AIl alike, says St. Paul, in the cloud and in the sea, were baptized
into Moses' fellowship. (1 Cor. 10 2. 3 Ex. 14, 31) What are we to
understand by that, and by the passage of the Book of Exodus where it is said
that the people put their trust in God
and in his servant Moses? (Ex 14.31) That faith was given to certain men? No; but
that in Moses, as in the cloud, they discovered an image and type.
A "type" is something. that foreshadows
a future reality and prepares souls by a faint imitation for its advent. Thus,
Adam was the type of him who should come; the rock in the desert from which
water gushed out (Ex. 17, 6.) represented
typically Christ, and the water itself symbolized the living power of the Word:
If any man is thirsty, he said
himself, let him come to me, and drink.
(1 Cor. 10, 4) The manna' was the type of the
living Bread that came down from heaven; (Jn. 7. 3) the serpent placed on a
pole (Num. 21. 6-9) was the type of the crucified Savior: those who looked on
it were healed.
It is in this way that we must interpret the story
of the flight from Egypt: it prefigured baptism. Indeed, the firstborn of the
Israelites were saved, like the bodies of the baptized, by a grace granted to
those who bore the stain of blood:( Ex. 12 13) l this blood of the Iamb was the type
of the blood of Christ; the firstborn were the type of the first man, and if
God preserved the firstborn from the strokes of the destroying angel, it was to
show that living in Christ we shall no longer die in Adam. As to the sea and
the cloud, they incited to faith at the time by the wonder that they evoked;
but they had besides a symbolic sense, looking to the future, for they
signified grace that was to be. In what way? Let the wise man consider these things. (Ps. 106. 43) The sea
separated the Hebrews from Pharao, as baptism separates us from the tyranny of
the devil. As the sea swallowed up the enemy, so baptism destroys our enmity
with God. The chosen people passed through the sea uninjured, and we come from
the water of baptism, the living among the dead, saved by the grace of him who
has called us. As for the cloud, it was the image of the gift which comes from
the Holy Spirit and which cools the passions by corporal mortification.
As to the words: The people put their trust in God and in his servant Moses, (Cf.
Ex. 20, 18-21; 24. 3 etc.) we must notice that in them Moses is joined to God,
because he was the type of Christ: he prefigures, indeed, in his person, by the
ministry of the law, the true Mediator between God and man;3 hence the faith
that was placed in him was directed through him to our Lord, who said: If you believed Moses, you would believe
me. (Jn. 5, 46)
In order for us to achieve perfection God has
drawn his first lessons from objects which are easy to see and adapted to our
intelligence; by that, providence gradually lifts us up to the full light of
truth, just as eyes used to darkness are gradually admitted to light. It cares
for our weakness out of the unfathomable riches of its wisdom; in the inscrutable
certainty of its designs, it gives us this gentle and well-proportioned
education, inclining us first of all to look at shadows, the reflection of the
sun in water, for fear that, turning our eyes too quickly to the pure light, we
should be blinded. According to this method, the law, the shadow of those blessings which were still to come (Heb. 10. 1)
and the sketch drawn by the prophets, which contains the outline of truth in a
hidden form, were looked on as a training for the eyes of the heart, so that,
from these shadows, the way to the wisdom which is hidden in full mystery,
becomes easy.
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