Commentaria in Isaiam
In like manner wonderful was God’s counsel in instituting the Eucharist. For, to say nothing of other things, God, hiding himself in it, willed to give us a continual exercise of heroic faith, hope and other virtues. Here heroic faith believes and says: “Truly thou art a hidden God, the God the Saviour.” Here hope confidently expects all good from the present God, whom it really receives and eats. Here love is enkindled, when the faithful is in fact united to the body of Christ and says: “My beloved to me, and I to him.” Here we have, for heroic latria, an object always present and visible, and that lofty and transcending all the senses. Here we wonder at the humility of Christ, who descends to the appearance of bread, indeed to any point of it, and as it were narrows and shortens himself. Here for obedience, temperance, mortification, patience, etc., we have living spurs and objects always, when in this eating, according to the precept of the Apostle, we strive to announce, represent, remember and imitate the death of the Lord.
Finally Haymo: Christ, he says, is a counsellor, because from him all sound counsel proceeds, and above all of chastity, poverty and the other Gospel counsels, which are above nature and exceed the grasp of the world and of human reason. So also St. Cyprian above, who adds: Do not fear difficulties and temptations in following these his counsels. For he who counsels you in these things is also God, and mighty. “Because,” he says, “he who overcame the world promises victory to his soldiers, and those who are his victors do violence to heaven. For the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away. In the name of this little child we engage with the ancient enemy. The weakness of our flesh, which had languished infected by the primal dregs of original evil, is given strength from the flesh of Christ; and the communication of the Sacraments, by which we are united to the purity of that body, so strengthens us that we gain victory over the world, the devil and ourselves. So those to whom the discourse is addressed are called gods, and sons of the Most High, sharers of the name, the inheritance and the eternity, subduing combats by the strength of fellowship with Christ; and though they are of baser matter, they reduce the demons to captivity, and spit upon them and bind them.” And St. Bernard, of those who hear God calling in their heart to the state of perfection, and yet fear to follow him: “What dost thou fear?” he says, “what dost thou doubt? The Angel of great counsel calls thee, than whom no one is wiser, no one stronger, no one more faithful.”
Morally, the same St. Bernard, sermon 23 among the little ones: “Three things,” he says, “Christ, the Angel of great counsel, proposed to the rational soul made in the image of the Trinity, namely servitude, lowliness and hardship. In the denial of self is signified servitude, in the bearing of the cross lowliness, in the imitation of Christ hardship; that the soul which through disobedience fell from the state of happiness into the state of misery may through obedience rise again. For it fell from itself, from the society of the Angels, from the vision of God, that is, from liberty, dignity and blessedness. Let it hear, therefore, the counsel, that by denying itself, that is, its own will, it may recover its liberty; by taking up its cross, that is, crucifying its flesh with its vices and concupiscences, it may through continence recover the fellowship of the Angels; by following Christ, that is, imitating his passion, it may recover the vision of his brightness. If, then, you hesitate, in doubt, wavering, not knowing what to do, what to choose, go to the Angel of great counsel. If you are of small spirit, of depressed mind and judgment, call upon the Angel of great counsel. If you are in rough places, perplexed, unable to extricate and free yourself, consult the Angel of great counsel. If you are deliberating on a state of life, and do not know which is salutary for you, which to take up, implore the Angel of great counsel; he like the pillar of the Hebrews in the desert will show you the way and go before you on the course. If, placed in dangers, persecutions, hardships and straits, you see no way out, beseech the Angel of great counsel, say with king Josaphat, pressed and besieged by the enemy: “As we know not what to do, we can only look to thee,” 2 Paralipomenon 20:12, and with Esther, chapter 14, verse 3: “O my Lord, who alone art our king, help me, a desolate woman, and who have no other helper but thee. My danger is in my hands, etc. Give me a well ordered speech in my mouth in the presence of the lion,” etc. And with Judith 9:12: “Make, O Lord, that his pride may be cut off with his own sword: let him be caught in the snare of his own eyes. Give me constancy of mind, etc. Give speech in my mouth, and strengthen counsel in my heart.” So also did Ezechias, besieged by Sennacherib, 4 Kings 19:15; and David, fleeing Absalom, Psalm 56; and Daniel, seeking from God the king’s dream, Daniel 2:18; and Judas and the Machabees, besieged by Antiochus, Nicanor and other enemies. Finally there is an illustrious example in the Life of Josaphat in Damascene, chapter 30; for when he was fraudulently tempted by a Gentile woman at his father’s instigation to lie with her one night, and she added a promise that if he did so she would become a Christian, and that he should see that he did not lose a soul which he could gain by so small a thing, he was perplexed and hesitated; but turning to prayer, he recognized the frauds of the serpent and overcame the temptation, and by his wisdom and constancy dispelled the craft of his father and of the woman.
