Commentaria in Isaiam
Secondly, the same St. Jerome, Origen, St. Chrysostom, Eusebius, and following them Leo Castrius, understand this of the destruction of Jerusalem, on account of the neglected preaching of Christ and the Apostles. But, as I said, these words look to the destruction of the world, not of a city.
Thirdly, some with St. Cyril refer this to the Church militant and to Rome. Hence Galatinus, book 4, chapter 26, says: God will humble the lofty city, that is, Rome and Italy. For when the loftiness of the Roman empire nearly touched the heavens, it humbly submitted its neck to the yoke of the Christian faith. Then the foot of the poor man trod it down, namely of St. Peter the fisherman, who now holds the Vatican, the city and the world, so that kings and emperors kiss his feet in his successor the Pontiff.
7. “THE PATH OF THE JUST IS RIGHT.” Here he shows that the ways which led the just into heaven to so great a glory, while the wicked were destroyed and trodden down, were right, and were rectitude itself, that is, the love and pursuit of what is right and equitable; namely, that the path was the path of the judgments, that is, of the commandments, of the Lord. The Hebrew has, word for word, the path of the just is uprightness, namely, they say.
Secondly, “the path of the just is right,” that is, level, smooth, direct, without any fall or stumble, indeed without even a stumbling-block. For this is what the Hebrew nisor means, and the akin word meresh. Hence Pagninus translates it, the path of the just is straight: Thou, O God, wilt make straight the way of the just; Forerius, the path of the just, equities: Thou wilt direct the straight track of the just; Vatablus, the way of the just will be of equities (that is, even and smooth): Thou, O God, wilt level it with the rule, lest he stumble. This is what God promises to the just, Proverbs 4:11: “I will lead thee by the paths of equity; which when thou shalt have entered, thy steps shall not be straitened, and when thou runnest thou shalt have no stumbling-block.” Such straight and smooth paths are the paths of virtue; for these are the paths of the will and divine law, which have no scandal of sin, of ruin, of stumbling-block and of vengeance, as the crooked and uneven paths of vices have. Hence we must pray daily with the Psalmist, Psalm 26:11:
“Show me Thy ways, O Lord, and teach me Thy paths,” which lead me straight to Thee in heaven, to eternal happiness and glory.
8. “THY NAME, AND THY MEMORIAL, ARE IN THE DESIRE OF THE SOUL”; as if to say: We have desired, and continually desire, that Thy name and memory, O Lord, be constantly recalled and celebrated both by us and by all nations, and therefore we have desired vengeance on the wicked, as follows, because they neglect, indeed profane, Thy name. For the saints desire always to have God present and to walk before Him, as Noe did, Genesis 6:9, and Abraham, Genesis 17:1. See what is said there. Hence the Hebrew is, word for word: Toward Thy name and toward Thy memorial is the desire of our soul.
So did the soul of St. Julian desire and melt at the name of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, that wherever he found it written in books he washed it with tears, and by their abundance made many blots in the books, as St. Ephrem, an eyewitness, relates in his Life: “One day,” he says, “I said to him: Who spoils these books with blots? The blessed man answered me: I will hide nothing from you at all. The sinful woman who came to the Saviour watered His feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head; and I, wherever I find the name of God written, water it with my tears, that I too may receive from Him the forgiveness of sins. And he said: My heart is not watered unless I weep before the Lord my God.” Of St. Francis, St. Bonaventure relates that when, reading the psalms, the name of the Lord occurred in them, he seemed to lick his lips for the sweetness of its savour. And when he uttered or heard the name of Jesus, filled inwardly with a kind of jubilation, he seemed to be altogether changed outwardly.
9. “MY SOUL HATH DESIRED THEE IN THE NIGHT.” Here the canticle of the Blessed seems to end; now Isaias, admonished and roused by it, seeing what end the poverty and affliction of the pious had, and the painted and deceitful prosperity of the wicked, and aspiring to the Blessed, says that he likewise wishes to bear God continually in mind and heart, to worship Him, to desire Him by night as by day, and that earnestly and zealously, so as even to anticipate the light; for this is what he adds: “Yea, with my spirit within me, in my breast, I will watch to thee early in the morning.” So David says, Psalm 62: “O God, my God, to thee do I watch at break of day.”
