The roads to Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
All Commentaries on Lamentations 1:4 Go To Lamentations 1
Glossa Ordinaria
AD 1480
DELETH: a fourfold species of planks is introduced according to anagogy. Through the service of which the house of the Lord rises, joined together in a fourfold cupola, namely by the ways, gates, priests and virgins.
THE WAYS OF ZION &c: the eighth topic of complaint, in which something is said to have happened which ought not, or that something did not happen, which ought to have happened.
Historical interpretation. THE WAYS OF ZION MOURN &c: from the general term set before he moves to the species of the single persons, for the grief to multiply more amply, as the general term is divided into species and the species are collected anew in the general term, and, since Threni are composed according to the rules of metre, they are occasionally adorned with figures of secular eloquence and by means of rhetorical devices distinguished by metaphors. Hence it is said here: THE WAYS OF ZION MOURN &c, not that the ways should feel or mourn, but brought into solitude, they excite grief in those who pass by, BECAUSE THERE ARE NONE THAT COME TO THE SOLEMN FEAST. In a similar way Moses says: Hear, O ye heavens, the things I speak &c. Also Isaiah summons heaven and earth as witnesses, for every element to know that God is justly enraged and
provoked to wrath.
Allegorical interpretation. THE WAYS OF ZION MOURN &c: as often as the Church, due to her sins, is filled within and without with the bitterness of God’s wrath, the WAYS deservedly MOURN, the GATES lie BROKEN DOWN, the PRIESTS SIGH, the VIRGINS are FOUL, so that the whole flooring of the house, arranged according to a fourfold number, looks violently agitated. Hence Jeremiah elsewhere: Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the ways of the Lord. THE WAYS are the prophets, patriarchs and others, through whom one reaches Christ, who is the true way. For as they are named ‘light’ from the light, Christ, so can the ways be named from him, whence Abraham is called the first way of believing. They (the patriarchs and prophets) are THE WAYS OF ZION, that is of the heavenly city; they (the ways) MOURN and groan, BECAUSE THERE ARE NONE THAT COME TO the feasts of the heavenly fatherland, because THE GATES ARE BROKEN DOWN. For those who preside over the office neither enter themselves, nor permit others to enter. HER PRIESTS SIGH, because THE WAYS MOURN; HER VIRGINS ARE FOUL, because the GATES ARE WRECKED. The priests, however, are rightly united to the virgins, since the priesthood is strong through virginity, and virginity is in need of guidance from the priesthood, with which states ravished, the throng of followers comes to a halt. From which generally follows: AND SHE IS OPPRESSED WITH BITTERNESS, as, if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.
Moral interpretation. THE WAYS OF ZION MOURN &c: that is to say, the virtues, namely those leading to the Jerusalem above, to the SOLEMN FEAST of the soul, from whom the spouse is removed, when the soul slips from the summit of supernal intention to outward actions. Her solemnity is the intimate contemplation of heavenly life, but THERE ARE NONE THAT COME TO THE SOLEMN FEAST; the desires, namely, of prior life do not reach to the solemnities of divine contemplation, since the GATES of the senses ARE WRECKED. Indeed, there are gates of death, and of justice, of which it is said: Open ye to me the gates of justice &c; and in Isaiah: Open ye the gates, and let the just nation enter in. But, as death has entered through our windows, the soul’s virginity is filthy and the kingly priesthood groans, while we, instead of with virtues, are filled with the bitterness of sin. Let us therefore march out from the gates of death and rebuild the gates of life, inquiring which gate is the Lord’s, for us to walk through.
