Catholic lectionary for 4 December 2025

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

Isaiah, Chapter 26, verses 1-6

¹ A song inciting to confidence in God, ⁵ for his judgements

¹In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.

²Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.

³Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

⁴Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:

⁵For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.

⁶The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.

Read more:Isaiah, Chapter 26

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26 A song of praise and confidence in God, for the blessings of righteousness, judgments on their enemies, and favour to his people: their chastisement, repentance, and hope, Isa 26:1-21.

26:1 In that day - When God shall do such glorious works, as are described in the foregoing chapter. Sung - In the church of God.A city - Jerusalem, or the church, which is often compared to a city.For walls - God's immediate and saving protection shall be to his church instead of walls.

26:2 The gates - Of the city, mentioned ver. Isa 26:1.The nation - The whole body of righteous men, whether Jews or Gentiles. For he seems to speak here, as he apparently did in the foregoing chapter, of the times of the gospel.Keepeth truth - Which is sincere in the true religion.

26:4 For ever - In all times and conditions.

26:5 On high - He speaks not so much of height of place, as of dignity and power, in which sense also he mentions the lofty city in the next clause. Lofty city - Which may be understood either of proud Babylon, or of all the strong and stately cities of God's enemies.

26:6 The needy - God will bring it under the feet of his poor, and weak, and despised people.

Matthew, Chapter 7, verses 21, 24-27

²¹ not to be hearers but doers of the word, ²⁴ like houses builded on a rock, ²⁶ and not on the sand

²¹Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
...

²⁴Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

²⁵And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

²⁶And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

²⁷And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

Read more:Matthew, Chapter 7

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7 Our Lord now proceeds to warn us against the chief hinderances of holiness. And how wisely does he begin with judging? wherein all young converts are so apt to spend that zeal which is given them for better purposes.

7:21 Not every one - That is, no one that saith, Lord, Lord - That makes a mere profession of me and my religion, shall enter - Whatever their false teachers may assure them to the contrary:He that doth the will of my Father - as I have now declared it.Observe: every thing short of this is only saying, Lord, Lord. Luk 6:46.

NOTES

Fallen humanity tends to hope in the magical power of the word. Even in prehistoric antiquity, when pronouncing a word, naming something, the human being was sure that one could influence the thing named. Later this attitude was transferred to people and to gods. It was believed that...

The desire for firmness, for a reliable ordering of life, belongs to almost every person. To a significant degree, many of our opinions and actions are explained by this desire. As Matthew concludes the account of the Sermon on the Mount, he includes in it...

The whole life of the Kingdom is built on a system of relationships: those that bind people to one another, unite them with God and with Christ, and, finally, the relationships of Christ Himself with His Heavenly Father. These relationships themselves make up...

The whole life of the Kingdom is built on a system of relationships: those that bind people to one another, unite them with God and with Christ, and, finally, the relationships of Christ Himself with His Heavenly Father. These relationships themselves make up the spiritual foundation of the Kingdom and give it form; that is why they turn out to be something absolutely important and valuable in themselves. But how, under what conditions, is a true, deep relationship possible? A relationship is an intention, an act of will, and the force of an act of will is determined by a person's inner state, the quality of that person's life - not by what he does, but by how he exists.

At creation God gives each person that power of life which, like a stream, flows through him, and in which he, in turn, also moves as in a stream. And He also gives each person His breath - the breath of life, the Presence that determines the quality of the stream of life in which we abide and which abides in us. The will is only the manifestation of this very breath of life. It is born where Presence meets nature. The measure of the fullness of Presence determines the quality of nature, the quality of life - and therefore the intensity of the act of will, its depth and strength. And with that, the depth of relationship, the very thing on which the Kingdom is founded. Everything else, all a person's outward activity, is only the outward manifestation of that stream of life which abides in us and in which we abide.

And miracles... well, miracles are possible. Healings too. And the casting out of demons. But for the person himself this often changes nothing, because both miracles and healings are performed by the action of God's breath, and demons flee from that same breath. But whether this breath will change the person himself, whether it will give a different quality to his existence, depends only on the person himself.

Of course, this will not happen automatically. And if a person relied on works - even miraculous and supernatural ones - and not on living relationships with Christ, at the end of the path he can find himself with nothing. After all, all the miracles and healings essentially took place only around him, without changing his own life, that depth of it which in the Kingdom becomes the surface. And then an answer sounds that is unexpected for the person and frightening in its unexpectedness - quite natural, alas.