Otherwise Sanchez: From the night, he says, that is, from the tribulation and cross through which Thou leadest us to glory, I will sigh to Thee.
Otherwise also Theodoret: From the night, he says, that is, before the incarnation of Christ; and in the morning, that is, in the incarnation and after it, I have desired Thee. But this is mystical. As is also this of St. Gregory, book 22: “I long to see Thee; but I am still hemmed in by the cloud of weakness.” Carpentarius renders this verse beautifully and piously thus:
Meanwhile, whether night brings on its idle darkness, Or the kindly light the rosy day, with all our heart we seek Thee, O eternal delight of men and of the heavenly ones! Thee alone the young men thirst for, our hearts pant for Thee, O God, guardian and author of our salvation.
“WHEN THOU SHALT DO THY JUDGMENTS UPON THE EARTH, THE INHABITANTS OF THE WORLD SHALL LEARN JUSTICE.” As if to say: From the zeal with which I desire that Thy name and memory, O Lord, be hallowed by all, even the wicked, I wish that Thou wouldst from time to time exercise some judgment and public vengeance upon the wicked in this life, by which they may know and learn Thee and Thy justice; for most are so fastened to their vices that they cannot be corrected except by heavy scourges. So St. Thomas, Adamus, Sanchez and others.
Secondly, St. Jerome refers this to the day of judgment, as if to say: When on the day of judgment Thou shalt render to each what he deserves according to the quality of his work, then Thy justice will be known in the whole world, which before seemed unjust to the unbelieving. But that discipline will be late and useless, unless it is received by those who still live, from the examples of those who, after the particular judgment, have already been thrust down into hell, and will speak, as Virgil, Aeneid book 6, says of Phlegyas: “And most wretched Phlegyas warns all, and with loud voice bears witness through the shades: Learn justice, being warned, and do not despise the gods.”
10. “LET US HAVE PITY ON THE WICKED, AND HE WILL NOT LEARN JUSTICE.” As if to say: I rightly desire Thy judgment in the punishment of the wicked. For if Thou pity and spare them, they will not learn justice, but will remain in their impiety; but if Thou punish them, either they themselves, or at least others, terrified by their example and punishment, will be converted, or at least will praise Thy power and justice; granted that the wicked themselves whom Thou scourgest are hardened the more by the scourges, as Pharao was; wherefore this clemency and mercy toward the wicked seems merciless. Such is the temper of men given to their own dainties, and of the hard and obstinate, such as heretics, barbarians and rustics, who are exasperated by gentleness and softened and tamed by severity. Hence the Poet:
The rustic pricks the one who anoints him, and anoints the one who pricks him.
Hear St. Bernard, sermon 49 on the Canticle: “Then God is most angry when He is not angry: Let us have pity, he says, on the wicked, and he will not learn to do justice: this mercy I do not want; this pity is, to me, above every wrath, deceiving me about the ways of justice. Far better, surely, according to the counsel of the Prophet, to lay hold of discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and I perish from the just way. I wish Thee to be angry with me, Father of mercies, but with that anger by which Thou correctest the wanderer, not that by which Thou thrustest him out of the way; Thy kindly chastisement produces the one, fearful dissembling feeds the other; for when I feel Thee angry, then I most trust Thee to be propitious; for when Thou art angry, Thou wilt remember mercy.” Then he proves it by example: “God, he says, Thou wast propitious to them, and taking vengeance on all their inventions, Psalm 98: he speaks of Moses, Aaron and Samuel, and he calls it propitiation that He did not spare their offences. Go now, therefore, and shut this out for ever from yourself, by defending error and accusing correction. Is not this to call evil good, and good evil? Will not impenitence, the mother of despair, soon spring from this odious impudence?”