Commentary on Isaiah Chapter 54 by Hector Pinto
On the Prophecy Concerning the Gentiles
Isaiah prophesied in the preceding chapter concerning the death of Christ. And since he beheld with the eyes of his mind that Christ, by shedding His blood for us, would beget many children, therefore he now treats of the vocation of the Gentiles, predicting that more of them than of the Hebrews would receive the faith. And although Gentility was barren, without faith, hope, and charity, nevertheless he consoles her, saying that she would soon have more children than the synagogue of the Hebrews. He predicted that the mercy of God would never be separated from the Church, nor would the covenant of peace made by God with the Church ever be broken.
"Rejoice, O Barren One" (Isaiah 54:1)
The Prophet compares the Primitive Church, gathered from the Gentiles and some Jews, to a barren woman, since with respect to the synagogue she had few children. This may be referred to Gentility itself, which had no prophet, no faithful one; whom Isaiah here consoles, since she would have innumerable and almost infinite children who would receive Christ—to whom Christ gave the power to become sons of God, as Saint John testifies.
"Break forth in song"—that is, exult and burst forth in jubilation. "To break forth in song" (hinnire) is properly said of horses exulting with joy before victory, but it is also metaphorically applied to men.
"For many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband." He alludes to barren Sarah and fertile Hagar. For Sarah bore Isaac, who was born through promise, and from him descended an infinite progeny. But the son of Hagar was born according to the flesh, who was the son of the handmaid; but Sarah was free. But these are the two testaments, as Saint Paul says in the Epistle to the Galatians. By Hagar, the handmaid and fertile one, is understood the synagogue and the Old Testament; but by Sarah, truly free and barren, who bore through divine promise and begot an almost infinite multitude, is understood the New Testament and the Church of Christ, which, whereas it was previously barren Gentility, bore far more children than the synagogue.
And since the synagogue was to be rejected on account of its crimes, God willed that Hagar with her son be cast out, but that Sarah with her son remain at home, as a figure of those things which were afterwards to come. Therefore, Saint Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians interprets this passage of Isaiah: under the name of Sarah, concerning the Church; but under the name of Hagar, concerning the synagogue.
Concerning the Church, Isaiah had said above (Chapter 35): "The desert and the wayless land shall be glad, the solitude shall exult." But concerning the synagogue, Jeremiah says (Jeremiah 15): "She who bore seven is weakened; her soul has failed; her sun has set while it was yet day." By "seven" many are understood; for a finite number is put for an indefinite one. Just as in the First Book of Kings, Hannah says: "The barren woman has borne many, and she who had many sons is weakened"—where for "many" the Hebrew text has "seven."
This barren woman, therefore, is the Church, concerning whom it is said in the Psalm: "Who makes a barren woman to dwell in a house, a joyful mother of children" (Psalm 112).
On the Expansion of the Church (Isaiah 54:2-3)
"Enlarge the place of your tent"—that is, "Extend, O Church, your tent; by no means imitate the narrowness of the Jewish tabernacle, but spread out the curtains and skins of your tabernacles." By these words he shows the multitude of the faithful and the propagation of the Church throughout the whole world.
But take note: a "tent," not a "house," is attributed to the Church—in which there is no firm and permanent abiding. For we do not have here, to use the words of Saint Paul, "an abiding city, but we seek one to come" (Hebrews 13). Those who dwell in tents do not linger there, but hasten onward. So it is said of Christians: "They shall go from strength to strength; the God of gods shall be seen in Zion" (Psalm 83).
"Your seed shall inherit the Gentiles"—that is, your children shall possess the most remote nations and convert them to the faith. We have seen this most clearly fulfilled in our own memory and that of our fathers. For by the command of Emmanuel, the most invincible King of the Portuguese, and of his most illustrious son John—who was heir not only of the kingdom but also of his father's piety, religion, excellence of spirit, and greatness—the Portuguese explored lands previously unknown and hidden, and penetrated other worlds of lands which Alexander the Great grieved that he could not reach. They overcame the barbarous and infidel peoples of those lands and converted them to the faith of Christ.
