Commentaria in Isaiam
“IN THE LAND OF THE SAINTS HE HATH DONE WICKED THINGS, AND HE SHALL NOT SEE THE GLORY OF THE LORD.” First, Forerius: “The land of the saints,” he says, is Judea. For the Jews were called the sons of the saints; and in Judea alone was the true knowledge of God, and the divine rights and laws; as if to say: The Jews act unjustly in the holy land, which they received as an inheritance, sanctified as it were by the holy Fathers; “and let them not,” that is, therefore let them not see, “the glory of the Lord,” that is, the glory which Christ has won for Himself by the preaching of the Gospel. This sense is fitting, but narrow.
Secondly, Adamus: The whole earth, he says, is called the land of the saints, because in it there are many saints, and all ought to be saints; for to this end it was established by God, that it should be the dwelling of the saints, not of the wicked; as if to say: Since the wicked have lived on earth among the saints and yet have lived impiously, therefore they shall not see the glory of the Lord. As the preceding sense is narrower, so this is wider than is fitting.
Thirdly, Sanchez: To be in the land of the saints, he says, is to suffer hardships, to be exercised by discomforts, and to be soothed by no delights of body or mind; and this is a most effective medicine for healing the diseases of the soul; as if to say: If therefore this medicine brings no health to the sick souls of the wicked, it is all over with them; if those who live among the saints, who live hard and austere lives, or those living austerely with the saints, for example in a monastery, nevertheless act impiously, what remains but that they be shut out from the house and glory of God?
Fourthly, Vatablus says that for the land of the saints the Hebrew is the land of nechochot, that is, of rectitudes, that is, right and level, in which the way is clear, not rough, not rugged, such as that on which the delicate and soft enter; as if to say: If the wicked act impiously in a soft and delicate way and life, let them be led to a rough way and life, that they may learn to live continently and holily.
Fifthly, and most aptly, there is here an auxesis: for it increases and magnifies the sin of the wicked man, that he committed it in the land of the saints; the land of the saints is the Church, whose epithet and title is holy. For in it the Holy Spirit reigns and sanctifies many; in it holy things are handled, and above all the holy Gospel and the word of God are preached; as if to say: The wicked in the Church, as in the land of the saints, where they had so many holy laws, so many holy sacraments, so many holy examples, so many holy exhortations, so many holy inspirations, ought to have lived holily with the saints; but they in this land of the saints, or, as the Hebrew has it, of rectitudes, have done wicked, that is, perverse and crooked things; therefore unless they do serious penance and wholly change their life, they shall not see the glory of the Lord, but shall be shut out from heaven and salvation. He speaks only of the faithful who are in the Church; for the unbelieving are already judged and condemned. Moreover every Church, but above all the Roman, is the land of the saints, since St. Peter founded in it the seat of faith and holiness, and so many holy Pontiffs, Virgins, Doctors, and three hundred thousand Martyrs sanctified it, and still sanctify it with their relics; so that blessed Catherine of Siena, visiting the stations at Rome, rightly said: “I tread upon the blood of the Martyrs.” Wherefore she wished both to live and to die at Rome, and was buried in the church of the Blessed Virgin over Minerva.
Tropologically, let those apply this to themselves who live dissolutely or irreligiously in a holy society or Religious Order. For the severe censure of divine judgment will weigh upon them, because in the land of the saints, among holy Religious, where every access to sin seemed shut out and a smooth and easy way lay open to all virtue and holiness, they have lived loosely and remissly and done wicked things. Hence St. Bernard, in his Declamation, soon after the beginning: “In the land of the saints, he says, that is, in the clergy, being there as in heaven, he hath done wickedly; therefore his iniquity was found to hatred, and shall not be forgiven.” For this sin is like sacrilege. The same, sermon 93 on the Canticle: “Let the clergy fear, let the ministers of the Church fear, who in the lands of the saints which they possess do such wicked things that they are not at all content with the stipends that ought to suffice; the superfluities by which the needy should be sustained they impiously and sacrilegiously keep for themselves, and do not fear to consume the living of the poor in the uses of their pride and luxury, sinning indeed with a double iniquity, in that they both seize what belongs to others and abuse sacred things for their own vanities and baseness.”
11. “LORD, LET THY HAND BE EXALTED, AND LET THEM NOT SEE.” Some think there is here a dialogue between God and Isaias, as if to say, Isaias: O Lord, let Christ the Lord be exalted, who is Thy hand, that is, Thy power, so that unbelievers and the wicked may not see Him, because they are unworthy. To whom God answers: Nay, let them see Him as judge.
Secondly, Sanchez judges it to be a bitter irony, as when we say: “Nourish wolf cubs, and dogs that will tear you,” as if to say: Exalt, O Lord, Thy hand, and withhold it from inflicting a blow on the wicked; and the wicked will never open their eyes, they will wander for ever in the darkness of blindness; as if to say: If Thou withholdest Thy blows, the wicked will remain in their blindness.
Thirdly, others, as if to say: Strike the wicked with Thy hand, and punish them with blindness, so that they may not see Thy justice, but see it too late on the day of judgment, to their damnation and confusion.
Fourthly and genuinely, Forerius: The Prophet had said: “In the land of the saints he hath done wicked things, and shall not see the glory of the Lord”; now he confirms the same, saying and praying: “Lord, let Thy hand be exalted,” and so on, as if to say: O Lord, by Thy mighty hand bring it about that men so wicked and unworthy may not see Thy glory; then he adds by correction: Nay, let them see it from afar, and as it were through a shadow, on the day of judgment, but to their confusion, “and let the zealous people,” namely the wicked, “be confounded,” who will waste away with zeal and envy, seeing the Saints called to that glory and themselves shut out from it, when they could as easily have obtained it as the Saints did. So the Jews were moved by zeal and indignation, and will be moved then, seeing the Gentiles preferred to themselves in grace and glory. See the parables of Christ on this matter.
“AND LET FIRE DEVOUR THINE ENEMIES.” First, St. Jerome: “Let the fire,” he says, of bitter repentance torment their hearts, because they have lost so great a glory of conscience with Thee.
Secondly, let the “fire,” namely of tribulation, devour thy enemies, even to consumption and ashes, that is, that it may instruct them, consume them, and turn them from enemies into friends. See here what he says of the usefulness of tribulation.
Thirdly, and most plainly, Theodoret takes the fire to mean the fire of hell.
12. “LORD, THOU WILT GIVE US PEACE: FOR THOU HAST WROUGHT ALL OUR WORKS IN US.” From the crime and punishment of the wicked he turns here to the pious and holy, and wishes and prays for them lasting peace.
First, Sanchez explains it thus, as if to say: Afflict, O Lord, the wicked who vex and trouble us, that they may change their life and become holy and quiet, and so we may have peace; for from Thy liberality we expect peace and all good things, and it is Thine to convert the hearts of the wicked, and to work all good works in them and in us.