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From: Isaiah 55:10-11

Epilogue: Invitation to Partake of the Banquet of the Lord’s Covenant

[10] For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and return not thither but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
[11] so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

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Commentary:

55:10-11. The prophet uses comparisons that are particularly meaningful to those
who live in the arid countries of the East, to describe how very powerful the word
of God is: it actually delivers the salvation that it promises. The personified word
of God (cf. Wis 8:4; 9:9-10; 18:14-15) is a figure of the incarnation of Jesus Christ,
the eternal Word of the Father, who comes down to save mankind. “The Word of
God, he says, will not return to him empty and barren; rather, it will flourish in all
things, nourished by the good deeds of those who obey and fulfill his teachings.
The word is fulfilled when it is put into practice; if it is not put into practice, it re-
mains barren and withered and starved. Listen carefully, then, when he tells of
the food that nourishes him: ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me’ (Jn 4:
34)” (St Bernard, “In Cantica Canticorum”, 71, 12-13).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.