(Isaiah 4:1)
1ST CATEGORY OT
QUESTION
47. BY WHAT MEANS DO THESE WORDS OF
ISAIAH: "SEVEN WOMEN WILL TAKE, ETC.," SHOULD THEY BE UNDERSTOOD AS
THE SEVEN CATHOLIC CHURCHES?
— "In that day,” said. the Prophet, “seven
women will approach a single man and say to him: We will eat our bread, we will
provide ourselves with our clothes; that your name alone be invoked against us,
deliver us from the reproach upon us." It is a generally accepted truth
that these seven women are the seven churches (Rev. 2-3); for although the
Church is one, or represents it as having seven different forms, just as one
body is composed of seven different members. Indeed, we are not the only
members of the Church of which Jesus Christ is the head (Eph. 5:23); the
inhabitants of heaven are part of it. Let us therefore speak of only one
church, whether we represent seven different churches, there is no
contradiction. The Church is one because she has only one leader who is Jesus
Christ; and we can say that there are seven churches, because just as the
members are different, so the spiritual powers among which we take our place,
are different virtues which are called for that the powers of the airs. Now,
they are different so that they do not all have the same power, but that they
all contribute to forming the body of Jesus Christ; for he is the head of the
body of the Church, and it is to him that the whole body owes its existence,
that is to say, it is from him that everything, whether in heaven, or on the
earth, originates. Now, speaking of the Church of the earth, the sacred writer
mentions all the churches, because the mysteries of the Creator, which are
taught in the Church of the earth, are at the same time announced to the
heavenly spirits. When the inferiors are educated, those who are above must
necessarily participate in this teaching. This is what makes the Apostle say:
"I, the youngest among the saints, have received the grace of announcing
to the Gentiles the incomprehensible riches of Jesus Christ, and of
enlightening all men on the economy of the mystery which had been hidden for
centuries in God, the creator of all things, so that the principalities and the
celestial powers knew by the Church the wisdom of God, so different in its
operations." (Eph. 3:8-10) So it is the Church of the earth who instructed
the heavenly powers, because the truth has come out of the bosom of the earth.
It is therefore to mention the heavenly powers that the seven Churches are here
named as forming only one people, and the prophet represents them addressing
their supplications to the Savior made man. They understood that Jesus Christ
was born to erase the contempt first of those who lived under the law, and then
of all other peoples. They recollected this prophecy: "There shall come
from Zion a Redeemer who will deliver Jacob and remove from him all
ungodliness." (Isa. 59:20) These
seven churches then approached one man, that is, from Jesus Christ at his birth,
and said to him, "We will eat our bread, we will provide ourselves for our
clothes; that your name alone be invoked against us, deliver us from the
reproach upon us.” What is the object of their prayer? If they eat their bread,
if they provide for their clothes, that is to say, if they have food and
clothing, what are they lacking? The bread is the emblem of life, and the
garment signifies the action of putting on God, because the one who is without
God is in a real state of nakedness. That is why the Apostle says: "All of
you who you have been baptized into Jesus Christ, you have been clothed in Jesus
Christ." (Gal. 3:27) And in another place: "If, however, we are found
dressed and not naked.” (2 Cor. 5:3) But what is this contempt that these women
ask to be delivered? These seven churches represent the people who lived under
the law in expectation of the promised Christ who was to erase their sins. They
say to him, "We will eat our bread," that is to say, the words of the
law which teach the existence of one God shall be our food; because man does
not live only with bread, but with every word that comes out of the mouth of
God." (Deut. 8:3; Matt. 4:4) “And we will wear our clothes,” that is to
say, we will bear the name of our Creator, for each one is as clothed in the
profession of his faith. It is to their clothes that the representatives and
the magistrates are known. But it was not enough to be worthy of God; he has
therefore established that it is through the knowledge of one God that man
would become heir to the kingdom of heaven. The law purges him of his sins,
delivers him from the second death which, according to the sentence pronounced
against Adam, kept the men in the underworld, and thus free of all ties he goes
to the paradise of God the Father, where the Lord promised at the right time
that he would be with him. (Luke 23:43) Although the people of whom we have just
spoken, and whose seven churches are the figure under the law of God, he was
guilty of both his own sins and the sin of his first father; "For,"
says St. Paul, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom.
3:23) These churches therefore ask God to deliver them from their reproach by
the invocation of the name of Jesus Christ, because those who bear the sign by
which he has conquered the dead, cannot be held under the power of his enemy.
