On the Blessings of the Patriarchs 36–59

Moses clearly explained that this prophecy of holy Jacob is about Christ; for he says thus: 'Blessed is he who enlarged Gad. He rested like a lion, breaking arms and rulers. And he saw from his beginning that there the land of the rulers gathered together with the princes of the peoples was divided; the Lord did justice and judgment for Israel.'

We recognize, then, who rested like a lion <when> he broke the arms of the mighty, because from the beginning he saw the divisions of those testing him. There, then, is the gaping of the earth that swallows the slanderers, where the testing of the faithless is.

'Asher, his bread is rich, and he will give food to rulers.' Asher by Latin interpretation signifies riches. Who, then, is rich, except where is the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God? Who is rich but the Lord Jesus, who always abounds and never fails? He came poor into this world and abounded for all, filled all. How great he is in riches, who by his poverty made all rich! But poor for our sake, rich with the Father. He was poor, to rescue us from want, as the apostle teaches, saying: 'For your sake he became poor, though he was rich, so that by his poverty you might be enriched.' His poverty enriches, his hem heals, his hunger satisfies, his death gives life, his burial raises again. This, then, is the rich treasure, whose bread is rich. And rightly rich, for whoever eats it cannot hunger. This bread he gave to the apostles to distribute to the people of believers, and today he gives it to us, the bread which the priest himself consecrates daily with his words.

This bread, then, has become the food of the saints. We can also take it of the Lord himself, who gave us his flesh, as he himself says: 'I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the desert and died; but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that if anyone eats of it, he may not die.' And lest anyone think he speaks of this death, which comes through the separation of soul and body, and rightly doubt, knowing that the holy apostles died this death, he added: 'I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this, he will live forever'; that is: I did not speak above of temporal life nor of the death of this life; even if one has died this death, yet if he has received my bread, he will live forever. For he receives it who examines himself; and he who receives it will not die the death of the sinner, because this bread is the remission of sins.

Moses too prophesied most beautifully in his blessings, saying: 'Blessed of the sons is Asher, and he will be acceptable to his brothers, and he will dip his foot in oil. Iron and bronze will be his shoe, and as your days are, so will your strength be. There is none like your God in heaven, your helper, great and comely of the firmament; and God of the beginning protects you, and through the strength of mighty arms; and he will cast out the enemy from before you, saying: Perish. And Israel will dwell in confidence alone upon the land of Jacob, in grain and wine, and heaven will be yours with the mist of dew.'

'Naphtali is a vine let loose, putting forth beauty in its shoot.' One shoot of the vine is cut off because it seems useless, lest the vine run riot in an empty exuberance of shoots; another is cut back a little and let go, so that it may bear fruit, whose beauty is put forth in generation, because while it reaches up to the heights it embraces the vine, and climbing to the top it clothes the necks of the vines on the trellis with a necklace of precious branch. That one too is a beauty in generation, because with full branches it overflows with many fruits.

This is comely, but much more beautiful is that it signifies the branch clinging to the spiritual vine, whose branches we are, and we can bear fruit if we remain in the vine; but if not, we are cut off.

The holy patriarch Naphtali was an abundant branch. Hence Moses says: 'Naphtali is the fullness of those who receive; he will be filled with blessing from the Lord; he will possess the sea and the south,' explaining what Jacob had said, that he is a vine let loose, that is, freed from the bonds of death by the grace of faith. In this is signified the people of God, called to the freedom of faith and the richness of grace, spread through the whole world, which clothes the yoke of Christ with good fruit and embraces the wood of that true vine, that is, the mysteries of the Lord's cross, and does not fear the danger of confessing him, but rather, even when placed in persecutions, glories in the name of Christ.

He is truly let loose from bonds who is tied by no bond of fear — hence the prophet too says: 'They will go out and leap like calves loosed from their bonds' — and therefore he puts forth beauty in his shoot, because, placed in a place of pasture and brought up beside the water of refreshment through the sacraments of his regeneration, he sprouts the good beauty of the word and is taken up into that most beautiful grace of Christ, who can increase the loveliness of your beauty.

