Commentaria in Isaiam
Fourthly, in God and in heaven is truth, that is, eternity; on earth all things are changing, that is, perishable and momentary. Where now is that famous Ninive? where Tyre? where Babylon? where Rome, mistress of the world? truly, “Rome lies buried in Rome.” I wondered that at Rome I found no trace of the palace of Caesar, of Augustus, of Tiberius, no house, no monument of the Scipios, the Fabii, the Camilli, nay that of these and other families of the Gentiles not even the name survives. All their memory has perished: “Now in the midst of Rome we seek Rome.” But the just man shall be in eternal remembrance: hence at Rome there stand the glorious tombs of SS. Peter and Paul in the Vatican; the house of St. Cecilia, of St. Agnes; the martyrium of St. Lawrence, of St. Sebastian, of St. Susanna; very many ancient churches of the Saints. Moreover this has happened not only to ancient families in former times, but daily to new and present ones at Rome. A common proverb is: “Nothing so changeable as the air and the court of Rome.” This we see with our eyes, we touch with our hands. As to the air, Galen, prince of physicians, is witness, when he asserts that he often felt at Rome in a single day four seasons of the year, namely in the morning a spring air, at noon a summer one, in the evening an autumnal, by night a wintry. Hence Rome gives her head a rheum and catarrh. As is the air, so is the court. Therefore Rome is the wheel of fortune, on which now these, now those, in turn ascend and descend. Now what happens in the head (for “Rome the head of the world”), this undoubtedly happens in the other members of this political body, namely the provinces and cities of the whole world. Is not then this whole world “the city of vanity”? Is it not a little globe and revolving sphere on which some things rise, others set, all things revolve; the highest descend, the lowest ascend, and ascend soon to descend? Moreover all this vanity of the world will appear most at its end, and on the day of judgment, when all that is in it will be consumed in the conflagration. Wherefore St. Macarius, with a companion about to cross the Nile, all ragged and squalid, when he heard from the Tribune of the region: “Blessed are you who have mocked the world!” answered: “We mock the world, but you the world mocks.” Palladius is witness in the Lausiac History, chapter 20.
Fifthly, in God and in the enjoyment of God is truth, that is, fulness of being and possession of all goods. For his name is: “I am who am,” Exodus 3:14. See what I said there. And therefore the name of the earth, of men, and of all creatures is: “I am not,” so that, when asked, they must say with St. John: “I am not”; this is vanity. St. Tiburtius the Martyr, converted to Christ by his brother Valerian and his wife St. Cecilia, when accused of madness by the Prefect Almachius, answered: “Would that he would deign to number us among his servants, who have rejected that which seems to be and is not, and have found that which seems not to be and is!” What, Almachius asks, seems to be that is not? “All those things,” he says, “that are in the world, which lead their worshippers to eternal destruction through the joy of a brief time.” And what, he says, is that which does not seem to be? “Life for the just,” he answered, “and punishment for the unjust.” So has the Life of St. Cecilia.
Wherefore Blessed Thomas More prudently, when unjustly shut in prison by Henry VIII, King of England, thus spoke to those who had come to console him: “This world is a prison, from which all are summoned each on his own day to plead their cause. That my prison is smaller than the prison of other princes, I count as a benefit, since of many evils the least is to be chosen.” So Sanders, in his Life of More.
St. Elizabeth, daughter of the king of Hungary, had heard from her parent Sophia that her husband was dead, and scarcely shaken, said: “If my brother has met death, to me also henceforth, dead to the world and its vanities, the world itself will die.” So has her Life. Wisely the Poet says:
To be, to have been, to be about to be: three flowery things without a flower: for at once perishes all that was, is and shall be. What was, is and shall be perishes in the moment of a brief hour: what then does it profit to be, to have been, to be about to be?
Awake therefore, O sons of Adam! why do you love vanity, and seek after lying? Ascend to heaven, despise this point of earth. O eternal truth! found our heart in thee, that no vanity may move us.
