Isaiah – the prophet of divine light

Plato, in the Dialogue Timaeus, stated that history is cyclical and that time is a dynamic measure of eternity. The history of Ancient Israel, as well as that of today, was a difficult one, with the inconstancy of ups and downs. But for each of our times, history descended from heaven, God sends us prophetic personalities, capable of changing its meaning, towards its salvation. Isaiah, the prophet-“evangelist” of the Old Testament from the 8th century BC, is such a man, not only instructed in the wisdom of the worldly, but above all “illuminated” by the fire of the red-hot coal of the revealed Word (6, 6-7). The prophet of “God’s salvation,” Isaiah, is the model that contemporary times would need: a model of politician-diplomat at the court of Ahaz, urging humanity towards times of messianic peace (2:2-4), a model of a man involved in community life, accusing those who “call evil good and good evil” (5:20), a model of a theologian of divine light, launching the call of eternity: “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” (2:5).

In the Bright Week of the Resurrection of Christ the Lord, Isaiah reveals his specificity as a prophet of the light of the Resurrection: “Your dead will live, and their bodies will rise! Awake, sing for joy, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is a dew of light, and the shadows will rise from the bosom of the earth” (26:19). God is the One who “forms the light” (45:7). He is for Israel “an everlasting light” (60:19-20). The law of God will be “a light to the nations” (51:4), which “rises like the dawn” and “hurries healing” (58:8). The light of God’s glory cannot be hidden. In the messianic times, it “rises in the darkness, and the gloom becomes like the noonday” (58:10).

Isaiah was the one who stated the words that the Church sang on the evenings of the Feast of Tabernacles: “The people who lived in darkness have seen a great light; you who lived in the land of the shadow of death, upon you light has dawned” (9:1). And he also announced the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem, full of light, but also of humility: “Shine, shine, Jerusalem, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!” (60:1). But the prophet of Christ Crucified, of the Servant of God (42:1-4; 49:4-9; 50:4-9; 52:13; 53), is also the prophet of His Resurrection, of our life in the light of divine blessing. That is why the Church calls us today not only to a simple reading of the book of Isaiah, but also to the sharing of the light of divine wisdom, through the revealed words of the prophet: "Come now, you who desire to receive the gift of prophetic light, let us approach with zeal and with constant desire the book of Isaiah, which is full of divine knowledge, and let us be filled with divine light" (Maturity, Canticle IX).

Father Cătălin Vatamanu