERY ONE OF THEM, NOT WITH DEFENCE OF SHIELD AND SPEAR (since they were already armed and fortified with these), BUT WITH VERY GOOD SPEECHES AND EXHORTATIONS.—For it is certain that they went into battle not unarmed, but armed.
AND TOLD THEM A DREAM WORTHY TO BE BELIEVED, WHEREBY HE REJOICED THEM ALL.—Instead of “whereby,” the Roman copies have “a true vision,” which was not so much a dream as truth itself. So Homer, Iliad book 5, says: “not an empty and false dream, but a solid and true one.” From which one might opine that Judas truly saw Onias and Jeremias with his eyes, and actually received from him a golden sword. But the contrary is truer, namely that all these things were presented to the mind of Judas only through an imaginary vision; for this the word “dream” signifies. Moreover, because if he had truly received a sword, he would certainly have shown it to his fellow soldiers to encourage them; which, however, he is not read to have done. So Sanchez.
12. ONIAS, WHO HAD BEEN HIGH PRIEST.—This Onias, surnamed the Holy, had been known to Judas; whence Judas recognised him by face and look. For Onias had been pontiff eleven years before, but, thrust out by his brother Jason buying the Pontificate from Antiochus Epiphanes, and afterwards killed by Andronicus at the persuasion of Menelaus in the year of the Greeks 140, as was said in chapter iv, 34. Judas therefore seemed in a dream to see the holy and zealous Pontiff Onias praying for him and all Israel.
You will ask whether, as the souls of the fathers in limbo, so also the souls in Purgatory pray for us? Richard affirms it, on IV, dist. xlv, art. 7, Question 2, to 3; Gabriel, on the Canon, lection lviii, near the end; John de Medina, Code on Penance, treatise On Prayer, in a special question. St. Thomas denies it, on IV, 11, to 3; Alensis, IV part, Question 92, member 1, art. 3; Abulensis, on Matthew chapter vi, Question 87; St. Antoninus, IV part, tit. v, chapter viii, § 2; Sylvester, under the word Prayer, § 3; Navarrus on the chapter Quando. The reason is that those souls do not know our prayers, and are in prison to suffer for their faults, not to pray for others; whence it seems idle and disorderly to invoke them. Wherefore Francis Victoria, Relection on Magic, number 17, disapproves the custom of some who in distress invoke the souls of Purgatory. But Alphonsus Mendoza, Question VI of the Scholastics, page 846, judges it holy and useful to invoke them. For, he says, whether or not they are able to pray for us while they are in Purgatory, certainly when they go out thence and arrive in heaven, then they pour forth prayers and pray for those who commended themselves to them and helped them with suffrages and prayers. Add that the Angels, who visit and console the souls in Purgatory, can announce to them the prayers of the living; nor does the suffering of the pain hinder them from prayer, because they endure these pains with great patience, humility and resignation, and constantly love and praise God. It is, however, more useful and surer to invoke the Saints in heaven reigning with God, both because they certainly know the prayers poured out to them, God revealing them (for this belongs to their state); and because they see God, and are in his love and honour, whence they obtain from him what they will; and because they are in a state of beatitude, triumphing in the kingdom and heavenly glory; whence it belongs to their honour to be invoked by us and to help our hardships. See Francis Suarez, Book I On Prayer in General, chapter x, at the end, where he says it is probable that guardian Angels carry our prayers to the souls of Purgatory. Wherefore if anyone invokes them, he says, piously believing they are heard by them, he will commit no sin, because he acts from pious credulity and affection and exposes himself to no danger; because although perhaps it is not so, and those souls do not perceive such prayers, nevertheless his prayer will be turned back into his own bosom. And perhaps it is also true that those souls, at least when they become blessed, know all the prayers poured out to them in all that time, and are moved by them to intercede in heaven for those who prayed. Wherefore he who in this world has felt the fruit and devotion of praying seems not to be recalled from it.