11. There shall be a crying for wine in the streets.—“For wine,” that is, for want of wine. So St. Thomas, Lyranus and Vatablus. It is plain from what was said at verse 7.
13. In the midst of the earth,—in the very earth, in the whole earth; for so elsewhere the midst is often taken, not geometrically but commonly; for so we commonly say: in the midst of the sea, that is, in the very vast sea. Secondly, “in the midst of the earth,” that is, in Jerusalem, says Sanchez; for this is in the midst of the land of promise, or in the midst of the land then inhabited. For near Jerusalem, namely in the valley of Josaphat, which divides the city from the Mount of Olives, the universal judgment will be held, as is said in Joel 3:2. Thirdly, St. Thomas, Forerius and Vatablus connect this with what follows. Hence Vatablus renders thus: for so shall it be in the midst of the earth, in the midst of the peoples, as if one should shake down the remaining olives, or make a gleaning when the vintage is finished.
As if a few olives,—as if to say: At the end of the world, especially in the time of Antichrist, so few will be the faithful constant in the faith, as few olives remain on the olive tree after its shaking, and as few clusters remain in the vineyard after the vintage. These, Antichrist being cast down, when Christ shall come glorious to judge, will praise God, and exulting will as it were neigh from the sea of this world, when they see that they have now escaped it, and its tossings, storms and perils, and have come to the harbour of salvation. So St. Jerome. The voluptuaries love this sea, and in it plunge themselves like fish, and at last are drowned; but the Saints dread this sea, and struggle and pant toward the harbour.
15. Therefore glorify the Lord in instructions.—For in instructions the Septuagint, Vatablus and Pagninus render, in the valleys; others, in the caves, as if to say: You who dwell in the valleys and in the islands of the sea, glorify God: whereby he morally signifies that those who are here depressed and humble themselves shall be exalted, and shall exult in their exaltation.
Secondly, St. Jerome explains thus: “Therefore you who are now learned in the Holy Scriptures, and know that so great joy and such rewards are reserved for you, in instructions,” that is, on account of this doctrine received from God, “glorify God.”
Thirdly, best and most fully, St. Thomas, Lyranus and Sanchez: The apostolic men are here admonished, they say, to glorify God by traversing the world and teaching all nations (even the Indians dwelling in dens and caves) the mysteries of the faith, and especially the ultimate joys of the good and the punishments of the wicked, which they have here heard and learned from God through Isaias. For Apostles and heralds of God must be sowers of eternity, and by the hope and terror of the last things impel men to the heavenly life, after the example of Christ and St. John the Baptist, whose preachings were of the wrath to come, of the winnowing fan of judgment and divine examination, of the unquenchable fire, of the kingdom of heaven, as is plain from Matthew chapter 3.
For “in instructions” the Hebrew is beurim, that is, in light or in fire, as if to say: With the fire of your zeal and the light of your preaching enlighten the whole world.
16. From the ends of the earth we have heard praises,—The Prophet exults, and seems to himself to hear the voices of the Indians, the Chinese, and of the extreme peoples of the world, converted by the Apostles, praising Christ the Lord. Hence the Septuagint for praises render miracles, namely those done in India and among other nations, by which they themselves were converted. Again, the conversions of so many and such barbarous nations, and the changes of morals, have been and are great miracles.
The glory of the just one.—He explains what these praises are; and says that they are those by which is celebrated the glory of the just one, namely of Christ the redeemer and justifier. Hence Vatablus takes this technically, as if the song of these praises were this: Glory be to the just one himself, as if to say: Let Christ our just one be glorified.
My secret to myself.—First, Vatablus and Pagninus render: leanness is to me; others, wasting is to me, as if to say: I grow lean and waste away from inward grief when I see the extreme evils impending over the sinner, and yet the whole world rushing into sins. So it befell David, when he said, Psalm 118: “I beheld the transgressors, and I pined away.”