Commentaria in Isaiam
Thirdly, and most aptly, our version according to the Roman edition, and the Chaldee, punctuate it thus, that the former part pertains to the impious, according to the sense given first; the latter part pertains to Christ their judge and avenger, namely what he says: “As heat in a thirst thou shalt bring down the tumult of strangers.” For there is the punctuation, and there verse 5 begins, as if to say: Because the spirits of the mighty, that is, of the violent and impious, have raged like a whirlwind against the pious, therefore thou, O Christ the judge, as heat in thirst, that is, as the greatest heat, such as is in a dry and thirsty place (where there is no shade to temper the heat, or water to refresh the heated), wonderfully afflicts sweating and thirsty travellers: so thou also on the day of judgment wilt greatly afflict strangers, that is, the impious, who have alienated themselves from thee, on account of the tumults with which they vexed thy faithful, and wilt burn them with heat and eternal fire, and there consume them with dryness and intolerable thirst, so that with the rich glutton they ask for water to cool their tongue, and shall not obtain even a drop.
5. And as heat under a burning cloud, the branch of the mighty (in Hebrew aritsim, that is, of the violent; as above) thou shalt make to wither away.—Pagninus renders: as heat under the shadow of a cloud, the branch of the strong shall be humbled, as if to say: As heat is broken by a cloud coming over, so the branch of the impious will be broken and weakened by God the avenger. But our Version renders better. For its explanation note that the heat which comes from thick clouds is most vehement: for the sun’s rays constricted and condensed in the narrows of clouds act more powerfully and strike men, fields and vineyards. Symbolically, this heat of the cloud denotes the sentence of Christ the judge sitting in the cloud, by which he will torment and burn the impious, saying: “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.” Again, for “branch” the Hebrew is zamir, that is, pruning, the produce of vines, namely grapes that are pruned, and the wines that come from pruned grapes, by which by synecdoche all the delights and pleasures of the impious are signified: for voluptuaries delight most in wine and banquets. The sense is therefore: As a burning cloud scorches the earth and the vineyards, so Christ on the day of judgment will destroy and burn up all the delights of the impious, in which they took pleasure.
Wherefore Sanchez aptly and piously notes the striking difference between the heat, that is, the tribulation, of the just and of the unjust. The just, he says, are heated by the impious urging and burning them: but that heat is brief, and tempered by God, who is to them a shade from the heat, that is, a cloud set against the burning of tyrants. The impious are heated, but with a heat heavy to pain and burning, and eternal in duration: God hangs over them like a burning and scorching cloud, to torment them with eternal flames; and “to make the branch wither,” that is, all the pleasures of the former life.
6. And the Lord of hosts shall make, etc., in this mountain a feast of fat things, a feast of the vintage.—He sets over against these the feast of the vintage of the saints, to the branch, that is, the wine and delights, of the impious, withering and to be burned up, of which in the preceding verse. Note that he says “in this mountain”: Isaias was then at Jerusalem and pointed with his finger to Mount Sion, or to the neighbouring Mount of Olives. For near this mountain Christ, sitting in the air as it were over Sion, and over the valley of Josaphat itself, and over the Mount of Olives, will conduct the judgment, and there will begin to glorify his elect and to feed them with eternal delights, and will go on doing so in the heavenly Sion for all eternity.
First, Eusebius, Demonstration, book 1, last chapter, Cyril, Procopius, Cyprian, or rather Rufinus in his Exposition of the Creed, and from them Leo Castrius, take this here of the Eucharistic banquet of the body and blood of Christ, which are the greatest delights of the Saints: for he mentions both species, namely of bread and flesh when he calls it a feast of marrowy things; and of wine and the blood of Christ when he calls it a feast of the vintage, that is, of wine pressed from the vintage. For the Eucharist above all feasts feeds, fattens and intoxicates the mind; so that a certain holy virgin used to say: “It is certain to me that even a single reception of the Eucharist, if made with true spirit and sense of devotion, is apt and fitted to bring the soul to great perfection of life and virtue.” Hence also St. Monica, having received the Eucharist, as if drunk in mind exclaimed: “My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God.” Hence the Septuagint here render: they shall drink in gladness, they shall drink wine, they shall be anointed with ointment. This unction is referred to the sacrament of Confirmation, in which we are anointed with chrism outwardly, and inwardly with the strength of the Holy Spirit, that as athletes of Christ we may profess his faith and fight even to death and martyrdom, by St. Cyril of Jerusalem and of Alexandria, and after them by Theophanes, Bishop of Nicaea, in the Concord of the New and Old Testament.
