NOTES for Isa 6:1-12

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.

Today we read one of the most famous and beautiful passages in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah—his vision in the Temple in Jerusalem. The prophet beholds the heavenly worship in which bodiless beings eternally glorify the holiness of the Lord of Hosts. This angelic praise is the greatest and fullest opposite of sin. The life of heaven is centered upon it because everyone who sees the Lord sees all His beauty. Glorifying this beauty and holiness makes those who offer praise themselves participants in divine life. It is not that God forces the angels to glorify Him. He has no need of this song of praise. On earth, when we see something truly beautiful, we exclaim, “What a wonder! How marvelous!” The song of the seraphim is of precisely this kind; it is born of wonder and amazement at the divine perfections.

It is also worthy of wonder and amazement that the seraphim say that the whole earth is full of God’s glory. This already concerns us human beings directly. Just as the life of heaven is spent in praise, so human life too may be spent contemplating and marveling at the glory of God that fills the whole earth. This is precisely what the Church does in the liturgy.

For some reason, the Lord needs to send someone. We always want Him to act everywhere and in everything by Himself, directly. But there are at least two reasons why He does not do so. The first is that He is, after all, God and not one of us. Since the incarnation of the Son of God, we often forget this, and then we begin to imagine that He is simply obliged to come down to earth and take part in all our affairs... We forget that His help is not an obligation but a great mercy. The second reason is His respect for our freedom. He wants us to hear His voice not because it is impossible not to hear it, but because we have chosen to listen. He leaves us free to stop our ears—and therefore He sends a human being.

The prophet Isaiah does not ask at all why God needs to send someone. He simply responds instantly to the call: “If You need to send someone, here I am; send me.”

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.

In the temple of Jerusalem the prophet Isaiah contemplates the celestialdivine worship, in which the immaterial creatures glorify eternally theholiness of the Lord of hosts. Particularly this angelic praise is the maximumand complete contrariety of sin. The life of heaven is concentrated in itbecause each of those that see the Lord sees all His beauty. The glorificationof this beauty and holiness makes laudatives participants of the Divine life.It is not that God forced the angels to glorify Him. He doesn’t need thispraising song. When we see here on earth something really beautiful, weexclaim: "what a miracle! That’s amazing! ". The song of the seraphimsis in particular of this kind, it arises from the delight and from theadmiration of the divine perfections.

And still worthy of delight and admiration is the fact that seraphims saythat all the earth is full of the glory of God. It already has a direct relationwith us men. Quite as the life of heaven goes on in praises, so the life of mancan go on in the contemplation and the admiration of the glory of God, of whichthe whole earth is full. The fact that human sight sees basically the bad, seesthe imperfection of the world, its damage - is the result of our own sin. Ourheart is directed not to see the good and give thanks for it, but to present aclaim. We can free ourselves from such sight, look for the demonstrations ofthe glory of God - and then the world will begin to shine with completelywonderful colors, of which we didn’t even suspect.

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.

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?

How does an ordinary person become a prophet? The prophets themselves describe it in very different ways, but there is always a moment when God calls a person and the person responds. Sometimes this dialogue continues further. Look: God sends Isaiah a vision in the Temple. Isaiah's response is repentance: “Woe is me! I am lost!” God grants him purification and addresses him again: “Whom shall I send?” Isaiah replies, “Here I am; send me.” Then God reveals to him the truth that Isaiah must proclaim to the people. Everything Isaiah will say afterward unfolds what is contained in condensed form in verses 9-13. To hear God's voice and walk the path He commands, leading others with us—this is the ministry of a prophet.

"My son, keep your father's commandment, and do not reject your mother's teaching..." When we were little, we sometimes thought: when I grow up, I will not have to obey Mom and Dad; I will be an adult, I will do what I want, and I will eat a whole mountain of candy at once. Then we grow up, and we no longer want a mountain of candy; we do not even want one piece, but we want something else. And again it turns out that we cannot. So where is that vaunted freedom?..

Here is what the well-known Protestant thinker of the middle of the last century, Karl Barth, writes: "freedom can be defined as a person's independence from any inner compulsion." In reality it turns out to be the opposite: it is not what cuts us off from the object of our desire that deprives us of freedom, but this very desire, arising within us, that becomes the cause of our suffering and deprives us of the blessed freedom to be ourselves. This puts everything in its place. But still, what are we to do with these endless external limits, all the way to the limit of the very span of our life? Okudzhava once put it wonderfully: "The whole world is made of limits, / So happiness will not drive us mad". Ironic, funny? In fact, very deep.

Here is what Barth writes: "The fact that limits are given to us does not testify to the imperfection of the world; limits are not the chains of an evil fate. We are given the freedom to know what we are permitted to know, to accomplish what we are permitted to accomplish. In this freedom is God's will, God's blessing to His creation." But why was it God's will that we should suffer from the unrealized state of our desires? So that happiness would not drive us mad. The ancient Romans also said: "whom Jupiter wishes to destroy, he deprives of reason." But God certainly does not want to destroy us.

"From my youth many passions war against me,
but You Yourself defend me and save me, my Savior"
(Antiphon, Tone 4)

The advice not to stand surety for one’s neighbor seems strange. Should a person in need of a guarantor really be left to fend for himself while we care only about our own interests? For, in the words of Jesus son of Sirach, “A good man will be surety for his neighbor, but he who has lost all sense of shame will abandon him” (Sir. 29:17).

It seems that this is not about treating someone in need with indifference, but about the need not to be so naive as to allow swindlers to abuse your trust. Such trust makes a person dependent on the one in whom he has placed it. But one may depend only on God.

A person who stands surety often risks being let down by the one for whom he has vouched, and thus makes a sacrifice. But a sacrifice should not be frivolous or reckless. The person unwilling to break free from enslaving bonds is called lazy and is advised to follow the example of the ant, which works without compulsion. Entomologists may dispute the accuracy of this comparison, but it is more important to understand the meaning of the metaphor: a call to free, voluntary labor. Thus, even in ancient times wise people understood that freedom to act is higher than freedom from action.