Joel — Chapter 2

Canite tuba in Sion

'Blow the trumpet in Sion, sound an alarm in my holy mountain.' À Lapide identifies the trumpet (tuba) as the prophetic voice itself—particularly the preaching of penance. He connects it to the jubilee trumpet of Leviticus 25 and the angelic trumpets of the Apocalypse. The holy mountain Sion is both the historical Jerusalem and the Church Militant.

Convertimini ad me in toto corde vestro

'Turn ye to me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping and in mourning.' À Lapide draws out the theology of perfect contrition: the external acts (fasting, weeping) are necessary but must proceed from interior conversion of heart. He cites Trent Session XIV on the necessity of interior penance. The rending of hearts not garments distinguishes Catholic sacramental penance from mere external rite.

Parce Domine populo tuo

'Spare, O Lord, thy people.' À Lapide identifies this as the oldest intercessory formula in the Roman liturgy, used in the Rogations and the Good Friday rite. The priests weep between the porch and the altar, prefiguring Christ's intercession in the heavenly sanctuary (Hebrews 9). The petition 'let not the nations say: Where is their God?' is a plea for the Church's public witness.

Effundam spiritum meum super omnem carnem

'I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.' À Lapide calls this the Magna Charta of the New Testament's universal mission. He notes Peter's explicit citation at Pentecost (Acts 2:17) and argues that 'all flesh' includes Gentiles—a universalism denied by Jewish interpreters. The sons and daughters prophesying, the old men dreaming, the young men seeing visions, figure the various gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed in Confirmation and ordination.

Et dabo prodigia in caelo et in terra

'And I will show wonders in heaven and in earth.' À Lapide reads the cosmic signs—blood, fire, vapour of smoke, darkened sun, blood-red moon—as both literal predictions of the destruction of Jerusalem (fulfilled in 70 AD according to Josephus) and as types of the signs preceding the Last Judgment described in the Synoptic Apocalypse (Matt. 24). The double fulfilment is characteristic of prophetic compression.