Commentaria in Isaiam
4. AND THE LINTELS OF THE DOORPOSTS WERE MOVED AT THE VOICE OF HIM THAT CRIED, AND THE HOUSE WAS FILLED WITH SMOKE.—St. Jerome, Cyril and St. Thomas think that the overthrow of the temple is signified here, because it was burned by the Chaldeans and the Romans and went up in smoke; whence God departed from it and went to the Gentiles. Hence the Septuagint translate: the lintel was lifted up, as though by the force of the cry the door were made larger, that the great God might go out through it.
But what follows is against this: that God, remaining on the throne and in the temple, sent the Seraph with a live coal, which he had taken from the altar, to cleanse the lips of Isaias; therefore the temple and the throne still stood, and God had not departed, but was still residing in it; yet I do not deny that the destruction of the temple is foretold here, as I shall presently say.
Offer a wreath, or rosary, to the Most Holy Trinity. As you recite the rosary of the Blessed Virgin, saying five times the “Our Father” and fifty times the “Hail Mary,” so recite the rosary of the Most Holy Trinity at the same beads, saying at the five larger beads five times the “Our Father” with the “Hail Mary,” and at the fifty smaller beads fifty times: “Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts; all the earth is full of his glory. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.” That is, putting the doxology just given in place of the “Hail Mary” at the small beads of the rosary. Many learned and pious men do this in practice with great fruit; for this short doxology is, first, a profession of faith in the Most Holy Trinity against Pagans, Turks, Jews and Arians, old and new. Second, it is an exercise of religion, hope, charity and the other virtues. Third, it is an incentive to devotion and spiritual joy, by which we bear bravely every adversity and temptation, and generously overcome all that is difficult and arduous, saying with the Psalmist: “I will bless the Lord at all times.” Fourth, it makes our life angelic; so that, emulating the holiness and purity of the Angels, we take up and begin here their office, which we shall shortly complete with those same Angels in heaven for all eternity; so that our whole life, all our time, our whole eternity may be nothing else than unceasing praise of God, thanksgiving and glorification. Thus we begin to be blessed: for we lead a life higher than earth, and, passing in mind beyond all things on earth as exile, we fly up to the Angels in heaven, and, conversing with them and the Blessed, we joyfully and eagerly praise the Most Holy Trinity, which is the fountain and author of all things. This rosary was published by Father Nicolaus Serarius, theologian of our Society, of pious memory.
I say, then, the sense is: “The lintels were moved,” etc., as if to say: so great was the force and strength of the voice, and the ardour of each Seraph crying out “Holy, holy,” etc., that even the temple itself, that is, heaven itself, seemed to be shaken and torn from its hinges. He alludes to that prodigy of the destruction of the Jews by Titus, of which Josephus speaks, in the Wars, book 7, chap. 13: that the very heavy bronze gate of the temple was opened of itself, and a voice was heard: “Let us depart hence.” For the Seraph crying “Holy” to God, Isaias cried out, verse 10: “Blind the heart of this people.” Whence it is clear that this vision regards the reprobation of the Jews, which happened about the time of Christ; wherefore it follows:
AND THE HOUSE WAS FILLED WITH SMOKE.—Smoke, or cloud and mist, were of old a symbol of the glory of the Lord, and so are often called the glory of the Lord; for by them God showed himself, or rather hid himself, to signify that he dwells in light inaccessible, especially to the Jews, until the Only-begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, shone upon us, and revealed and declared divine things. Thus God appeared to Moses on Sinai and spoke through the darkness, Exodus 20. Thus also to Solomon in the temple the glory of the Lord appeared, that is, a cloud covering the whole temple, 3 Kings 8. Thus also he used to appear to the High Priest in the propitiatory, covered with a cloud, Leviticus 16. Thus also he was seen by Ezechiel in a cloud, chap. 10, verse 3; hence the Psalmist says, Psalm 17: “He made darkness his covert.”
