What the above-mentioned trumpets mean, we must take into our consideration, not considering it as a fable unworthy of scripture. For when we read: because our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but... against spiritual wickedness in high places, (Ephesians 6:12), then the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty by God to destroy strongholds. (2 Corinthians 10:4.) It is not enough to see the trumpet and hear its voice, but it is necessary to know the quality of the sound. For if the voice of the trumpet is unknown, how can anyone prepare himself for war? Why should we know the power and quality of the trumpet, so that we may not appear coarse and unskilful when we hear the trumpet's voice? And for this we must pray that the Holy Spirit Himself will interpret them to us.

From the ancient scriptures, which mention the kind of trumpets, we see that the festivals prescribed for the Jews by the law are a shadow of the supreme and heavenly triumph. For here is the shadow, and there is the truth: but through the shadow we will try to reach the truth. In the books of Leviticus it is written: And the Lord said to Moses, saying, Say to the children of Israel, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have rest, the feast of trumpets, and the holy convocation shall be with you. Do not work any work, and offer sacrifice to the Lord. (Lev 23:23-25.)

(Num. 10:1–10.)

Shall we honor the feasts, spending them in eating and drinking? But let no one condemn us for food: the law is spiritual, and I am carnal. (Romans 7:14) Let no one condemn you for eating, or drinking, or for any feast, or New Moon, or Sabbath: this is the shadow of things to come, and the body is in Christ (Col. 2:16,17), which the Father's voice from heaven showed us, as it were, in the last trumpet, when the Jews cried out, "This is thunder; (John 12:29) The body of Christ, which, on the other hand, will appear to us at the last trumpet: for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. (1 Thessalonians 4:16.) Where there is a carcass, there will the eagles be gathered, (Lk 17:37), where the body of Christ is, there is the truth.

The seventh trumpet signifies the rest of the seven, which is not only counted in days and years and also periods, but also includes the seventieth year, when the people of Israel returned to Jerusalem, having been in captivity for seventy years. In hundreds and thousands, too, the sacred number is not omitted; for it was not in vain that God said, I have left seven thousand men among Israel; all these knees did not bow before Baal, and all these lips did not kiss him. (1 Kings 19:18.) Wherefore the shadow of future rest in days, months, and years is represented by the time of the world itself, and for this purpose it is commanded through Moses to the children of Israel, that in the seventh month, on one day, each one should rest in remembrance of the trumpets, and then, without sending any work, they should offer sacrifice to God, because at the very end of the seven, as on the Sabbath of the world, spiritual grandfathers are required, and not carnal. For the carnal is subject to slavery, because the flesh serves the spirit, chastity creates free, and guilt the slave.

Thus, spiritual things had to be through a mirror and in divination, as the Apostle says: now we see as through a glass darkly, divinationly, and at the same time, facing the linden; (1 Corinthians 13:12.) now we are fighting in the flesh, then in spirit we will behold the Divine mysteries. And therefore let the mark of the true law be depicted in our manners, as we walk in the image of God: for the shadow of the law has already come, the shadow to the Jews of the flesh, the image to us, and the truth to those who are to be resurrected. These three things, that is, the shadow, the image, and the truth, we have come to know according to the law: the shadow is in the law, the image is in the Gospel, and the truth is in judgment. But the whole essence is Christ's, and everything is in Christ, Whom we cannot truly behold now, but see Him as in a kind of image of the future, the shadow of which we have come to know in the law, why Christ is not a shadow, but the image of God, not an empty image, but the truth. And for this reason the law was given through Moses (1 John 1:17), for the shadow is through man, the image through the law, the truth through Jesus. Because truth comes from truth.

Whoever desires to see this image of God must love God, and God Himself will love him, and he will not be a slave, but a friend who does the will of the Lord, and will be able to enter the cloud where the Lord Himself is. Let him make for himself two trumpets of silver, that is, adorned with an invaluable word, from which there would come not a terrible sound, but unceasing gratitude to the supreme God. For by the sound of such trumpets the dead are stirred, enlivened not by the sound of brass, but by the word of truth. And perhaps these two trumpets are those through which St. Paul cried out by the Divine Spirit, saying: I will pray with the spirit, I will pray with the mind; I will sing with my spirit, I will sing with my mind. (1 Corinthians 14-15.) For the one cannot be perfect without the other.

