Exodus — Chapter 36

Moses called Bezaleel and Oholiab, and every man whose heart God had stirred up to come unto the work to do it. Lapide reflects on the divine distribution of gifts for the building of the Church. Not all are called to the same work: some are called to intellectual labor, others to manual labor, others to administration and finance. The Tabernacle required them all simultaneously. He applies this to the Church: the Body of Christ requires the cooperation of all its members in their different functions, and no charism is to be despised as too small or too practical.

The craftsmen came to Moses and reported that the people were bringing too much for the work of the Tabernacle. Lapide remarks with wonder: this is perhaps the only case in all of sacred history in which the faithful gave too much. He draws the contrast with every subsequent age of the Church, in which the complaint is always the opposite. He cites Chrysostom (Hom. in 2 Cor. IX): the generosity of the Israelites for the Tabernacle is a rebuke to Christian parsimony toward God's house.