These peoples are now possessed by the most Christian Kings of Portugal, who have conquered and brought under their power the coasts of the East and the most wealthy India, fortified by their own defenses and those of the greatest kings, and by their resources. They have placed the trophies of the Cross in regions at an immense distance from Portugal, snatched from the jaws of most powerful enemies. These most Christian princes, and others of this sort, are the seed and children of the Church, concerning whom Isaiah says in this place, addressing the Church herself: "Your seed shall inherit the Gentiles."
On Widowhood and Reproach (Isaiah 54:4)
"And the reproach of your widowhood"—Gentility had abandoned God, and therefore was called a widow. But when she received the Gospel and clung to Christ, she is called not a widow but the spouse of Christ. The synagogue, however, is a widow, abandoned by God—indeed, dead and buried. God signified these two peoples, of the Gentiles and of the Jews, through the two staffs in Zechariah, one of which God calls "Beauty," the other "Cords" (Zechariah 11).
"Because the Lord has called you as a woman forsaken and mourning in spirit, and as a wife cast off from her youth." You were once like a wife clinging to God and fulfilling the natural law; but on account of your sins you were abandoned by God and repudiated in your youth. But now the same God calls you, as one grieving in spirit on account of your repudiation and rejection.
"For a small moment I have forsaken you." God abandoned Gentility, but afterwards, having mercy on her, He called her to Himself and brought her to Himself at His coming. And He calls that entire time "a small moment." Here you see that this whole life, in comparison with eternity, is a moment and as nothing. The divine poet wished to signify this, saying in the Psalm: "And my substance is as nothing before You" (Psalm 38). For "substance" in this place is taken for subsistence or life. Understanding this, Saint Jerome translated: "And my life is as though it were not in Your sight."
Seneca clearly perceived this, who in his forty-ninth letter to Lucilius says: "A moment is what we live." And Cicero affirms that life flies by, in the first Tusculan Disputation, where also, citing from Aristotle the birth of certain little beasts near the river Hypanis which live only one day, he says that even the longest human life, when compared with eternity, has almost the same brevity as these little beasts.
Let us therefore despise the vanities and follies of the world, and let us place all the force of living well in greatness of soul, in contempt and endurance of human things, in Christian nobility, and in every virtue indeed. You may refer this to the soul, which God permits to fall into calamities and sorrows, so that, pressed by the weight of labor, it may turn to Christ, its sweetest spouse.
Behold the immense piety of God! The calamity which presses the faithful is brief, but the glory which He bestows upon them is everlasting. Understanding this, the Apostle says in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians: "For that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, works for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4).
"And in great mercies I will gather you." A man without the grace of God is scattered; but His grace is unity and gathering. Water falling from on high, if it is united and gathered, ascends through a pipe or channel up to the height of the place from which it descended. But if that spring in which the water is collected has some hole below, the water does not ascend, but is all diffused, sprinkled about, and lost. So the soul, if it is united and gathered in itself, ascends even to heaven, saying with Paul: "Our conversation is in heaven" (Philippians 3). But if it is as though perforated at the bottom, if it uselessly diffuses itself into various thoughts, it will by no means ascend, but will be entirely dispersed and dissipated.
Therefore the devil strives to scatter and diffuse our soul. But it is the office of God to gather it "in great mercies." Concerning this matter we have discoursed at length in chapters eleven and nineteen.
"Thus I have sworn that I will not be angry with you"—that is, "As I swore to Noah that I would not bring a flood again, so I swear to you, O My Church, that I will never abandon you." Behold the admirable clemency of our God!
