Homilies on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah
By St. John Chrysostom
Chapter 1: The Vision of Isaiah
1. He calls his vision prophecy either because he had before him many future events, and so Micah saw the scattering of the people, Ezekiel the captivity and prevarication of those who worshiped the sun and Thamuze; or because the things that the prophets heard coming from God, they were no less sure than the vision itself and produced an equal certainty, which could not take place outside the divine intervention. They heard otherwise than the rest of men, for Isaiah said, "He has added an ear to me to hear. (Isaiah, L, 4.) By calling his prophecy "vision," he makes his story more credible, he excites the listener's attention, and makes him think of the author of the vision. All those who bring us oracles from God are above all careful to establish this point, that they say nothing that comes from their own funds, but that their words are only divine revelations, that writings come down from the sky. So David said, "My tongue is the pen of a writer who writes quickly. So do not think that the letters come from the pen, but from the hand that holds it, that is to say, not from the language of David, but from the grace that move it. Another prophet who wanted to show the same thing said, "I was a goatherd, snatching sycamores. (Amos, VII, 14.) So that we must not judge these words according to the rules of human wisdom. And this very word was not enough for him, he added: "The Spirit of the Lord filled me with strength, judgment, and power. For grace has made them not only wise, but strong not according to the body, but according to the soul. As they had to address a daring and impudent people, altered from the blood of the prophets, delighted in massacring the saints, they certainly needed a lot of strength not to fear his anger. Therefore the Lord said to Jeremiah, "I have placed you as naked iron cotton sea and as a wall of brass; And to Ezekiel "You live in the midst of scorpions, do not fear in front of them and do not fear them. And when Moses was sent, it is not only in my opinion because he feared Pharaoh that he wanted to refuse his mission, but because he feared the Jewish people. This is why, in talking with God, without even thinking of the king, he inquires with great care what he will have to say to those who will not recognize him as God's envoy, and it was for the to convince that he received the power of miracles; and it was with reason. For if only one of them who had even been saved by him frightened him to the point of flight, what should he not have felt in thinking of all this turbulent people? So besides the Spirit of wisdom, he also received the Spirit of strength, as another prophet said of himself. "The Spirit of the Lord filled me with strength, judgment, and power (Micah III, 8); And another "The word of God was heard by Jeremiah son of Chelcias (Jeremiah 1:1); And yet another: "Inspiration against Nineveh: book of Nahum's vision of Elcesai. (Nahum.) The latter, while using another term, utters the same thing as the first: he calls inspired those whose Spirit has seized. It is because in speaking thus they were dominated by the Holy Spirit that he called the operation of grace. It is for the same reason that St. Paul places at the head of all his epistles his title of an apostle; what the prophets did by using the words vision, speech, inspiration, speech; he does so by using the word apostle. If he who says vision, word of God, announces nothing that comes from him, he who is called an apostle, that is, sent, neither teaches a doctrine of his own, but the doctrine of the One who sent him. The function of an apostle consists precisely in giving nothing that comes from oneself. This is why Christ says, "Call no one your master on the earth, only one is your Master, and he is in heaven (Matt XXIII, 10); He shows us that what we teach has its beginning and root in our heavenly Master, although the ministers of the word are men. What does Isaiah experience? How do the prophets perceive what they see, it is not for us to say: our speech is powerless to explain the mode of their vision; he alone knows him who has experienced it. If our nature, whether it acts, or remains passive, has secrets that no one can account for, how could we explain how to operate the Holy Spirit? If, however, it is necessary, by obscure images, to try to show it not in a clear light, but as in enigmas, it seems to me that the prophets are experiencing something analogous to what is done in pure water that comes to illuminate the rays. of the sun that their souls purified first by their own virtues, and also made apt to reflect the divine light, then receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, and with it the knowledge of the future.