God. In Hebrew it is el, that is, God as strong and invincible, who will easily overcome all hard things, bring all wars to an end, and rout enemies. Wrongly, therefore, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, Luther, and the authors of the Flemish version of the Emden and Delft Bibles render it “mighty” only, omitting the name God. Against these we set the Chaldee, R. Haccados, St. Jerome, and also other heretics, such as Oecolampadius, Strigelius, Leo of Zurich, Castalio, and the Genevans, who all render it God; and that it must be so rendered is plain, because “mighty” follows; for it would be a tautology to say mighty, mighty. Again, Jeremias, chapter 33, verse 16, in the Hebrew calls Christ Jehovah, that is, God. Wherefore our Possevinus, book On the Atheisms of the Heretics, chapters 2 and 3, rightly puts among Luther’s atheisms and Arianisms this also, that in this place he removed the name God from the little child Emmanuel, and though warned about it did not restore it; and that he struck out of the epistle of St. John the words: “There are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one”; and erased from the Litanies: “Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.” Note: Christ, as born a child, as man, is called God, by the communication of idioms. For all these names are given to him as born a child.
The Mighty. In Hebrew it is gibbor, that is, powerful, a strong man like a giant, and, as Vatablus renders, a mighty hero. Whence Gabriel announced his birth with a name which, interpreted, signified the power and strength of God, or the Man God. For Christ had heroic and incomparable strength. First, because he endured so many labors, overcame so great difficulties, and bore so cruel a death most constantly, as St. Bernard explains. Secondly, because he himself as judge of the living and the dead will powerfully condemn the powerful, says Rupert, and ruling the wicked with a rod of iron will at last break them like a potter’s vessel. Thirdly, because without his help all the strength of any creature is vain, says Haymo. Fourthly, because in every tribulation he protects and strengthens us, and keeps off and repels from us the powers of the air, says St. Bernard. Fifthly and chiefly, because he overthrew the most powerful kingdom of the devil, of sin and of concupiscence.
Father of the world to come. First, because Christ instituted the world to come, that is, the Christians to come, to a new and Gospel life, and to the holiness of the world to come. So Sanchez. As Noe, then, so Christ was the author and parent of a new world. Whence the Sibyl in Virgil sings of him:
Do thou, chaste Lucina, favor the boy now being born, with whom the iron race shall first cease and a golden race arise in all the world.
Secondly, because Christ, rising again after his passion and ascending into heaven, opened the gate of heaven to us; and by suffering and dying merited for us the resurrection and the rewards of eternal life, says St. Jerome, Haymo, Rupert. Whence the Chaldee renders: a man abiding for ever. Properly Vatablus renders: Father of eternity. Adam begot us for time, Christ for eternity: Adam begot us for death, Christ for the resurrection: Adam begot us for earth, Christ for heaven. Whence St. Gregory, homily 8 on the Gospel: “What is the meaning,” he says, “of the world being enrolled when the Lord was about to be born, but that which is plainly shown, that he appeared in the flesh who was to enroll his elect in eternity?”