"For the mountains shall be moved and the hills shall tremble, but my mercy shall not depart from you, nor shall the covenant of my peace be removed," said the Lord who has mercy on you.*
"O Poor Little One, Tossed by a Tempest" (Isaiah 54:11)
"O poor little one, tossed by a tempest, without any consolation." Behold, I will lay your stones in order, and I will found you in sapphires, and I will make your bulwarks of jasper, and your gates of graven stones, and all your borders of desirable stones. All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and I will give a multitude of peace to your children, and in justice you shall be founded. Depart far from calumny, because you shall not fear; and from dread, because it shall not come near you. Behold, an inhabitant shall come who was not with me; a stranger once yours shall be joined to you. Behold, I have created the smith, blowing in the fire the coals, and bringing forth a weapon for his work; and I have created the slayer to destroy. Every weapon that is formed against you shall not succeed, and every tongue that resists you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord, and their justice is from me, says the Lord.
"For the Mountains Shall Be Moved" (Isaiah 54:10)
These are the words by which God addresses the Church, whose sense is this: "That which I have sworn to you—namely, that I will never abandon you—is without doubt most true. For sooner shall the mountains be moved and transfer themselves elsewhere, and the hills tremble, than I shall desert you. Never shall my mercy depart from you, nor shall my covenant made with you be broken."
You see how openly God promises His Church that He will never abandon her. For He says: "The mountains shall be moved and the hills shall tremble, but my mercy shall not depart from you, nor shall the covenant of my peace be removed."
These things are not said to the synagogue, which we see to have been abandoned by God, but to the Church, concerning which Saint Paul interprets this chapter in the Epistle to the Galatians. And Christ Himself, our God, drew from this chapter that which He says in John, chapter six: "And it is written in the prophets: 'And they shall all be taught by God'" (John 6). By which words He shows that He is the God who came to teach men and to establish the Church.
Since, therefore, God in this place manifestly promises that His mercy will never be separated from the Church, nor will His covenant with her ever be broken, how can it be true what Luther says—that for a thousand years and more there has been no faith in the Church, and that he himself has now come to teach faith and true doctrine, of which the Church was previously destitute? If there was no faith nor true doctrine in the Church—since without faith, as Paul says, it is impossible to please God—surely the Church was abandoned by God, and the mercy of God separated from her, and the pact and covenant of peace and love of God with His Church broken. And thus false is that which God in this place promises to His Church.
O wretched Luther! O man subverted and furious! Who does not see such a pestilent blasphemy? Do you wish, O Luther, that all consider you truthful, and you make God a liar? You say the Church was abandoned by God for a thousand years and more, when God here swears that she will never be abandoned by Him. You say that no sacraments confer grace, that the Supreme Pontiff is not the pastor nor head of the Catholic Church, that all the doctors of the Church, outstanding in holiness of life and wisdom, said nothing solid, nothing true; that all erred in faith, and that the Church up to this time has been versed in darkness and errors.
For since the Church has always held that the sacraments confer grace, and that the Supreme Pontiff is the Vicar of Christ, the pastor and head of the Church, and that rock upon which Christ built His Church (Matthew 16)—and since all the fathers and holy doctors so assertively affirm this, and it is thus asserted and decreed in universal councils, and consigned to letters and perpetual monuments—and you now say that all these and many other things which the Church firmly holds and openly confesses are mere trifles, mere figments, and intolerable heresies—you openly say that the Church was destitute by God and alienated from truth.
That Church of Christ, for which He endured most bitter torments and poured out His blood, obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross—which Saint Paul calls "the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 3)—you call a school of lies, errors, and heresies. You say that she versed in errors who has the Holy Spirit as perpetual teacher and instructor. And you strive to take Christ away from the Church, when He Himself plainly testified: "Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world" (Matthew 28). And to Peter, Prince of the Apostles: "I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not" (Luke 22). And addressing the Apostles, who were then the Church: "I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth" (John 14).
You see here, O Luther, Christ saying that He will always be with His Church, and that the faith of Peter—which is the faith of the Church—will never fail, and that the Holy Spirit, who is the Comforter and Spirit of truth, will never depart from the Church, but will always console and teach her. If Christ is always with His Church, if the faith of the Church has never failed nor will fail, if the Church has the Holy Spirit as perpetual doctor, master, and comforter, how do you dare so impudently to assert that the Church is destitute by God, and that there is neither faith nor the Holy Spirit in her, but superstitions, trifles, lies, errors, and pestilent heresies?
