Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
For: Thursday, March 20, 2008
Holy Thursday: Mass of Chrism
Isaiah 61:1-3a, 6a, 8b-9
The herald of good tidings
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[1] The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good tidings to the afflicted;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
[2] to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
[3] to grant to those who mourn in Zion –
to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit;
[6] [B]ut you shall be called the priests of the Lord,
men shall speak of you as the ministers of our God;
[8] I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
[9] Their descendants shall be known among the nations,
and their offspring in the midst of the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge them,
that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.
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Commentary:
1-11. Into the air of great joy reflected in the previous hymn, the prophet inserts
this very important oracle about the new messenger (vv. 1-3). The rest of the
chapter is made up of three stanzas that celebrate the wonders of the holy city.
These can be seen in profound, spiritual renewal (vv. 4-7), perfect fulfillment of
the promises made to the ancient patriarchs (vv. 8-9), and joy-in-worship, com-
parable to that of a bridegroom and bride, or that of the farmer on seeing a rich
harvest (vv. 10-11).
The remarkable events and features of the city point to the time of the End, the
time of the Lord’s definitive, salvific intervention. In this context, these new
things are ultimate and definitive. Because in the New Testament the Church is
called “God’s building” (1 Cor 3:9), erected on the foundation of the apostles (1
Cor 3:11), Christian tradition has seen the new, glorious Jerusalem as a symbol
of the Church that makes its way through this world and will be made manifest
at the end of time (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 756-757).
61:1-3 This very compact oracle depicts the eschatological messenger speak-
ing a soliloquy. It is one of the key passages in the book of Isaiah. It clearly
has connexions with the songs of the Servant, especially the second song
(49:1-6). The pouring out of the Spirit involves anointing, as in the case of the
king (cf. 11:2) and in that of the Servant of the Lord (42:1). But the messenger
is more than a king, more than a prophet, more than the community dwelling in
the holy city in the latter days. His mission is a dual one – to be a messenger
and a comforter. As a messenger, like a king’s ambassador in times of war,
he brings good tidings: he announces redemption for slaves, release for pri-
soners (cf. Jer 34:8, 17). His message proclaims a new order of things where
there will be no need for repression, and where concord and well-being will
prevail. The “year of the Lord’s favour” (v. 2) is similar to the jubilee year (cf.
Lev 25:9-19) or the sabbatical year (cf. Ex 21:2-11; Jer 34:14; Ezek 46:17) in
the sense that it is a day chosen by the Lord, and different from any other; but
here it means the point at which God shows himself to be most gracious and
bestows definitive salvation (cf. 49:8). It is also called the day of vengeance
(v. 2) because on that day, essentially a day of good news, the wicked, too,
will receive their just deserts.
As a comforter he will bind up hearts broken by illness or misfortune, and give
encouragement to those who weep and revive those who mourn in Zion. When
the comforter is the Lord or a messenger of his (cf. 40:1), one can expect him
to re-establish his people, to set things right, (the way they were at the begin-
ning), to renew the broken Covenant and re-establish institutions that had been
dismantled, that is, bring about a situation where everything is in plentiful
supply.
People who have reached rock bottom (the poor, prisoners, etc.) will be given
a place of honour on that day, and a wreath, perfume and a mantle of praise
(v. 3). In sacred texts of the post-exilic period, the concept of the “poor” (or
“afflicted”: cf. note m) already went beyond the social category of those least
well off: it had a religious connotation, meaning “the humble”, those who saw
themselves as having no value before God and who simply put their faith in his
divine mercy. The final definition of the “poor” will emerge in the Beatitudes
(Mt 5:3-12).
In Jesus’ time, Jewish tradition, found in the targum or Aramaic translation of
the Bible, considered the messenger described here to be a prophet (and for
that reason it introduced this oracle with the words “Thus says the prophet”).
So, when Jesus reads this passage in the synagogue of Nazareth he points out
that “today the scripture has been fulfilled” (Lk 4:21) and that he is the prophet
of whom Isaiah spoke. By doing so, he is saying that he is the Messiah, the
Christ, the one anointed by the Holy Spirit (cf. Is 11:2), not so much as a king
but as a prophet who proclaims salvation. Ever since then, Christian teaching
sees Jesus as the last messenger sent by the Holy Spirit: “The prophet pre-
sents the Messiah as the one who comes in the Holy Spirit, the one who pos-
sesses the fullness of this Spirit in himself and at the same time for others, for
Israel, for all the nations, for all humanity. The fullness of the Spirit of God is
accompanied by many different gifts, the treasures of salvation, destined in a
particular way for the poor and suffering, for all those who open their hearts to
these gifts – sometimes through the painful experience of their own existence—
but first of all through that interior availability which comes from faith. The aged
Simeon, the ‘righteous and devout man’ upon whom ‘rested the Holy Spirit’,
sensed this at the moment of Jesus’ presentation in the Temple, when he per-
ceived in him the ‘salvation … prepared in the presence of all peoples’ at the
price of the great suffering – the Cross – which he would have to embrace to-
gether with his Mother. The Virgin Mary, who “had conceived by the Holy
Spirit’, sensed this even more clearly, when she pondered in her heart the
“mysteries” of the Messiah, with whom she was associated” (Dominum et
Vivficantem, 16).
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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. We encourage readers to purchase
The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." -- St Jerome
"The Father uttered one Word; that Word is His Son, and He utters Him forever
in everlasting silence: and in silence the soul has to hear it.
-- St John of the Cross