And it is not only these churches of the earth, but the spiritual powers who
dwell in heaven, who ask that the name of Jesus Christ be invoked upon them.
For all spiritual and celestial they are, these powers do not fail to be
subject to contempt if they remain distant from their Creator, and failing to know
their leader they go astray and cannot be members of his body. The prophet himself
confirms the truth of the explanation we have just given, adding, "In that
day the Lord will shine on the earth the light of His counsels," (Isa.
4:2, according to the LXX) and a little further on: "The Lord will wash
the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and cleanse them of the blood that
is in their midst." Is it not evident that in this day that is to say, on
this day when the promises of God will be fulfilled, and the mysteries of faith
revealed to men, those who were subject to the death sentence have been
enlightened, purified by the knowledge of their Creator, and became heirs of
eternal life! The prophet, therefore, spoke generally here to signify that all
needed the grace of God, and to establish that all just or sinners had to wait
for His mercy: sinners, to be cleansed of their personal sins and delivered
from death; the righteous, to be free from the sin of their first father, and
from the sentence pronounced against Adam, who held all men under the bondage
of death, and to recover freedom and their rights to the kingdom of God, from
which they are no longer servants but children.
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1ST CATEGORY OT
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2ND CATEGORY OT
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(Isaiah 9:8)
QUESTION
37. WHY DID THE
DEATH SENT AGAINST JACOB FALL ON ISRAEL, SINCE JACOB IS ALSO CALLED BY THE
NAME OF ISRAEL? — The prophet here uses two names designating the same
people to mark the distinction of merits by the naming of names. For he who
received the name of Israel was called Jacob first. In struggling against the
Savior, he understood that it was God whom he saw in human form (Gen. 32:28),
and it was after this vision that he was called the man who sees God. The
people to whom the prophet gives the name of Jacob here represent the carnal
people, like the names that parents give to their children. But the name of
the Israelites was never given to this people, that is, to the Jews, whom
their criminal conduct made unworthy, because they sacrificed to animals and forests
during the reign and rule of King Jeroboam. The people, on the contrary, who
offered to Jerusalem, in the temple of the Lord, victims by the ministry of
the priests, was called Israel. The kingdom of Samaria was therefore
delivered to captivity and death as a punishment for his ungodliness;
Jerusalem was protected for some time, thanks to the piety and zeal of its
kings for the worship of the true God. But as soon as Jerusalem followed the
impiety of Samaria, she was enveloped in her condemnation. That is why the
prophet begins by saying, "God sent death against Jacob," that is,
against the people of Samaria, whose life was carnal, as we have seen above,
and "Death fell upon Israel,” that is, upon the people of Jerusalem,
because they followed the people of Samaria in the ways of idolatry and were
taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, as the people of Samaria had been led away
by Salmanasar, king of the Assyrians. In clearer terms, the sentence
pronounced against the wicked extended to the good, because they had ceased
to walk in the ways of justice. Indeed, the death sent against Jacob fell on
Israel, as we have shown, but without failing to strike Samaria. The cause
that sent her against Samaria came to Jerusalem, and was sent there to punish
the same crimes as in Samaria. For divine vengeance pursues crime without
distinction of persons.
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(Isaiah 9:8)
QUESTION
13. WHY DID THE
DEATH SENT AGAINST JACOB FALL ON ISRAEL, SINCE JACOB IS NONE OTHER THAN
ISRAEL? — The prophet here
uses two names designating the same people. He who was first called Jacob
then received the name of Israel after his struggle with the Son of God, and
when seeing him in his spirit he was like a man who saw God. The people to
whom he gives the name of Jacob here designate the people who do not see God,
the carnal people, because of their evil deeds. Just as the patriarch Jacob,
before seeing the Christ God, was not called Israel, this people who bears
the name of Jacob designate those who do not see God. Israel, on the
contrary, represents the part of the people which his holy works have made
worthy of seeing God. Now the people of Jacob, who, given over to the worship
of idols, leaned on an arm of flesh instead of putting their confidence in
the help of God, was delivered to death when God had to march against him the
king of the Assyrians. For the words of the prophet must be understood by the
people of Samaria, who first wronged God by establishing calves for whom he
sacrificed by the ministry of the new priests whom Jeroboam had instituted.