If God, less loving the synagogue, left her only seventy years in the Babylonian and bodily captivity, how could He leave His most beloved Church, His spouse, for twelve hundred years in a Babylonian and spiritual captivity? But you say this because, having departed from the Church herself and become an apostate, you wish to wound her with insults. You despise her holy fathers, you ridicule the universal councils rightly assembled, you consider as nothing the custom of the whole Church confirmed through so many centuries past, you mutilate the divine scriptures—some of which you utterly deny, others you deprave and distort—and you have come to such pride and madness that you strive to stain the Church of God herself, asserting that she has been obscure and hostile to God up to now, and without faith and truth, when Christ says to her in the Canticles: "Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one" (Song of Songs). To her Christ, her spouse, sent the Holy Spirit, that He might teach her all truth and abide with her forever, so that the covenant of God with her might always endure—which God Himself through Isaiah promises in this place.
What will you be able to respond, O Luther, to such open passages of sacred scripture which fight against you—indeed, which assault you yourself and utterly overthrow your heresies? But since you are already subverted and condemned by your own judgment—which Saint Paul in the Epistle to Titus affirms concerning every heretic similar to you, that after a second admonition, persisting in his heresy, he is to be avoided (Titus 3)—I do not wonder that you do not repent. But I wonder, I grieve, and I sorely lament that there are so many men who obey your diabolical deceits and embrace your most pestilent heresies.
O blind, stupid, and insensible Lutherans, who do not perceive such thick and palpable darkness! Do you not see that your Luther makes God a liar? God says He will never abandon His Church forever, and he asserts that she was abandoned by God for a thousand and so many years, without faith, without truth. Can anything more absurd be said? What figment was ever so false, so inept, so abhorrent from and utterly alienated from not only reason but even the simulation of reason? O admirable blindness and thickness, and deplorable madness!
O holy Christ, who for the human race, sacrificed on the altar of the Cross, didst pour out Thy precious blood: do not permit so many men to perish; open their eyes at length, that they may see and bewail their errors, and return to Thy Church, and be converted to Thee Thyself.
"O Poor Little One, Tossed by a Tempest" (Isaiah 54:11, continued)
God now addresses His Church before she believed; for then, when she was Gentility, she was poor without the riches of virtues, and "tossed by a tempest"—that is, unstable, without foundation, fluctuating and turning among various errors of idols, and destitute of all divine consolation. The Seventy translators rendered "tossed by a tempest" as "unstable."
"Behold, I will lay your stones in order.""I, O Church, will build you like a royal city, founded on precious stones, established in sapphires. Your bulwarks shall be of jasper, and your gates of graven stones, and your borders of excellent and desirable stones."* As if to say: "I will make you like a most precious, most excellent, and most beautiful building."
The Prophet describes the magnificence, firmness, and felicity of the Church. The stones of this city are faithful men, adorned with wisdom and fortified with virtues. But the primary foundation is Christ, as Saint Paul asserts in the First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 3). But since Blessed Peter is the Vicar of Christ, and Christ Himself called him "Peter" when previously he was called "Simon," without doubt Peter himself is the foundation of the Church. For this reason he received a name derived from Christ Himself; for Christ, as Saint Paul asserts, is the Rock (1 Corinthians 10). It was fitting that he who was committed the vicarship of Christ, and to whom Christ said to feed His lambs and His sheep (John 21), and whom finally He constituted Prince of the Apostles, should receive the name of Christ.
This is he to whom Christ said: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church" (Matthew 16). Where you see that the Church is built upon Peter. Saint Jerome thus explains this place in his commentaries on Matthew; and Saint Augustine, in the book against the letter of Donatus, and among the sermons On the Seasons, sermon 16, and On the Saints, sermon 26; and Saint Ambrose, sermon 47 on the faith of Peter; and Saint Gregory, book six, letter 37 to Eulogius; and Saint John Chrysostom, homily 55 on Matthew; and Saint Basil, against Eunomius; and finally all the fathers, both Latin and Greek, assertively testify that the Church of Christ is built upon Peter—although Luther denies this in the twenty-fifth article of his heresies.