Indeed he who is beautiful above all gives what he has, because no one can give what he does not have; and therefore it is said: 'The Lord has reigned, he has put on beauty.' For he has put on the beauty of the church by grace, which, laying aside in that washing the ugliness of all offenses, shone with the splendor of heavenly grace. And therefore the bridegroom says of her: 'Who is this that looks forth like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, chosen as the sun, a wonder as an array?'

Now, to conclude the story as with a kind of epilogue, as divine Scripture too concludes it, let us set out the prophecy of holy Jacob concerning the name of holy Joseph: 'My son Joseph is to be increased, my son is to be increased, envied, my youngest son, return to me. Against him they took counsel and cursed, and the archers aimed at him. And their bows were broken with might, and the sinews of their arms and hands were loosened by the hand of the mighty one of Jacob; and from there Israel prevailed from the God of your father. And my God helped you and blessed you with the blessing of heaven above and the blessing of the earth that holds all things, because of the blessing of the breasts and of the womb, the blessings of your father and mother. It has prevailed above the blessings of the abiding mountains and the desires of the everlasting hills; they will be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of those brothers over whom he was set.'

What is the reason that the father favored his son Joseph more richly than all his sons, except that he saw in him the prefiguring mysteries of Christ? Hence, blessing rather the one who was awaited than the one who was seen, he says: 'My son Joseph is to be increased.' Who is to be increased but Christ, whose grace is always increased and whose glory has no end to its advance? Of him John too says: 'He must increase, but I must decrease,' because through his saving and perfect name grace has been heaped up and has abounded in this world — 'my son is to be increased' — and therefore, because they saw him increasing, his brothers began to envy him; and the spiritual Joseph too incurred envy from those whom he cherished most. Indeed he said: 'I came only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,' and they said: 'We do not know where he is from.' He healed them, and they denied him.

'My youngest son,' he says. Truly the youngest, who was almost the last born. Indeed Scripture too says: 'Jacob loved him because he was the son of his old age.' This too is referred to Christ. For to a world growing old and already setting, the Son of God shone forth, coming late through the childbirth of the Virgin Mary. As the son of old age, according to the sacrament, he took on a body, he who was always with the Father before the ages. Hence the Father says

to him: 'Return to me,' calling him back from earth to heaven, whom he had sent for our salvation. So, raising his only-begotten Son, he made void the counsel of the cursers — hence Isaiah too says: 'Vain is the counsel of your spirit' — and he undid all the insults which they aimed like arrows. He broke the power of those who trusted in their own strength and not in God. 'From there,' he says, 'Israel prevailed from the God of your father. And my God helped you.' Who is it who strengthened Israel and helped the Son but God the Father alone, who said: 'Jacob my servant, I will uphold him; Israel my chosen, my soul will uphold him'?

'And he blessed him with the blessing of heaven above and the blessing of the earth that holds all things'; for he subjected all things to him, heavenly things as the blessing of heaven and earthly things as the blessing of the earth, so that he might rule both men and angels.

