From: Isaiah 26:7-9, 12, 16-19
The righteous call on the Lord
[12] O Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us,
thou hast wrought for us all our works.
[16] O Lord, in distress they sought thee,
they poured out a prayer
when thy chastening was upon them.
[17] Like a woman with child,
who writhes and cries out in her pangs,
when she is near her time,
so were we because of thee, O Lord;
[18] we were with child, we writhed,
we have as it were brought forth wind.
We have wrought no deliverance in the earth,
and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
[19] Thy dead shall live, their bodies shall rise.
O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For thy dew is a dew of light,
and on the land of the shades thou wilt let it fall.
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Commentary:
26:7-19. Now comes a personal dialogue with God in the form of a prayer or sa-
piential psalm (vv. 7-10). Here the greatness of the Lord is not being described to
third parties nor are his works being praised: the prophet is addressing him direct-
ly, to tell him that he trusts in Him (vv. 7-8), to express his innermost feelings (v.
9a; cf. Ps 42), to ask him to reveal his righteousness (vv. 9b-10) and intervene (v.
11) and bring peace (v. 12), and to celebrate enduring fidelity to the Lord (vv. 13-
19). Verse 19 is a ray of hope in personal resurrection, although here, as in 25:8,
it refers to the resurgence of the nation, as in the vision of the bones restored to
life in the book of Ezekiel (cf. Ezek 37:1-14). Daniel 12:1-3 clearly predicts the
resurrection of people from the dead. Commenting on v. 10, St Bernard addres-
ses God, saying: “Father of mercies, may your anger he roused against me —
the anger that chastens a soul who has lost his way, not the wrath by which
you seal off the path of righteousness” (”In Cantica Canticorum”, 42, 4).
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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.
From: Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus Thanks His Father
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Commentary:
28-30. Our Lord calls everyone to come to Him. We all find things difficult in one
way or another. The history of souls bears out the truth of these words of Jesus.
Only the Gospel can fully satisfy the thirst for truth and justice which sincere peo-
ple feel. Only our Lord, our Master—and those to whom He passes on His power
— can soothe the sinner by telling him, “Your sins are forgiven” (Matthew 9:2). In
this connection Pope Paul VI teaches: “Jesus says now and always, ‘Come to
Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ His attitude to-
wards us is one of invitation, knowledge and compassion; indeed, it is one of of-
fering, promise, friendship, goodness, remedy of our ailments; He is our comfor-
ter; indeed, our nourishment, our bread, giving us energy and life” (”Homily on
Corpus Christi”, 13 June 1974).
“Come to Me”: the Master is addressing the crowds who are following Him, “ha-
rassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). The Phari-
sees weighed them down with an endless series of petty regulations (cf. Acts
15:10), yet they brought no peace to their souls. Jesus tells these people, and
us, about the kind of burden He imposes: “Any other burden oppresses and cru-
shes you, but Christ’s actually takes weight off you. Any other burden weighs
down, but Christ’s gives you wings. If you take a bird’s wings away, you might
seem to be taking weight off it, but the more weight you take off, the more you
tie it down to the earth. There it is on the ground, and you wanted to relieve it
of a weight; give it back the weight of its wings and you will see how it flies” (St.
Augustine, “Sermon” 126).
“All you who go about tormented, afflicted and burdened with the burden of your
cares and desires, go forth from them, come to Me and I will refresh you and you
shall find for your souls the rest which your desires take from you” (St. John of
the Cross, “Ascent of Mount Carmel”, Book 1, Chapter 7, 4).
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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.