Death was sent against this people; for he was first captured and brought
into captivity by Salmanasar king of the Assyrians, to serve as an example to
the people of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, the two and a half tribes who
remained, and who, under Rehoboam, son of Solomon, offered sacrifices in the
temple by the ministry of the priests of the Lord. The prophet calls them the
people of Israel because of the tribe of Judah and Levi, whom the people of
Samaria should have frightened and brought to goodness, and who also gave
themselves up to the evil and the shameful worship of the idols of the
people. Yet there were some kings in Jerusalem who, despite the guilty
examples given by Solomon and his son Rehoboam, followed David's footsteps
and walked in the right way in the presence of the Lord. All the kings of
Samaria, on the contrary, proved evil in the eyes of God until the time of
their captivity. From there the carnal name that was given to them. Jerusalem
having imitated their ungodliness, her people were themselves taken into
captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon; so these words are explained:
"Death was sent against Jacob, and it fell on Israel." It was sent
first against Samaria, but the cause that sent it happened in Jerusalem, so
he was sent there to chastise the same crimes as in Samaria; for the
vengeance of God is not attached to the place, but to the crime it seeks to
punish.
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1ST CATEGORY OT
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2ND CATEGORY OT
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(Isaiah 54:1)
QUESTION
40. WHAT DO THESE
WORDS OF THE PROPHET MEAN: "REJOICE, STERILE WHO DOES NOT GET PREGNANT,
SING HYMNS OF PRAISE, SHOUT FOR JOY, YOU WHO HAD NO CHILDREN, THE ABANDONED
WIFE HAS BECOME MORE FERTILE THAN THE ONE WHO HAS A HUSBAND." — The children
of the earthly Jerusalem who have apostatized the worship of God cannot be
invited by the prophet to rejoice, but rather to groan and cry. It is
therefore in comparison with the reproach of this Jerusalem that the prophet
invites to joy the heavenly Jerusalem which the Apostle calls our mother (Gal.
4:20), because without groans and pain she has more children than the one
that causes tears in the children of the flesh, that is to say, the Jews. The
heavenly Jerusalem generates spiritual children by faith. The prophet calls
her an abandoned wife because she is the life that Adam first abandoned to
follow the path of death. When men are regenerated, they return to the life
they had abandoned. This life is Jesus Christ who said of himself, "I am
life." (Jn. 14:16) God the Father is also life, as our Lord teaches in
another place: "For as the Father has life in himself; so has he given
to the Son to have life in himself.” (Jn. 5:26) There is no doubt that the
Holy Spirit is also life, according to this testimony of the Savior: He will
receive from what is mine. (Jn. 16:15) He who receives from life is himself
life. The three persons are therefore one life, it is by faith in this life
that we are regenerated, it is our mother, as we read in Genesis, because
this life is the mother of all the living. (Gen. 3:20) Now, who are these
living except those who believe?
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(Isaiah 54:1)
QUESTION
15. WHAT DO THESE
WORDS OF THE PROPHET MEAN: "REJOICE, STERILE WHO DOES NOT GET PREGNANT,
SING HYMNS OF PRAISE, SHOUT FOR JOY, YOU WHO HAD NO CHILDREN, THE ABANDONED
WIFE HAS BECOME MORE FERTILE THAN THE ONE WHO HAS A HUSBAND." — It must be
understood here that there are two mothers, one celestial, the other
terrestrial, that is to say the free Jerusalem. It is therefore in comparison with the shame of this
Jerusalem that the prophet invites to rejoice in the heavenly Jerusalem which
the Apostle calls our mother. (Gal. 4:25) The prophet announcing the coming
of the Lord and proclaiming with triumphant voice the time when grace is to
be poured out abundantly, exhorts to rejoice the heavenly Jerusalem which he
says he was abandoned, because it was not around her children begotten by
faith. The time had come when she must have the children who were predicted
of her, and in far greater numbers than the children of the earthly Jerusalem,
for the number of Christians far surpassed that of the Jews. She is also
called sterile because she is a virgin and she begets her children
spiritually by faith and without the flesh having any part in it. Also the
prophet does not say that she gives birth, because the birth is always
accompanied by their gift. She, on the contrary, utters cries of joy when she
sees the salvation of the human race. The earthly Jerusalem has a husband,
because it breeds children according to the flesh. The city is here assimilated
to a mother, just as the heavenly habitation destined for us is called our
mother.
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