Let us still dwell a little on the beautiful texts and thoughts And we have celebrated this morning in Mass, where we heard this beautiful, Let us adore God and fall down before the Lord. Let us weep before him who made us, for he is the Lord our God. And then come, let us praise the Lord with joy, let us joyfully sing to God our Savior.

[01:00]

We see thee here, how the act of the adoration of God is not simply an external gesture, but it is something that springs out of the very depth of our soul, and true adoration of God has these two aspects. We weep and we rejoice. and only one can say, because we weep, we are able to rejoice. That is a topic which then is continued through the texts of the Ember Saturday with this beautiful vigil. If you look at them, just the lessons to consider them to say in an external way, and you find that they are grouped in groups of two. You have the first two lessons, which are both taken from the book of Leviticus of the Old Testament, that book which contains the one the Jews used to call the testimonial.

[02:14]

These testimonial are what we call today ceremonial laws. ceremonial laws, laws which concern, prescribe the observance of certain external acts, which, however, have a symbolic meaning and concern the sanctification of the individual. Then we have to The two following lessons, the third and the fourth, are both taken from the prophets, not from the law, but from the prophets, the Kheirs and the Zechariah. described to us the inner meaning, the inner, I can say, mystery of sanctity of holiness, which is symbolically represented in the ceremonial laws of Leviticus.

[03:23]

And then you have the next pair of lessons, then the epistle and the gospel, which describe New Testament fulfillment. So it's the law, the prophets, and the New Testament. And the mystery around which these texts are grouped and which they show to us is that of the great Jewish holidays, which the Jews celebrated these days and which we, as it were, take up in their Christian fulfilment, the great feast days of culminating in the two main feasts, the Yom Kippur and the Sun Feast, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of the Tabernacles.

[04:24]

And of course, if I call to attention the fact that in the intro, we speak about adoring God by prostrating ourselves before him and weeping, and then by joyfully coming before his face, These two aspects are represented in these two days. The day of atonement is the day of weeping and the so-called feast is the day of the in-gathering of the harvest and of the joy before the face of the Lord, the highest kind of joy, joy before the face of the Lord. And that is also what each one of these lessons is concerned with. So if we turn to the first lesson of Leviticus, the 23rd chapter, verse 26 to 32, there the tenth day of the seventh

[05:32]

because the seventh month represents, in the circle of the year, what the Sabbath day represents in the circle of the week. So the seventh month, just as the Sabbath day is the holy day, The week, that means the day of union with God, so is the seventh month, the September. Also, as I say, the Sabbath month within the course of the year. And so, upon the tenth day of the seventh month, there shall be the day of atonement. It shall be most solemn and shall be called holy. And then this right away is explained what is in this connection, what is holiness, where is our approach to holiness, how is it characterized, how is it symbolically presented in these testimonies.

[06:39]

Through the affliction of the soul, you shall afflict your soul on that day. and shall offer holy calls to the Lord, and you shall do no servile work in time of this day, because it is a day of propitiation, that the Lord your God may be merciful unto you. So these two things, the affliction of the soul and the stopping of the work. These are the two ways in which man symbolically manifests his approach to the Holy One, to God the Holy, the way in which he keeps this day holy. The affliction of the soul is an act which, one may say, affects our being. A soul is that through which man is. The affliction of the soul in fasting, I call my attention to the fact that these two things, fasting and the stopping of work, in the context of the Day of Atonement, are two parallel things and express in various fields the same basic idea.

[08:01]

The fasting is, as it is called here, the affliction of the soul. It's difficult to translate that affliction of the soul. It is really, let the soul fast. That means the soul is the spirit of life, what we are. The fasting is our, as I told you before, our public confession before God that through our guilt and our sin we are not worthy to be before God. It affects our being. It is a renouncement of being. Fasting in that way is a voluntary death. It affects our soul, that means the principle of being in there. While the other one, the stopping of the servile work, refers to the sphere of action.

[09:05]

The whole human life is contained in these two things, in being and in action, so the stopping of work is the a solemn confession that before God, just as our being is worthy of death, so all our actions have the same character of, let us say, being in faith. It's very important to remember that. In the center of the Old Testament, faith Here is the renouncement of being and of acting. That means any kind and any form of self-assurance. So therefore sabbatum requietuum, it is a sabba of rest.

[10:08]

But that is the meaning of this rest. It is a profession, let us say, in anticipation. Before God's judgment, we anticipate God's judgment. Before judgment comes, we already resign, we accept the punishment. Then in the second lesson from Leviticus, as in the first, the spirit of the Day of Atonement is described, so in the second lesson the spirit of the Feast of the Tabernacles is described. And while in the day of atonement it is the renouncement, the renouncing of being and of acting, of the right being and the right to act, so in the second day of tabernacles, just the opposite. There it starts, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you shall have gathered in all the fruits of your land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord several days.

