Again, in the Gospel, when a certain man, being called by our Lord, said: “Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father,” Jesus reproved him in these words: “Let the _dead_ bury their _dead_; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.”[163] There is some difference of opinion amongst commentators as to the exact meaning of this phrase. But whatever interpretation be adopted, it seems evident from the context that the _dead to be buried_ were those who were literally dead; whereas, the _dead_ who were to _bury them_ were manifestly _not_ those who were literally dead, but those who were dead in some analogous or metaphorical sense. Another example occurs in the twentieth chapter of Saint John. Christ says to His Apostles: “I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”[164] When He says, “I ascend to my Father,” the meaning is, “to Him who has begotten me from all eternity.” When He adds, “and your Father,” the meaning is, “to Him who has _adopted_ you for His children.” Here, then, the word Father is first used in the sense of a natural father, and immediately after in the sense of a father by adoption, without any explicit declaration of a change in meaning.
The Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans furnishes an instance in which the transition from one meaning to another occurs in the case of the word Day itself: “The night is passed, and the _day_ is at hand. Let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the _day_.”[165] The word Day, in the earlier part of this passage, is used by Saint Paul for the Day of Eternity which is to follow the darkness of this life; while, in the next sentence, it means clearly the period of light between sunrise and sunset. Another illustration of the same kind occurs in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians. “But you, brethren, are not in darkness that that _day_ should overtake you as a thief; for you are all the children of light and the children of the _day_.”[166] No one familiar with the language of Scripture can doubt that the first _day_ here is the Day of Judgment; and it is quite plain that the second _day_ is _not_ the Day of Judgment.
Our next example, and one most appropriate to our purpose, is taken from the prophet Amos: “And it shall come to pass in that _day_, saith the Lord God, that I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear _day_.”[167] This prophecy is commonly referred by the Fathers to the time of our Lord, when the earth was darkened in the clear day on the occasion of His crucifixion; but some eminent authorities, with Saint Jerome at their head, explain it of the Captivity in Babylon. Either interpretation will suit our argument. The sacred writer first employs the word Day for a long period of time, and afterward proceeds to use it in its more ordinary sense, without giving his readers any express intimation of such a transition.