Commentaria in Isaiam
8. But the Word of Our Lord Endureth for Ever
This word is that which, as he said in verse 5, “the mouth of the Lord hath spoken,” and which he promised; it is Christ, and the Gospel of Christ, of which St. Peter, citing this place, says: “This is the word which by the gospel hath been preached unto you.” This is what David says in other words, Psalm 118:96: “I have seen an end of all perfection: thy commandment is exceeding broad.” This is the word of which Isaias said, chapter 2, verse 3: “Out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”
9. GET THEE UP UPON A HIGH MOUNTAIN, THOU THAT BRINGEST GOOD TIDINGS TO SION.
So the Roman text. “Sion,” that is, to Sion, that is, to the Church: for earthly Sion was on a high mountain, nor was there any higher than it on which a herald could climb. But the Hebrew has: get thee up upon a high mountain, O Sion that bringest good tidings; by which Sion, that is, the Church, is commanded to announce to her faithful what follows: “Behold your God,” etc. But the sense of both readings is the same. For the Church does not preach of herself, but through her Apostles and preachers; nor do these preach to any other than to the Church, that is, to the faithful. The preacher therefore preaches to Sion, that is, to the faithful in the Church. Add that the Hebrew mebasseret, that is, she that bringeth good tidings, can be taken for the masculine mebasser, that is, the evangelist. For the Hebrews are wont, for the beauty of speech, to use the feminine gender, as if to say: Most beautiful and most gracious shall be this Evangelist. So Ecclesiastes is called in Hebrew in the feminine, cohelet, that is, a woman preacher, that is, a most elegant preacher, Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verse 1. Moreover the words get thee up upon a mountain, lift up thy voice with strength, fear not, signify only by catachresis, and command that heralds proclaim Christ and the Gospel of Christ with the greatest alacrity and earnestness of mind, with all their strength and fearlessly; as if to say: Go, O John the Baptist, and you Apostles, forerunners of Christ! Preach publicly, boldly and courageously that God, promised so many ages before, is now incarnate and is coming to save you.
Secondly, Leo Castrius, from St. Ambrose, book 8 on Luke, chapter 17: “Thy mountain,” he says, “is Paul, a mountain is Peter, mountains are the other Apostles; upon their faith set the footstep of thy mind, and by virtues grow to the height of the mountain, that thou mayest be a holy mountain of God, and raise thyself from earth to heaven, that thence, conspicuous to all nations, places and times, thou mayest call all voices to Christ and salvation.”
But this sense is mystical.
Morally, Forerius rightly concludes from this place: “Those,” he says, “who preach the Gospel perfunctorily, or softly, or timidly, as yet know not what is the dignity of the Gospel. Those who seek in the preaching of the Gospel anything other than fruit as yet understand not how great is the gain and how great the dignity of announcing Christ. Lawful preachers of the Gospel bring God, offer God, give God. What can be compared with this dignity?”
Mystically, St. Bernard, sermon 4 on the Feast of All Saints, teaches that preachers ought to climb the mountain with Christ, that is, to strive upward to sublime things by the desires of the soul and holy conversation, and to ascend the mountain of virtues.
SAY TO THE CITIES OF JUDA. Say to the particular Churches: hence it is plain that they depend on one primary Church, namely the Roman, and ought to hearken to it; for so the cities of Juda depended on Jerusalem. What Sion and Jerusalem were in Judea, that Rome is in the Church.
10. BEHOLD THE LORD GOD SHALL COME IN STRENGTH. Christ shall come with great power and firm mind, to rout the demons, overcome tyrants, and subject all nations to his faith. For these things are to be understood of the first coming of Christ. So Cyril, Procopius, St. Thomas, Lyranus and Forerius, although St. Jerome and Haymo refer them to the second coming of Christ, when he will cast down the demons and all the wicked into hell. This is truly and rightly said: for then the strength and victory of Christ will be complete. Hence it is plain against the modern Jews that the Messiah, or Christ, is properly and truly God. For in Hebrew he is called not only Adonai, but also Jehova.
AND HIS ARM SHALL RULE.—In Scripture the “arm” is a symbol of strength and power. Moreover, this arm of Christ belongs not only to his divinity but also to his humanity. For it is this that redeemed us and conquered our enemies; for although, as flesh, it is grass, as he said in verse 6, yet, as the flesh of the Word, which remains for ever, it shares in the strength, the arm and the might of the Word. Hence again “his arm,” that is, his powerful grace, “shall rule,” that is, shall make us rule over our lust and our other passions and vices, so that he may give us not only the power to will the good, but also to will and to accomplish it, says Leo Castrius.
BEHOLD HIS REWARD IS WITH HIM.—The sense here is threefold. The first: Christ will always keep before his eyes the reward prepared for him by the Father, namely that, as the reward of his death and of his labor, he will have dominion over all the nations, according to that of Psalm 2: “Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession”; and Isaias 53: “If he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed; therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong.” For those who keep before their eyes the prize and reward of their labor, labor and strive hard for it. So also Christ, “having joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame.” So Forerius. The reward of Christ, then, is the faithful, whom the Father has given him as a reward, like sheep; of whom it follows: “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd,” etc. The second: the reward, that is, the price of our redemption, is with Christ; for Christ redeemed us from the captivity of the devil, of sin and of death not freely, but by the ransom of his blood. So Sanchez. The third, and the plainest: Christ is a king, not a miser but generous, who has at hand an ample reward, which he holds out to his servants, above all to preachers, and will give; indeed he himself will be to them “a reward exceeding great.” For so generals in war are wont to inflame their soldiers by setting before the victors an ample reward and prize. This too Christ does.
AND HIS WORK IS BEFORE HIM.—This “work” can be taken in two ways. First, properly, as if to say: Christ will receive an ample reward from the Father because (for the “and” here is causal, meaning “because”) he will always keep before his eyes the work of our redemption and salvation laid upon him by the Father, and will devote himself wholly to it. This is what he himself says in John 17:4: “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”
Secondly, by metonymy, “work” is the reward of the work, so that, in the Hebrew manner, the same thing is said in the second half-verse as in the first. So it is said in Leviticus 19:13: “The wages (that is, the reward of the work) of thy hired servant shall not abide with thee until the morning.”
11. HE SHALL FEED HIS FLOCK LIKE A SHEPHERD.—The Prophet explains what “shall rule” means, as if to say: Christ’s dominion will not be a tyrannical lordship but a pastoral one; as a shepherd, he will govern not so much by fear as by love, with great care and kindness; indeed he will feed his sheep, so that he may seem not so much a king as a shepherd. So Homer calls Agamemnon “shepherd of the peoples,” because a good king ought to rule his people as a shepherd rules his sheep. And Cyrus, in Xenophon, book 8, asserts that a good prince is like a good shepherd. Tiberius Caesar held the same, adding: “It is for a good shepherd to shear the flock, not to flay it.” Those who do otherwise are not shepherds but butchers and tyrants. Such are those today who are lions toward the sheep and lambs toward the wolves; they feed the wolves and kill the sheep.
HE SHALL GATHER TOGETHER THE LAMBS WITH HIS ARM.—Shepherds are accustomed to take in their hands and arms the lambs which the sheep have just brought forth in the fields or on the mountains, and to carry them to the fold. Christ will show the same care and love to the faithful. Hence in Luke 15:5 he compares himself to the shepherd who lifts the straying sheep on his shoulders and brings it back to the fold. Hence he is seen so depicted in the most ancient churches and cemeteries of Rome.