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...

Could you please explain? "...whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also". Why?

In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself explains these words quite clearly, saying, "do not resist an evil person". In human society, including in Israel during the time of Christ's earthly life, the widespread opinion is that violence must be avenged...

What are the 2 variants of understanding life (what is common, what is different) in the book of Ecclesiastes and in the Sermon on the Mount (Gospel of Matthew chapters 5-7)? What is the purpose, meaning, and value of life?

Both of these biblical texts, so different at first glance, reflect a single understanding of life. The foundation of the understanding of life in Ecclesiastes is, perhaps, that within the framework of earthly life everything that seems valuable and significant to man is, in fact, vanity and a chasing after the wind...

Both of these biblical texts, so different at first glance, reflect a single understanding of life.

The foundation of the understanding of life in Ecclesiastes is, perhaps, that within the framework of earthly life everything that seems valuable and significant to man is, in fact, vanity and a chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes seeks and finds nothing on earth to which the heart should be attached, which could become a source of happiness, a source of life for man. Even wisdom and moderation, so valued by the ancients, give us nothing but privation, even voluntary privation. Only in God does Ecclesiastes hope to find meaning; but God remains incomprehensible and distant to him. To draw near to Him is hardly possible for man.

The understanding of life in Ecclesiastes is colored by inescapable sorrow, because in this life he sees suffering and emptiness behind everything. The book ends with an unspoken hope for "that day" when the sun and stars will grow dim, and this earthly world will come to its end. The "Day of the Lord," the "Day of Judgment," as the great prophets of the Old Testament called it, may perhaps give man some understanding of the meaning of existence. But the light of this hope is hidden from Ecclesiastes; written in the period between the return from the Babylonian captivity and the coming of Christ, this book sums up the hopeless, joyless, and meaningless existence of man before Christ. The sorrow of Ecclesiastes is such that nothing earthly can quench it, and in this lies the greatest realism of this book.

The fundamental meaning of the understanding of life behind the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount is that only God Himself can be the answer to all our questions. The only thing that can be the purpose and meaning of human life is God Himself. Not something proceeding from Him, not earthly life in itself, nor even eternity can quench the thirst resounding in the words of Ecclesiastes. Only God… And the most important thing that the Lord Jesus proclaimed to people is that God has come to us to give us meaning, joy, and life. Even suffering becomes for us not just a symptom of mortality, but a meeting place with the Incomprehensible. Deeds of mercy and the fulfillment of the law, meekness and the rejection of violence, love for people itself — everything gains meaning only because here we find God. "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," the Lord repeats more than once in the Gospel. That Kingdom where life finds meaning, that for which it would be worth living, is inaccessible to us — but this Kingdom itself has drawn near to us out of God's great love.

In Christ, man finds what Ecclesiastes sought and did not find. But nowhere else but in Him can this be found — in this both the book of Ecclesiastes and the Sermon on the Mount converge. Of course, this answer is necessarily brief and most likely incomplete. If we briefly answer your second question in the same way, it will be something like this: The purpose of our life is God Himself, a Person whom one can love, seek, comprehend, and trust. At the same time, the purpose of our life is to fulfill God's design for us: to bring His love into the created world, to serve as a creative principle in the world. This is possible for us only together with God; by ourselves we can create nothing but chaos. These two aspects of the purpose of our life unite in the possibility of being the presence of God in this world, a Temple of the Holy Spirit, as the apostle Paul expresses it.

The meaning of life is thus hidden in the Almighty Himself. As Saint Augustine, the great Christian thinker of the late 4th — early 5th centuries, said addressing God: "You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You." The Lord Jesus Christ Himself expressed this mystery in the words of a prayer addressed to the Father: "That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us." The love that unites us with God to the very depths of our and His nature — this, perhaps, is the meaning of our life. The value of human life I would measure by God's love for each of us. We are weak, empty, and barren; our life often seems worthless to us. But God loves us not because we are good, but because He is God. And we are valuable not because we are good, but because we are loved by Him.

It is unlikely that this answer can claim completeness and objectivity. But, I hope it is direct enough. Practice shows that it hides a wonderful power of life; moreover, it is important to bear in mind that when we meet God, questions disappear. Not that we receive answers, — but there comes a moment when you forget about questions and begin to live, because God Himself is the answer to everything.

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