Commentaria in Isaiam
Morally, Jesus, that is, Saviour, is our strength, wall and bulwark. For first, he heals us of every infirmity and vice, and so moves and inflames us to love of him: for who would not love his own salvation and his Saviour? Hear how men let themselves be cut and burned, giving for an uncertain health a certain pain and a great reward: “God, whom he made, both heals thee with certainty and freely.”
Second, he directs the right intention to God and to salvation. Hence Paul teaches, 1 Corinthians 10, that all things are to be done in the name of Jesus. For if, as Chrysostom says, Homily 9 on the Epistle to the Colossians, the names of the consuls add security to letters, much more does the name of Christ. Do all things, therefore, in the name of Jesus, and they will succeed prosperously; let us learn to fulfil all these things not only in word but in deed.
Third, it is a spur to humility and hope: for while we both hope for and ask salvation from Jesus, we confess and accuse our miseries and diseases and sins, and, as to a physician, we look to him for the remedy of our ills. For who would not hope for salvation from a Saviour?
Fourth, it is a stimulus to devotion, that as he gave himself wholly to me for my benefit and salvation, so I may be wholly his, who has become wholly mine; and that my heart and lips may grow sweet in this sweetest name of Jesus: as Saint Francis was refreshed with such sweetness of heart when he uttered it that he licked his lips, as do those who have tasted something very sweet.
Fifth, it teaches gratitude, which we owe him for so great a gift of salvation, above all if we consider at what price this our salvation cost him; for, as Saint Bernard rightly says: “When he created me, he spoke, and they were made; when he redeemed me, he spoke much, did wonders, endured hard things, and not only hard but unworthy things.”
Sixth, it provokes to obedience; Paul affirms that he deserved so great a name by obedience, Philippians 2, because he was made obedient unto death, and God the Father gave him a name which is above all names.
Seventh, it invites us, in every need, to flee to this most holy name to invoke it, as to a sacred anchor. Hear Saint Bernard, Sermon 45 on the Canticle: “To whom, trembling and fearful in dangers, has the invoked name of strength not at once given confidence and driven away fear? To whom, distrusting in adversity and just ready to fail, if he has called on the name of help, has strength been wanting?”
Eighth and last, this most sacred name of Jesus plainly teaches every Christian perfection, and he urges it by this title: “I beseech you, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you; but that you be perfect in the same mind and in the same judgment,” as if to say: I adjure you by this glorious name, which you ought so much to love, who is the prince of peace and salvation, who slew enmities in his own body, who asks of you this reward, that you be perfect, that is, united within and without. Saint Bernard, in the place cited: “When I name Jesus,” he says, “I set before myself a man meek and humble of heart, kind, sober, chaste, merciful, in short conspicuous for all wisdom and honour; and the same himself God, who by his example may heal me and by his help strengthen me: I therefore take to myself examples from him.”
Finally Saint Jerome: “The Saviour,” he says, “is the wall of good works and the bulwark of faith. For it is not enough to have the wall of faith, unless faith is confirmed by good works.” Note this, Luther; note it, Calvin. Jesus, then, is to the Church and the faithful wall and bulwark, prow and stern, ditch and rampart. So Scipio is said to have been to the Romans, against Hannibal and the Carthaginians, ditch and rampart, that is, all protection, all defence, all strength.
2. “OPEN YE THE GATES, AND LET THE JUST NATION ENTER IN.” Saint Jerome notes that the persons change here: it is, as it were, a dialogue. See chapter 14. He holds, therefore, that these are the words of Christ to the angels, as if to say: O angels! unlock heaven, that my saints may enter in company to that vision of peace which through my faith and grace they here hoped for.
Secondly, Sanchez thinks it probable that these are the words of the Blessed, who, hearing from the Judge, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you,” rejoice and say to the Angels: Open, O Angels, the gates of heaven, to which we now ascend with triumphant applause, that the just nation, which has kept justice and preserved truth, may enter in.
Thirdly, Cyril thinks these are the words of God to the Apostles, as if to say: Open to the Gentiles, O Apostles, and you their imitators, the entrance into the Church by preaching, that they may become a just nation and keep the truth. But it is plain from what has been said that this is not said of the Gentiles.
3. “THE OLD ERROR IS PASSED AWAY: THOU WILT KEEP PEACE: PEACE, BECAUSE WE HAVE HOPED IN THEE.”
First, Pagninus translates it, the desire of the soul, that is, we have joy in our wishes, and whatever we have desired we possess. For we are joined to God, we hold Him who fulfils every desire of ours.
Secondly, and best, our Interpreter translates it, the thing formed, the error, as if to say: Now the old error of the voluptuous and the damned is plain, by which we were judged fools and madmen because we entered the narrow and rough path of the Christian life; for now it is clear that we were wise and that they erred foolishly. For behold, we have obtained “peace,” that is, the abundance of all good things, which Thou, O Lord, hast bestowed upon us, and wilt preserve for ever.
We hoped, and for its sake we bore all hard things. See this error of the reprobate, pathetically acknowledged by themselves and lamented, Wisdom 5:3.
4. “YOU HAVE HOPED IN THE LORD FOR ETERNAL AGES.” For “you have hoped” the Hebrew has “hope,” so that it is the voice and mutual congratulation of the Blessed, as if they said: O blessed ones, who have already begun the blessed life, hope and trust in God through all ages; for through all eternity He will furnish you this beatitude as certain and will preserve it.
Others think these are the words of Isaias to men given over to vain and fleeting riches and pomp, as if to say: Do not, O worldlings, seek these vain and perishing things, but like the blessed strive for eternal riches and honours, by serving God and hoping in Him.
But our Interpreter translates it “you have hoped,” because the Hebrews often change tenses and take the imperative or infinitive for the past. Dionysius already explains: “You have hoped in eternal ages,” that is, from the beginning of the established world. Lyranus says better: “in eternal ages,” that is, to obtain eternal ages. For so in Hebrew the particle bet, that is, “in,” indicates not only the dative or ablative but also the accusative, and means the same as lamed, that is, “to.” They are the words of the Prophet or of the Angels congratulating the Blessed, as if they said: You have hoped in the Lord, O wise and godlike men; you have hoped from Him for a blessed eternity; now take the fruit of your hope, namely the blessed life itself, and possess it for ever and ever. So Haymo, Lyranus, Sanchez and others.
“IN THE LORD GOD FOR EVER.” In Hebrew, “for the Lord God is,” tsur olamim, that is, the rock of ages, that is, constancy, firmness and perpetual strength, which shall never find an end; so that you may rightly fix your hopes on Him, knowing that they will never through all eternity be disappointed. He shows that God is strong for ever, and therefore that hope is to be placed in Him, from the fact that He Himself will bend down and humble all who dwell on high, that is, all princes and powerful and proud men, who were in lofty dignity and offices, dwelling in high palaces, who bore great spirits and aspired to great things; and “the lofty city,” namely not Rome, as the Jews will have it, nor Jerusalem, as St. Jerome says, but the world, “He will humble,” and reduce to dust by the fire of the conflagration, and destroy its ambitious, avaricious inhabitants and the rest.
6. “THE FOOT SHALL TREAD IT DOWN, THE FEET (he says) OF THE POOR.” He calls the Apostles and other faithful who followed the poverty of Christ the poor and needy; for these shall tread down the world, that is, the proud and impious of the world, that is, they shall judge and condemn them. So St. Jerome and the Septuagint. For God chose the weak and base things of the world, to confound the strong, the powerful and the wise of the age.