Secondly, St. Jerome explains it thus: while the whole earth was filled with the glory and splendour of the grace of Christ’s doctrine, then the house and temple of the Jews alone was darkened; and this from the smoke, that is, from the wrath of God, who, preparing to take vengeance, as it were breathed forth smoke and fire from his nostrils, and was already destining that very temple to smoke and fire; and so the first sense, about the burning of the temple, which I brought forward a little before, can have place here. Hence, symbolically, Prado understands by smoke or darkness the blindness of the Jews, when the glory of God and the splendour of the Gospel shone upon the Gentiles.
5. AND I SAID: WOE IS ME, BECAUSE I HAVE HELD MY PEACE!—The Septuagint: because I am pierced with sorrow. Hence, first, Prado on Ezechiel 3:1 explains it thus: Alas for me! I am undone, I am slain, I have fainted from the consternation of so great a vision—so that, by metalepsis, to be silent signifies to be struck with dismay, to tremble, to be stricken, so that you cannot speak but must be silent. “I held my peace,” therefore, that is, I was struck dumb with consternation. So in 1 Machabees, chap. 1, the earth is said to have been silent in the sight of Alexander, that is, so shaken with fear that it did not dare to mutter, nor to resist him. The same is said of Moab below, chap. 15, and of Ascalon, Jeremias 47. The same seems to have happened here to Isaias: for if the Seraphim veil their faces and mouths before God, why should not Isaias, a mortal man, fall silent on seeing God with the Seraphim? Sanchez adds that Isaias, though eloquent, in the sight of the Lord, and hearing the sweetness and ardour with which God is praised by the Seraphim, thought himself mute and tongueless, as if to say: Woe to me, because I have been silent, and have not praised so great a majesty, which I now see praised by the Angels with such fervour! I was silent, I say, when I could speak; but now, since I have seen God and the Seraphim, I am compelled to be silent even though I long to speak: for the sight and majesty of them have made me tongueless. Yet justly do I suffer this, because when I could speak I would not, and yielding to fear I was silent; now when I most wish to speak, I cannot. So we see even the most eloquent men, before kings, as though thunderstruck and beaten back by the sight of royal majesty, become dumb.
Secondly, more aptly and fully, St. Jerome notes that Isaias, seeing the Seraphim praise the majesty of God with such reverence, trembling and cry, wished to join himself to them in this song and hymn, but out of consciousness of sin did not dare to do so. He says therefore: “Woe is me!” because I judged that I must be silent, for I am polluted in lips, and a sinner like the polluted people with whom I dwell, as if to say: Wretched me, who in this am in no way holier than my fellow citizens; since they themselves are wholly profane and polluted: and therefore in this concert of Angels I am compelled to be silent, and dare not mutter; for praise of God is not comely in the mouth of a sinner.—Note: for woe the Hebrew has oi, which Prado and others render more clearly alas, and the Septuagint, O wretched me! For it is the cry of Isaias, not of one threatening, but of one grieving.
Origen, here, homily 5, thinks that this sin of Isaias was one of speech, from the fact that Isaias adds: “Because I am a man of unclean lips.” For most easily, as St. James says, chap. 3, verse 2, we sin by the tongue: so Isaias seems to have said something timidly or imprudently, whose fault he here acknowledges though he does not express what it was, or that he spoke vain and idle words; for scarcely any man escapes this, above all one who lives among the vain and talkative, say Origen and Gregory, Dialogues, book 3, chap. 5; or that when he rebuked others he did not reprove himself, says Nazianzen, in his Apologetic to his Father: which is to be understood of light and venial faults.
Secondly, and more probably, St. Jerome, Cyril and Haymo (though Chrysostom disapproves) hold that this sin of Isaias was of the tongue, but not so much of speaking as of silence; namely, that overcome by weariness or fear he ceased to attack the sins of the people and the nobles, and in particular that he did not rebuke with bold lips King Ozias, who, though no priest, wished to burn incense and was usurping the priesthood, being himself a Prophet and sprung from royal blood.
Moreover, that this sin of Isaias was not mortal but venial is gathered from the fact that God deigned, as though to a friend of his, to grant him so sublime a vision of himself and of the Seraphim; with which he surely would not have honoured a sinner and his enemy.