13. AFTER THIS THERE APPEARED ALSO ANOTHER MAN, ADMIRABLE FOR AGE AND GLORY, AND ENVIRONED WITH GREAT BEAUTY AND MAJESTY,—one may also read “habit,” because in the Greek it is “adorned on every side with excellent magnificence,” which glory was an index of the merits of the most holy prophet, and of the glory that was due to him in heaven.
14. AND ONIAS ANSWERING (Hence it seems that Judas did not recognise Jeremias, as having died four hundred years before; and therefore asked Onias, known to him, who that man was, so august and venerable, and that Onias answered): THIS IS A LOVER OF HIS BRETHREN (in Greek philadelphos) AND OF THE PEOPLE: THIS IS HE THAT PRAYETH MUCH FOR THE PEOPLE, AND FOR ALL THE HOLY CITY, JEREMIAS THE PROPHET OF GOD.—Rather than Isaias, Amos, Jonas and the other Prophets, Jeremias appeared to Judas, because he with immense zeal for 45 years laboured prophesying for the salvation of Israel to hinder the downfall of his nation, which, however, on account of the enormity of its crimes, and because it would not listen to his oracles and sound counsels, he could not prevent Jerusalem with the temple from being taken and burned by the Chaldeans. Wherefore Jeremias suffered many hard and bitter things from the Jews, which I explained in his prophecy.
16. TAKE THIS HOLY SWORD (from the holy God, and blessed by me, that thou mayest fight for his holy Church, faith, religion, holy fortitude), A GIFT FROM GOD, WHEREWITH THOU SHALT OVERTHROW THE ADVERSARIES OF MY PEOPLE ISRAEL.—Jeremias did not truly and really give Judas a sword, as I said. For it was a dream and a symbolic vision, in which it seemed to Judas that he received a sword from Jeremias, that by it Judas with his companions might be encouraged to battle, and conceive a sure hope of victory, because God fought with them and through them against the impious, unbelieving and blasphemous Nicanor. So also this sword was not of iron, as men use in war, but of gold, as heavenly and divine. For the things that are God’s are golden; for gold, most precious and resplendent, represents to us God, and the most august gifts of God.
Note: a “holy” sword, that is, blessed. For this custom has prevailed, that generals and soldiers take care that their standards and arms be blessed by bishops and priests, both that through the prayers and blessing of the Church they may be more efficacious for victory, and to drive away magic arts, by which enemies often, by the help of the demon, make themselves invulnerable, as we have now experienced in the German war. So St. Louis, about to lead his camp into the holy land, received a standard blessed by the bishop of Paris. The other leaders of that expedition did the same. So Italicus, his horses and chariot blessed by St. Hilarion, conquered in the Circensian contest his adversary, who used the magic arts of Marnas his god. Hear St. Jerome in his Life: “Asked by the brethren, St. Hilarion ordered an earthen cup from which he was wont to drink to be filled with water and given to him; which when Italicus had received, he sprinkled the stable and the horses and his charioteers, the chariot and the barriers of the starting-gates. Wonderful was the expectation of the crowd; for his adversary, mocking this very thing, had spread it abroad, and the supporters of Italicus, promising themselves sure victory, exulted. Then, the signal being given, these fly forward, those are hindered; under the chariot of these the wheels glow, those scarcely see the backs of the others flying past; a great shout rises from the crowd, so that even the heathen themselves cried out together, Marnas is conquered by Christ.”
In the Roman Ceremonial there is a blessing of the sword and of the soldier. The English also once had a rite of consecrating a knight: Ingulph, describing its form in his History, says: “It was the custom of the English that he who was to be lawfully consecrated a knight, on the evening before the day of his consecration, being contrite and compunct, should make confession of all his sins to a bishop, or abbot, or monk, or some priest, and, absolved, given to prayers and devotions and affections, should spend the night in the Church. On the morrow, about to hear Mass, he should offer his sword on the altar, and after the Gospel the priest should place the blessed sword on the soldier’s neck with a blessing, and, having communicated at the same Mass in the sacred mysteries of Christ, the soldier should remain a lawful knight.”