We have plainly learned from the teaching of Isaiah how Cyrus, the first king of the Persians, represents a figure of the Lord Savior because he ended the captivity of the people of God and decreed that the temple be restored.^[1] So too, we can properly take the successor of this same empire, Artaxerxes, who with the same devotion ordered that the city of Jerusalem be rebuilt, as a type of the Lord, who builds a city for himself from living stones (that is, the one church made from all the elect) through the service of preachers. Thus it is appropriate that the name Artaxerxes means a light that tests silently.^[2] For the Lord is indeed the light of life who tests the hearts of his faithful silently, at times illuminating them with the sweetness of celestial grace, at others clouding them with the burdens of this life, so that, instructed by temporal adversities, they might desire eternal goods more ardently.

Heretics and all enemies of the church are also saddened whenever they notice the elect laboring for the catholic faith or the correction of morality so that the walls of the church may be rebuilt. Note how different their mood and situation was now from what it had been earlier, because above it was said that those who had remained from the captivity of Judea were in great distress and disgrace^[1] and that Nehemiah also conducted a prolonged fast with weeping and prayers because the walls of Jerusalem had been destroyed and its gates burned down by fire. But now, by contrast, the enemies of this same holy city were saddened and became greatly distressed because they realized that its buildings were about to be restored and at the same time that the citizens would be delivered from the insults of their enemies. Hence we should recollect that, even in this life, that saying of the Lord can be fulfilled in which he said, Amen, Amen, I say to you, that you will weep and mourn but the world will rejoice. You will grieve, he adds at once, but your grief will be turned into joy.^[2] For surely, as the world that used to rejoice weeps, the sadness of the just will be turned into joy when it is learned that the affairs of the holy church are prospering and those who by sinning have gone astray are returning to it by doing penance.

He wanders around inspecting the various parts of the devastated city and examines carefully in his mind how each of these should be repaired. Similarly, it is fitting for spiritual teachers also to get up regularly at night and inspect with careful scrutiny the state of the holy church while others are resting, so that they might vigilantly investigate how they might repair and rebuild through chastening those things that have been defiled or destroyed in it by the warfare of sins. Jerusalem’s wall lies in ruins, and the way of life of the faithful is soiled by earthly and base desires. The gates are consumed by fire when, as a result of their abandoning instruction in the truth, even those who ought to have been opening up the entrance of life to others also by teaching them now grow idle with the same laziness as everyone else and become slaves to temporal concerns.

These words are plain and exceedingly adaptable to a spiritual meaning because holy teachers—indeed, all who burn with zeal for God—are in the greatest distress as long as they discern that Jerusalem (that is, the vision of peace^[1] that the Lord has bequeathed and commended to us) lies deserted due to wars of disagreements, and they behold that the gates of the virtues (which, according to Isaiah, praise should occupy)^[2] have been destroyed and subjected to insults while the gates of hell prevail. Hence they work hard to unite the ministers of the word in a single purpose so that those buildings of faith and good action that seemed to have been destroyed can rise again.