[11:16]

On the first day and the eighth day shall be a supper, that is a day of rest, and you shall take to you on the first day, that is the word which here really has the accent which is in Latin and this is translated by summae tis omnis, take on. After first we have put everything out of our hands, our life as well as our actions, so in the second now divine commandment, the divine invitation, take summa etis. That is very emphatic in the Hebrew terminology of this passage of Leviticus. Summa etis, what we speak. Or then, fructus arbores vulgaris, faith on the fruits of the fairest tree. and branches of palm trees, because all these translations are, for example, translation fruits of the fairest tree, you know, that is, that's all, we can't explain it here.

[12:30]

Boughs of thick trees and willows on the book now, I mean, if you hear that fairest tree and the thick tree, you know, you wonder what it's all about, but I mean, that is the things, the little lulab, which the Jews then carry in their hands, a bouquet, which is various branches, and the idea is to take the most exquisite, let us say, those branches which have a citrus fruit, then the olive tree, And we love branches, you know, which will be sent the blessing which is upon the chosen, the promised land. So we take that, et leta bimini coram Deo Vesto, commandamino Deo Vesto. So it can't be any different thing. Here is the solemn and joyful

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assertion, let us say, of the wise, of the chosen people, to take the fruits of the promised land, that whole paradise that God has prepared for them. Et fullem lixere fraventis legitimum sempiternum in generationibus vestris. And this was this day. Then the so-called feast, starting with the festive procession of Lula, bouquet then ends in the dwelling in the tabernacle. And that dwelling in the tabernacle has for the Jews, as you know, a special meaning. It represents that kind of dwelling in which one is in absolute peace with one's neighbors. To the Jews, of course, what happened after the exodus from Egypt, that was to them the symbolic picture of the doused messianic happiness of the Jewish people.

[14:43]

One characteristic of this happiness is the dwelling in tabernacles in opposition to dwelling in stone houses built of stone. The tabernacle, the opposite, say, to the tabernacle is the house. The house is built of wood, the house has a roof on it, the house is shut off. from the environment, it is protected against things that come from above, that leans up from God, and is protected against the things that come from the neighbor tribe left. So in the house where man is, or better, much better to say, locks himself up for security's sake. under a roof which protects him from the rain as well as from the sunshine, whatever comes from heaven, and the walls which protect him against his neighbours. So the dwelling in the tabernacle is, if you want, the spiritual protest against the artificial way of life of fallen man in this way in which he is cut off

[15:58]

from the cosmos around him through the roof as well as from the walls, that means his neighbors, the people he lives with, from both being shut off. The tabernacle in that way, and that is the prescription also of the law, for example the roof of the tabernacle, of never be so, let us say, thick that the one who lives in it is unable to see at night the stars in the sky. That's the rabbinic, not from scripture, but the rabbinic prescription which is, of course, also observed today by every Orthodox Jew, to see the stars on the night, on the sky at night. And so, therefore, the tabernacle is the opposite. The tabernacle is a way of living, represents a way of living in which man is, first of all, in peace with God, above, and in peace with his neighbors.

[17:09]

He is open. open towards the sky, towards heaven, and open towards the mundus, the world, so he has peace with God and peace with his neighbors. And that is the meaning of the tabernacle. Therefore, the tabernacle is always associated with the idea of the harmless, simple joy of the just, of God's children. Then if you turn to the Lessons of the Prophets, and you see right away also the inner, say, the inner relation, you know, of this, let's say, the external, one can say ceremonial law to the spiritual law, which is here proclaimed especially by the prophets, at a time where the ceremonial law was in danger to be just observed as a matter of external observance, while the spirit really was not there.

[18:18]

That is, as you know, one of the central problems, not only of the Old Testament, but also the New Testament, you know, everybody who lives, tries, that way, to approach God. So easily the devil gets him off in the corner with external things, and at the same time puts his foot so that he stumbles over spiritual things. So these two things, the external and the internal, are placed in a certain tension. But here, therefore, the prophets stand up in order to, let's say, break through the appearances of false external observance by putting all the emphasis on the inner spiritual meaning. The cares, Lord our God, feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thy inheritance, and that dwelleth on the forest. The nations shall see and shall be confounded at all their strength.

[19:21]

Who is a God like to thee, who taketh away iniquity, passes by the sin of the remnant of thy inheritance? He will send his fury in no more, because he delighteth in us. He will turn again and have mercy on us. He will put away our iniquities. He will cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea. Now that is the meaning of the Yom Kippur, the external observance of which was given in the first lesson. The inner meaning of the Yom Kippur is what we call reconciliation. But this reconciliation, already in the Old Testament, is not, in order to say, our attempt to do something in order to reconcile God, but it means God reconciling himself. Deus tu conversus vivificans.

[20:22]

Whereas when we begin, let us say, our New Testament, you'll give birth. Deus tu conversus, we becomes. God, you turn around and you give us life. And that is the sum total, exactly also, of this lesson here of the prophets, Michael's. Takest away iniquity, passest by the sin of the remnants of thy inheritance. He delights in mercy, he will turn again. revertetur ad miseretur nostri, convertetur ad miseretur nostri, will turn again and have mercy on us. He will put away our iniquities and cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea. Then in the fourth lesson, you have the inner aspect of the Sukkot Feast, of the Feast of Tabernacles, and that is explained by Zachary.