But I say that literally the subject here is the delights of the Blessed in heaven: wherefore by this feast of marrowy things are understood not carnal but spiritual and supreme delights, by catachresis: the delights, I say, of the Saints in heaven, which we here foretaste in the Eucharist. Hence he alludes here to the Eucharist, especially because the flesh of Christ in the Eucharist, on account of the hypostatic union with the Word, has a power, either physical, as some Doctors will have it, or rather moral, of giving life; so that by its virtue the bodies of the Saints are to rise again to glory and immortality and to heavenly delights, as is plain from John 6:50 and 57, as St. Cyril and Leontius explain. Wherefore Christ seems to have alluded to this at the Last Supper, Luke chapter 22, verse 18, and Matthew chapter 26, verse 29, saying: “I will not drink from henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father,” namely at the great supper of the marriage of the Lamb, of which Matthew 22 and Apocalypse 19: “Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”
Note: The delights of this heavenly banquet are denoted by two things: first, by fat things (that is, well fed) full of marrow; for the marrow of the bones is most delicate, and argues that the flesh is most delicate.
Secondly, by the vintage, that is, wine clarified, that is, the purest, clearest and sweetest. For “vintage” the Hebrew is shemarim, that is, the lees which are at the bottom of the vessel, and which preserve the wines themselves, from the root shamar, that is, he kept, he preserved: for the best wine is that which as it were rests on its lees, and there retains and preserves its native flavour and vigour. Again, in a cask the best wine is that which is not far from the lees. For the physicists say, and among them our Conimbricenses, treatise 7 on the Meteors, chapter 9, that in a cask of honey the best honey is that which is at the bottom or foot: in a cask of oil the best oil is that which is at the top: in a cask of wine the best wine is that which is in the middle, and they give this reason for them: because that honey is held best which flows less, and as it were thickens like sugar: such falls by its weight to the bottom. But oil excels which is clearer and more clarified and more airy: this, because lighter, floats. Lastly, the force of wine consists in heat, which, to avoid harm, is chiefly gathered about the middle: for the top part is hurt by the nearest air, and turns flat. The sense is therefore: In heaven the delights will be most sweet and full, such as in this life are esteemed to be at a banquet, where only fatted marrowy fowls, and wine shemarim, that is, the best and most delicate, are set out to be tasted. The Prophet intimates that wine, that is, consolation, even spiritual, sent by God in this life is not wholly clarified, but is always mingled with some lees and bitterness of the cross and tribulation: for liquid and limpid consolation is reserved for heaven. In like manner in this life the Saints rejoicing in the Lord eat as it were flesh and bones, but in heaven they will eat the marrow.
Xenophon relates that Cyrus by this stratagem incited his Persians to war and its labours: he ordered them to go into a wood, and there for a whole day cut wood with immense labour; the next day he received them all at a sumptuous and splendid banquet. Then he asked them which day seemed to them better, the day before or today, which they preferred? They all at once answered, today, as being of joy and delights, whereas the day before had been of labour and affliction. Then Cyrus: If you wish to have such a day perpetual, you must labour for a short time and strive with the enemy; for so you will conquer them, and continually enjoy their wealth and immense delights. The same Christ says to his athletes: “You are they who have continued with me in my temptations: and I dispose to you, as my Father hath disposed to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom: and may sit upon thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel,” Luke 22:30. And elsewhere it is said that “he will make them sit down to meat in the kingdom of the Father, and passing will minister unto them.” Come then, O Christian soldier! fight manfully, conquer thyself, and thou hast conquered all: endure a little, be cold, abstain, humble thyself, be sick, sweat, bear hard words and blows; soon thou shalt be crowned, soon thou shalt feast at the table of Christ, and abound with all good things: “For that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.”