But let him say what he will; we have against him all the fathers and holy doctors, the decrees of councils and pontiffs, the most ancient custom of the Church, and the sacred scriptures themselves, confounding him and most openly condemning his pestilent heresies.
It is to be noted that God did not say: "I will lay your stones," but "I will lay your stones in order," that you may understand that in the Church all things are ordered.
"All your children shall be taught by the Lord." Christ our God, in John, says: "It is written in the prophets: 'And they shall all be taught by God'" (John 6). Where from this place of Isaiah and others He shows that He is the God who teaches truth in His Church. Where He interprets this place concerning the Church, as I was saying a little before.
"Depart far from calumny, because you shall not fear." That is: "You shall be so safe from calumny that you shall not fear it." Or thus: "If you wish not to fear enemies, depart from iniquity."
"Behold, an inhabitant shall come who was not with me." That is: "To you, O Church, shall come those who were not with me, since they worshipped idols." God also predicted this by these words through the Prophet Hosea: "And I will say to that which was not my people: 'You are my people'; and he shall say: 'You are my God'" (Hosea 2). Saint Paul thus interprets that place in the Epistle to the Romans (Romans 9), and Saint Peter alludes to this place in his First Epistle.
"Behold, I have created the smith." By the smith, kindling coals and forging weapons against the Church, the devil is understood, with all heretics. The warlike instruments by which the Church is attacked are heresies. God therefore addresses His Church in this manner: "As I have created the smith who forges weapons against you, so I will create protectors who will defend you, and break the diabolical weapons, and confound and overthrow heretics."
These slayers of heretics are Catholic doctors fighting for the faith of Christ, just as in our times—besides many others—was that holy and wise man John Fisher, the glory of our England, a most illustrious light of memory; who not only wrote most learned books against heretics, but for the faith of Christ exposed himself to the weapons of a most savage tyrant, and with erect and invincible spirit endured a most bitter death.
"In judgment you shall condemn." That is: "You shall condemn all heretics by your judgment." You have here an evident passage in which God asserts that the Church has the power of judging heretics and condemning them by her judgment. Since, therefore, you, O Lutherans, have been judged and condemned by the Church, why do you not repent and seek mercy? For if you desist from heresies, the Church herself, a pious mother, will receive you and join you with Catholics.
"This is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord; their justice is from me, says the Lord." The sense is this: "This Catholic Church shall be the house and receptacle of the faithful, outside of which there is no faith, no justice." But the justice of the servants of the Lord is with the Lord Himself, who sees it, that He may bestow immortal glory upon just men for it.
Annotations from the Hebrew
On "Rejoice, O barren one": In Hebrew it is רַנִי (roni), from the verb רנן (ranan), which signifies among other things "to rejoice." Whence the Seventy translators rendered: "Rejoice, O barren one." And thus Saint Paul cites this place in the Epistle to the Galatians. Following this reasoning, some translate: "Exult, O barren one."
On "And in great mercies I will gather you": For "I will gather you" is in Hebrew the verb קבץ (qavats), which signifies to congregate and collect. But the Seventy translators rendered: "And in great mercies I will have mercy on you." Since this verb does not have such a signification. But because God has mercy on him whom He gathers, therefore they put "to have mercy" for "to gather." For they understood that "to have mercy" and "to gather" nearly coincide in meaning.
By this reasoning also they translated that passage of the Psalm where the Hebrew text has: "But the Lord gathered me," they themselves rendered: "But the Lord assumed me" (Psalm 80). He who is scattered and diffused and distracted into various cares of the world is cast down by God, according to that which He says in the Psalm: "I let them go according to the desires of their heart; they shall walk in their own inventions" (Psalm 80). But when God gathers him and collects and unites him into one, He assumes him and has mercy on him.
CONTINUE
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