[21:29]

And that, of course, what is symbolized in the Tabernacles is the simplicity of the one who lives in, one can say, truth and peace. That is the content, the idea of the circle feast, the Feast of the Tabernacles, Amen and Shabbat, truth and peace. The truth is our relation to God in the vertical, the vertical line. The truth is on our part, the observance certainly of divine commands of God, and on the fundamentally, basically on the side of God, the truth the loyalty with which God keeps his promises, God who is the Yes and Amen. So that Ameth and the Shalom considers, concerns our relation to our believers, peace, truth and peace.

[22:34]

So that is then also here explained. These then are the things which you shall do. Speak ye truth, every one to his neighbor. Judge ye truth and judgment of peace in your gaze. Let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his friend. That are the dangers with which constantly our relation to others is threatened. And living in the house with the walls around, the walls shutting you off from your neighbors against is exactly this, that none of you imagine even your hearts against his friend. That is the wall which we put up and which cuts us off from the neighbor. So living in the house in that. and therefore the serious and insistent admonition, judgely truth, and judgment of peace in your gates.

[23:35]

For these are the things that I hate, says the Lord. And the word of the Lord of Hosts came to him, saying, Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth, of the seventh and a potentiary to the house of Judah, joy and gladness and great solenities, only love, truth and peace, says the Lord of Hosts. Now, in this you have really the sum total of the whole meaning of the Jewish holy year, the holy year of the Jews. That is, there are the two elements, you know, there is fasting, stopping of work, Out of those two renouncements, renouncing of our right to be, renouncing of our right to act for God, the fruit of it is joy. Love in truth and peace as the law of death is the inner heart of it. Truth towards God and peace towards man.

[24:39]

And then we have, in the Epistle and the Gospel, you have the, let's say, the New Testament fulfillment of these two things, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles. epistle describing the Day of Atonement, the services as they were kept in the temple by St. Paul, the epistle to the Hebrews, and its New Testament fulfillment, and that is then indicated in the last sentence of this, but Christ being come, a high priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, neither by the blood of goats nor of calves, but by his own blood, entered once into the hopeless, having obtained eternal redemption. So there is the fulfillment of the idea of reconciliation.

[25:42]

which is an act on the part of God, who sends his Son to enter into the veil of his flesh, and in the power of his giving, shedding his own blood, that means taking upon himself these two things. the renouncement of the right to live and the renouncement of the right to act on the cross. There he died for us, and there he is nailed on the cross, and there is the supper of the Lord. And then you have in the Gospel, the beautiful testament of fulfillment, and say of the meaning, you know, really of the day of tabernacles, there is the resurrection, there is the woman that was, represents here the church of the Gentiles, I mean, this whole connection, Gospel of Saint Luke, so with the parable of the fig tree before, and here a woman who are delivered from her infirmity,

[26:53]

He laid his hands upon her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. And that being made straight and glorifying God, that is exactly again the mystery one can say about the Feast of Tabernacles. Because that living in Tabernacles is the justus, that means the straight one. Justitia, justus is the straight one. One who is erect, that means the one who lives in truth and in peace. So here also this wondrous stat is indicated, he was made straight and she glorified God. That is the other action in which we stand, you know, in completing our truth before God. The bow, the bows, is it the bows, is it the other? B-O-U-G-H, what do you say? B-O-U-G-H, who knows? The bowels of the tabernacle, you know, let's shine through the stars on the

[27:58]

and that village, you know, to God's glory. So that all of that is done on the Sabbath. The Sabbath here is the day of the resurrection. And then we have again in the communion, brilliant, beautiful, again New Testament fulfillment of just the same in the seventh month, mensa septima. Now that of course in this context here that is, as I say, not in war of September, but that is the messianic age in the whole history of mankind, the seventh month, I mean in the One can say in this series of the ages, the seventh month is the Messianic age. We have the Sabbath day, the seventh month, and we have the Messianic day, the Sabbath. You will celebrate this feast as I made the children of Israel to dwell in Tabernacles when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.

[29:12]

I am the Lord your God. Our being brought out of the land of Egypt, that is our deliverance, which has taken place in baptism once, which again and again is taking place in the atonement, in the sacrament of penance, and those who are brought out of the land of Egypt through baptism, through penance, day of atonement, Then they dwell in tabernacles. They dwell in tabernacles. But what is this tabernacle? It is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. So it is what we call the mystical body, the tabernacle. And there in this mystical body, and being warped with the warp of who he is, he goes there then we are united, really. I am the Lord, you are God, and that is the Lord. Our God is the Lord whom we receive in Holy Communion, the one who gives therefore our time.

[30:20]

What is it?

[30:34]

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