So in that seemingly contemptible body 'you prevailed,' he says, 'because of the blessing of the breasts and of the womb, the blessings of your father and mother.' By 'breasts' he meant either the two Testaments, by one of which he was announced, by the other shown — and rightly breasts, since the Son reared us and offered us to God as nourished with a kind of spiritual milk — or he speaks of Mary's breasts, which were truly blessed, with which the holy Virgin milked the drink of milk for the people of the Lord. Hence that woman in the gospel too said: 'Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that you sucked!' But as for his saying: 'the blessing of the womb, of your father and mother,' if we wish to understand Mary's womb alone, the reason why he joined both blessings will be hidden — for he could have spoken of the mother's womb alone. But I think it more beautiful that, according to the spiritual mystery, we understand both generations of the Lord Jesus, according to the divinity and according to the flesh, because he was begotten of the Father before the ages. Hence the Father too says: 'My heart has uttered a good word,' because he proceeded from that inmost and incomprehensible substance of the Father and is always in him. Hence the evangelist too says: 'No one has ever seen God except the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; he has made him known.' Just as the bosom of the Father is understood spiritually as a kind of inmost secret of fatherly love and nature, in which the Son always is, so too the womb of the Father is that of a spiritual inner mystery, from which the Son proceeded as from a womb of generation. Indeed we read variously now of the Father's womb, now of his heart, from which he uttered the Word, now of his mouth, from which righteousness proceeded, from which wisdom came forth, as she herself says: 'I came forth from the mouth of the Most High.' So since no one thing is defined and all sound as one, it signifies the spiritual mystery of the Father's begetting rather than some bodily member. But just as we understand that begetting from the Father, so too, for the completion of faith, let us understand the begetting from Mary, when the mother's womb is blessed, surely that of the Virgin Mary, who brought forth for us the Lord Jesus. Of her the Father says through the prophet Jeremiah: 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came forth from your mother's womb I sanctified you.' The prophet, then, declared a twofold substance in Christ, of divinity and of flesh, the one from the Father, the other from the Virgin, yet so that he did not lack his divinity when he was born of the virgin and was in the body.

Hence too he grew strong above all the mountains and the desires of the everlasting hills. For he shone out above all those men of lofty merit, patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, and even beyond the sun, moon, and archangels, as the light of heaven, as he himself says: 'The disciple is not above the teacher, nor the servant above the master.' For which of them was there to whom all things were subject, to whom he himself gave what they were? In him all his saints are blessed, because he is above the heads of all, the head of all — for the head of the woman is the man, the head of the man is Christ — and above the crowns of all, because he is the surpassing crown of all things; but he is the highest crown of the just, whom he calls brothers, gained by grace and a kind of fellowship of regeneration. Hence by 'Joseph's brothers' we understand rather those brothers of whom he says in the psalm: 'I will declare your name to my brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing to you.'

Then Moses too, about to complete the course of this life, when he blessed the tribe of Joseph, was surely blessing not that Joseph already dead but Christ, as you have it written of Joseph: 'From the blessing of the Lord is his land, from the bounds of heaven and from the dew and from the depths of the springs below, and according to the season of the course of the sun, and from the meetings of the months, and from the top of the mountains from the beginning, and from the top of the everlasting hills, and in the season of the fullness of the earth; and may what is pleasing to him who appeared in the bush come upon the head of Joseph and upon his crown. Honored among his brothers, the firstborn of the bull is his glory, his horns the horns of the unicorn; with them he will toss the nations together to the end of the earth. These are the ten thousands of Ephraim and these the thousands of Manasseh.'

It is the same blessing, which has all the fullness of heavenly and earthly things and the special grace of Christ, who, seen in the bush, said to Moses himself: 'Loose the sandal from your feet,' who is God over all, because he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself may have the first place in all things, since in him it pleased all fullness to dwell. And therefore the prerogative of this blessing is given to him alone, from the summit of heaven to the end of the earth. For he is before all, in whom all things consist, who also through the blood of his cross made peace for all things, whether on earth or in heaven. Bearing his type, holy Joseph is beautifully blessed, so as to be honored among his brothers.

'The firstborn of the bull is his glory, having the horns of the unicorn, with which he will toss the nations.' And a good bull, as a victim for offenses and the sacrifice for the whole world, to make peace for all things. His glory is holy; for every firstborn is holy, as we have shown elsewhere, whence Levi deserved to be called firstborn not by order of age but by the prerogative of sacred succession. And truly his glory is holy, of whom it is written at his rising: 'Beautiful in form above the sons of men,' because he is the firstborn from the dead, having the horns of the unicorn. But since he said 'horns,' we must ask how he put 'of the unicorn,' since the unicorn itself, as the experts say, is not found among the kinds of wild animals. And therefore we ought rather to think of the one Word, because the substantial Word of God is one, not many words. Hence Hannah too says: 'The Lord judges the ends of the earth, and he will give strength to the king and exalt the horn of his anointed,' and Isaiah says: 'The beloved had a vineyard on a horn in a rich place,' since in the only-begotten Son of God the church flourishes, holding the one Word of God, in whom is the fullness of power and wisdom, by whose richness the crop of faith has sprouted. This Word the saints follow.

