Prophecy of Isaias; abasement of Promised Redeemer

Stabat Mater dolorosa. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Our Lenten meditations continue with posts taken from Considerations on the Passion of Jesus Christ* by Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori.

"You may use this little book* in your prayers when you meditate on the Passion. I am using it myself every day. I desire that you should not allow a day to pass without recalling to your mind, with the aid of this or another book, something of the Passion. The Passion was for the saints a continual subject of meditation." (St Alphonsus, 1773)

This grace I ask of thee to-day: obtain for me a continual remembrance of the passion of Jesus, and of thine also, and a tender devotion to them.

Prophecy of Isaias; abasement of Promised Redeemer

[ ] References in the text to numbered footnotes are not hyperlinked but may be found at the end of the relevant paragraph.

We now come to consider the separate sufferings which Jesus Christ endured in his Passion, and which had been foretold for many ages by the prophets, and especially by Isaias, in the fifty-third chapter of his prophecy. This prophet, as St. Irenæus,[1] St. Justin,[2] St. Cyprian,[3] and others say, spoke so distinctly of the sufferings of our Redeemer that he seems to be another Evangelist. Hence St. Augustine says that the words of Isaias, which refer to the Passion of Jesus Christ, call rather for meditations and tears than for the explanations of sacred writers; and Hugo Grotius records that even the old Hebrews themselves could not deny that Isaias (especially in his fifty-third chapter) spoke of the Messiah promised by God. Some have wished to apply the passages of Isaias to persons named in Scripture and not to Jesus Christ; but Grotius [4] answers that no one can be found to whom these texts may be referred.

[1]  St Irenaeus: 2nd century Bp of Lyon; wrote against gnosticism and 'the Proof of the Apostolic Preaching; disciple of St Polycarp (d 155 ), hiumself a disciple of St John the Evangelist.
[2]  St. Justin: Christian apologist, born c A.D. 100, converted to Christianity about A.D. 130; suffered martyrdom in Rome about the year 165. Two "Apologies"  and his "Dialogue with the Jew Tryphon" have survived.
[3] St. Cyprian of Carthage: 3rd century Bp of Carthage and martyr.
[4] Hugo Grotius: 1583-1645. A teenage intellectual prodigy, laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law. His On the truth of the Christian Religion  published in 1627, under the title De veritate religionis Christianae.

Isaias. JJ Tissot. (Public Domain)

Isaias writes: Who hath believed our report; and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? [5] This was fulfilled, as St. John writes, when the Jews, notwithstanding all the miracles which they had seen wrought by Jesus Christ, which proved him to be truly the Messiah sent by God, would not believe in him:

When He did so many miracles before them, they did not believe in Him, that the word of Isaias the prophet might be fulfilled, when he said, Lord, who hath believed our report; and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? [6]

Who will believe, says Isaias, what has been heard by us; and who has recognized the arm, that is, the power of the Lord? In these words he foretold the obstinacy of the Jews in not choosing to believe in Jesus Christ as their Redeemer.

[5] [1] Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
Quis credidit auditui nostro? et brachium Domini cui revelatum est? [Isa 53]
[6] [37] And whereas he had done so many miracles before them, they believed not in him:
Cum autem tanta signa fecisset coram eis, non credebant in eum;
[38] That the saying of Isaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he said: Lord, who hath believed our hearing? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?
ut sermo Isaiae prophetae impleretur, quem dixit : Domine, quis credidit auditui nostro? et brachium Domini cui revelatum est? [John 12]

Despised...most abject. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum

They fancied that this Messiah would exhibit upon earth great pomp, and the splendor of his greatness and power; and that, triumphing over all his enemies, he would thus load the people of the Jews with riches and honors; but no, the prophet adds these words to those above named: He shall grow up as a slender plant before Him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground. [7] The Jews thought that the Saviour would appear like a cedar of Libanus; but Isaias foretold that he would show himself like an humble shrub, or a root which grows in an arid soil, stripped of all beauty and splendor: There is no beauty in Him, nor comeliness. [7] He then goes on to describe the Passion of the Lord: We have seen Him and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of Him.[7] We desired to recognize him, but we could not, for we have seen nothing but a man despised and vile upon the earth, and a man of sorrows: Despised, and the most abject of men,—a man of sorrows; whereupon we esteemed Him not. [8]



 
[7] [2] And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him:
Et ascendet sicut virgultum coram eo; et sicut radix de terra sitienti. Non est species ei, neque decor, et vidimus eum, et non erat aspectus, et desideravimus eum; [Isa 53]
[8] [3] Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not.
despectum, et novissimum virorum, virum dolorum, et scientem infirmitatem; et quasi absconditus vultus ejus et despectus, unde nec reputavimus eum. [Isa 53]

Adam, through his pride in not obeying the divine commands, brought ruin upon all men; therefore the Redeemer, by his humility, chose to bring a remedy to this great evil, and was content to be treated as the lowest and most abject of men; that is, by being reduced to the lowest depths of humiliation. Therefore St. Bernard cried out, “O Thou who art lowest and highest; O Thou humble and lofty; O shame of men and glory of angels! None is loftier than he; none more humble.”  If, then, adds the saint, the Lord, who is higher than all things, has made himself the lowest of all things, every one of us ought to desire that all others should be preferred to him, and fear to be preferred to any. But I, O my Jesus, fear that any should be preferred to me, and desire to be preferred above all. O Lord, give me humility. Thou, O My Jesus, with such love, hast embraced contempt to teach me to be humble and to love a hidden and an abject life; and shall I desire to be esteemed by all, and to display myself in everything? O my Jesus! grant me Thy love; it will make me like to Thee. Let me no more live ungrateful to the love which Thou hast borne to me. Thou art almighty; make me humble, make me holy, make me all Thine own.

Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt. 

Tecum tutus semper sum.
Ad Jesum per Mariam.