But it is not proper to sing all with both trumpets and to gather the whole assembly, and this privilege is given only to the priests and ministers of God, that everyone, hearing their voice, goes to the tabernacle of meeting, filled with the glory of the Lord, in order to see the works of God and to receive that lawful and eternal dwelling place for his hereditary possession. For then war is made and the enemy is driven away: when the grace of the spirit sings, the mind will sing also.

Those trumpets are saving, if you believe with your heart and confess with your lips: for with the heart they believe unto righteousness, and with the mouth they confess unto salvation (Rom 10:10), says the Apostle. With this special trumpet we reach that holy land, to grace, that is, to the resurrection, and for this reason let those trumpets always blow to you, so that you may always hear the voice of God, always let the angelic and prophetic utterances prompt you to zealously strive for the highest.

St. David always carried this thought in his mind, saying: "Because I walked in a multitude of people, I entered with them into the house of God with a voice of joy and praise of the celebrating assembly." For by the sound of these trumpets not only do the enemies conquer, but there can be no new moons, and there can be no feasts without them. (Psalm 41:5.) He who does not accept God's promises and does not believe in His word cannot rejoice and celebrate the new moons, cannot abandon the exercises of the age and desire to be filled with the light of Christ. Nor can the sacrifices themselves be pleasing to God without the oral confession of the priests, which induces the people to ask for God's grace.

Truly, let us praise the Lord with the voice of the trumpet, imagining of His power not something small and vile, but that which can fill the mind and penetrate into the mysteries of conscience: let us not consider that which is proper to the body as befitting the Divinity. Let us not measure the greatness of God's power by human strength: let us not seek how someone will be resurrected, with what body he will rise, or how what is destroyed will be united and what has fallen will be restored. For this will be fulfilled according to the will of God. Here it is not the sensual hearing of the trumpets that is expected, but the invisible heavenly power will act — also, in relation to God, "to will" is the same as "to act." Let us not seek how we shall be resurrected, but only await the result of the resurrection, which we will receive if, having renounced vices, we have the perfection of the spiritual sacrament, if the renewed flesh receives grace from the Spirit, and the soul takes from Christ the radiance of eternal light.

But these sacraments are also related to each separately. Take note of the foreshadowing of the law and of the order of grace. When the first trumpet sounds, the nobles and chosen ones gather from the east. When the second trumpet sounds, those of equal merit who dwell on Mount Lebanon and have left the games of the nations are gathered. When the third trumpet sounds, those are gathered together, who, as if agitated by the sea, are tossed by the waves of this world. At the sounds of the fourth, those gather who could not sufficiently soften the hardness of their minds with the Divine word.

Therefore, although all will be resurrected in the twinkling of an eye, all according to their merits. And therefore, first of all, those will be resurrected who have accepted the rays of the eternal sun for their piety and faith. Here I mean the forefathers according to the Old Testament or the apostles according to the Gospel. The second to be resurrected will be those who, having abandoned the customs of the pagans, have joined the Church. And therefore the former are of the fathers, and these of the Gentiles: from them began the light of faith, and in these the accepted faith will remain until the end of the world. The third and fourth will rise from the south and the north. These four divide the earth, these four contain the year, these four fill the world, these four gather the Church. For all who join the Holy Church will receive the advantage of the resurrection and the grace of eternal delight, for it is written: And they will come from the east and the west. and north and south, and they will sit down in the Kingdom of God. (Luke 13:29)

For Christ does not shine upon His world with a little light: from the end of the heavens is his departure (Psalm 18:7), and his procession to the ends thereof, and nothing is hidden from his warmth. He mercifully enlightens all, does not reject the wicked, but wants to correct them, He does not excommunicate the hardened from the Church, but desires to soften, and for this reason the Church calls them in the Song of Songs, and in the Gospel Christ calls them, saying: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. (Matthew 11:28-29.)