the mystical temple of god 608 CHAPTER 10 The Lampstand of the Mystical Temple It is recorded that Moses, that most zealous propagator of the Divine worship, hung up in the tabernacle of the Lord a lampstand of considerable weight, an extraordinary work of art, remarkable for its seven branches displaying just as many lights: “He also made,” (as the holy page relates) “a lampstand of beaten work of the finest gold, and the seven lamps” (Ex 37:17, 23). Woe to us, if a similar lampstand is not present in our Mystical Temple! “For this lampstand” (says Isidore90), “with its seven branches, displayed the image of the Holy Spirit, who by His sevenfold grace sheds light on the entire Church standing firmly in the unity of faith.”91 Therefore, it is necessary that every Christian shine with this sevenfold light of the Holy Spirit if he would like to be considered as a true and natural offspring of Christ. The prophet Isaiah speaks most clearly and certainly about this subject, “A shoot will spring from the stock of Jesse, and a new shoot will grow from his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him: the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge and piety, and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord will fill him” (Is 11:1-3). And indeed the following should be realized about wisdom: in the Christian it should be divine, not human. “For” (as Gregory attests) “the wisdom of this world is: concealing one’s mind with cunning devices, hiding one’s feelings with words, showing what is false as true, and pointing out what is true as false. Those who are versed in this wisdom look down with arrogance on others; those who are ignorant of it, with submission and timidity, admire it in others because duplicity [this clad in the name of unfairness] is loved by them, while this kind of mental perversity is called urban90 St. Isidore (d. 636), bishop of Seville and Doctor of the Church. 91 Isidore, Inquiries into the Old Testament — into Exodus, 49: PL 83, 312 (nn. 395-396), where among other things St. Isidore treats of “the Lampstand and the Oil.”
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