Isaiah's prophecies constantly speak of what will become of the world without God. What will become of a world in which people do not accept and do not acknowledge God. "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" the Lord asks. This question expresses what the Lord wants to see in us. That He needs us. That He sends the prophet: a man whom He has cleansed from sin in order to call people to Himself.

And in Proverbs we read about the need for labor. Spiritual labor for deliverance from sins and vices. Thus in today's reading two of the greatest paths of a person's relationship with God come together: the constant call to repentance and to spiritual labor. To repentance before God and one's neighbor. Before the one with whom you quarrel and whom you envy, over whom you exalt yourself and whom you push around.

And the whole text of today's reading very much recalls the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, which we read during Lent and which strengthens our understanding of the main vices of the human heart, from which Judgment on the world flows.

In the Jerusalem temple the prophet Isaiah beholds the heavenly worship, in which bodiless beings eternally glorify the holiness of the Lord of Hosts. This angelic praise is precisely the fullest and complete opposite of sin. The life of heaven is concentrated in it because each of those who see the Lord sees all His beauty. The glorification of this beauty and holiness makes those who praise Him themselves partakers of the divine life. It is not that God forces the angels to praise Him. He does not need this song of praise. On earth, when we see something truly beautiful, we exclaim: "What a wonder! How wonderful!" The song of the seraphim is of exactly this kind; it is born of admiration and amazement at the divine perfections.

And it is also worthy of admiration and amazement that the seraphim say the whole earth is full of God's glory. This already has a direct bearing on us, on human beings. As the life of heaven passes in praise, so human life can pass in contemplation and wonder before the glory of God that fills the whole earth. The fact that the human gaze sees mostly what is bad, sees the world's imperfection and its damaged state, is the result of our own sin. Our heart is directed not toward seeing the good and giving thanks for it, but toward making claims. We can free ourselves from such a way of seeing and seek the manifestations of God's glory, and then the world will shine with utterly astonishing colors we had not even suspected.

It must not have been by chance that the Lord appeared to the prophet in the year of the king's death. Earthly rulers can change, but the Heavenly King remains forever.

The burning coal with which the seraph touched Isaiah's lips had been taken from the altar that burned before the face of the Lord. Isaiah's prophetic ministry became a participation in sacrifice, just as every true ministry to the Lord is sacrificial. It was the sacrificial coal that cleansed the prophet and enabled him to volunteer boldly to go into service.

But what the prophet must say to the people is hard. He must speak about the fact that people have lost the ability to hear and see, so that addressing them with words of truth and wisdom is pointless. But if that is so, why should the prophet go out to preach at all?

Apparently, so that the words would still sink deep into at least some of the listeners, so that they would be heard by at least a few people. And will those few not be among the remnant that, after all the disasters, will put out a new shoot?