Catholic lectionary for 14 July 2022

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

Isaiah, Chapter 26, verses 7-9, 12, 16-19

⁵ for his judgements, ¹² and for his favour to his people

⁷The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just.

⁸Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.

⁹With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
...

¹²LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.
...

¹⁶LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.

¹⁷Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD.

¹⁸We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

¹⁹Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

Read more:Isaiah, Chapter 26

Matthew, Chapter 11, verses 28-30

²⁸ he calleth to him all such as feel the burden of their sins

²⁸Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Read more:Matthew, Chapter 12

NOTES

The theme of universal resurrection appears quite early in prophetic preaching. Isaiah of Jerusalem already speaks of it quite clearly. As for existence after death—whether blessed or wretched—the biblical books say practically nothing about it, and what little they do mention is based...

Jesus sometimes describes the Kingdom in a completely astonishing, paradoxical way. What, for example, are we to make of a "good yoke" or a "light burden"! And yet such definitions very accurately describe what the Kingdom is for fallen humanity.

Jesus sometimes describes the Kingdom in a completely astonishing, paradoxical way. What, for example, are we to make of a "good yoke" or a "light burden"! And yet such definitions very accurately describe what the Kingdom is for fallen humanity.

For a normal person, hardly anything positive can be associated with a yoke: in the original sense of the word, a yoke is a collar symbolically placed on an enslaved person as a sign of the person's new condition. And a burden is more readily associated in our minds with a weight that must be carried simply because it cannot be thrown off, and certainly not with the lightness of being. Yet for fallen human nature the Kingdom really is a burden, just as the fallen person can walk the path into the Kingdom only by taking upon himself what the learned rabbis of those times called the "yoke of the Torah."

On Jesus' lips, the "yoke of the Torah" becomes the "yoke of the Kingdom," for the same inner struggle is in view, the struggle characteristic of every fallen person who wants to walk the way of righteousness. It is no accident that Paul also said that through the Torah comes the knowledge of sin: it is precisely the attempts to walk the way of righteousness, to follow the Torah, that reveal to a person his true sinful nature, and then the way of righteousness becomes hard, and the Torah becomes a yoke voluntarily taken upon oneself.

But Jesus speaks of more: He brought into the world not the Torah, which the world knew before His coming, but the Kingdom, where the one walking the way of righteousness could finally receive relief by reaching the goal. Now even the burden of one's own sinfulness, which begins to be felt only when one tries to keep the commandments, becomes light, for now not only the fallen world is real, but also the Kingdom with its life; and the heavier one's own sin becomes, the more one senses the breath of the Kingdom easing its weight. This duality is inevitable. It will remain until the end of time, until the complete transfiguration of human nature. But this duality itself inspires hope, for it testifies that the Kingdom entering the world is not fiction, but reality.

It is strange to hear that what is inaccessible to the wise and prudent is revealed to infants. Of course, we are already used to the fact that Jesus' words contain not only a direct meaning but also a parable. And yet: how can infants contain what proved beyond the strength of the wisest?..

FAQ

Please comment on Isaiah 26:11 and Isaiah 26:15. Why are there significant discrepancies in these and other passages between the Septuagint (and the Slavonic Bible) and the Synodal translation (and the Vulgate)?

Chapter 26 of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, to which the verses you are inquiring about belong, contains a unified poetic work, the "Hymn of Isaiah." It was composed by an unnamed follower of the prophet Isaiah, who lived in the mid-6th century BC and is traditionally referred to as Deutero-Isaiah. This hymn...

What human characteristics should a chosen one (bride) possess for a long and happy family life?

It is rather curious that you ask this question on a biblical website. But since you have, the answer must be sought not in human experience, but in the Bible...

${currentDateString}