'The ten thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh,' he says, that is: may he rule both Jews and gentiles and gain for himself from both peoples the fullness of the church. And therefore holy Jacob put his right hand on Ephraim, because you read the bride saying in the Song of Songs: 'My brother is white and ruddy, chosen out of ten thousand.' Indeed the young women too praised David, Mary's ancestor, from whose line Christ was born through the Virgin's childbirth, with ten thousands, but Saul with thousands, though out of reverence for the king they should have weighed more toward him. Whoever, then, has exalted the horn of Christ, confessing his glory, himself also receives horns. Hence the saints too are called unicorns in the verse of the psalm: 'And the beloved like the son of unicorns.' For just as with such an animal, when its horns come out, it signifies the advance of fuller age, so when horns begin to sprout from a kind of head of our soul, they seem to signify the advance of more perfect virtue, and they grow until they are complete. With this horn the Lord Jesus shattered the nations, to crush superstition and restore salvation, as he himself says: 'I will strike and I will heal.' And therefore, as an imitator of this bull, the prophet says: 'In you we will toss our enemies,' that is, destroying every height that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God. And therefore, according to the law, clean animals have horns; for the law is spiritual. For those who can drive off the enticements of this world by the word of God and the observance of virtue seem to be armed with horns, as with weapons of their head. And rightly the trumpet of horn is called the power of wonderful speech, which kindles Christ's good soldiers to battle, so that we may carry off spoils from the enemy, the devil. We are in battle, then, and we see very many of our own captive in the enemy's camp. They must be freed by us from the very heavy yoke of slavery.

The devil has very many wolves which he sends against Christ's sheep. And therefore the spiritual Joseph, to keep his sheep, seized the enemy himself who came to plunder the sheep, making the wolf Paul a teacher instead of a persecutor. Of him Jacob says, as it is written: 'Benjamin is a ravening wolf; in the morning he will still eat, and at evening he will divide food to the rulers.' He was a wolf when he scattered and devoured the sheep of the church; but he who had come as a wolf became a shepherd. He was a wolf when he was Saul, when he entered houses and dragged men and women to prison. He was a wolf when, breathing threats and murder against the Lord's disciples, he sought letters from the chief priests to attack Christ's servants. Him, roaming like a wolf in the darkness of night, Jesus blinded with light poured round him. Therefore Rachel, when she bore Benjamin, called his name 'son of my pain,' prophesying that from that tribe would come Paul, who would afflict the children of the church in the time of his persecution and trouble the mother with grievous pain. Yet the same man afterward, at a later time, divided food to rulers, preaching the word of God to the nations and calling very many to faith, so that through his preaching both the proconsul Paulus and the chief man Publius received the grace of the Lord.

Beautifully too did Moses say, when he blessed the tribe of Benjamin: 'The beloved of the Lord will dwell in confidence, and God will overshadow him all his days, and he will rest between his shoulders, the beloved of the Lord.' He also became a chosen vessel; for he was converted only by the Lord's mercy and love. Hence he himself, attributing nothing to his own merit but giving all to Christ, says: 'For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace in me was not wanting.' He dwelt in confidence in the house he had formerly laid waste; he dwelt in the tents of Christ, who before wandered like a wolf in the woods; and God overshadowed him when Christ appeared to him. Though with his eyes open he saw nothing, yet he saw Christ. And rightly he saw him present, whom he also heard speaking. This overshadowing is not of blindness but of grace. Indeed it is said to Mary: 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.'

'And he will rest between his shoulders,' that is, among good deeds and precious works. For above too you have that Issachar put his shoulder to labor and became a farmer. Paul imitated him and planted the new seedlings of faith, and therefore, like a good farmer, he said: 'I planted, Apollos watered.'