“This is for me like the days of Noah: As I swore then that the waters of Noah should never again flood the earth, So I have sworn now not to be angry with you, or to rebuke you.” (Isaiah 54:9.)
Saint Jerome offers the following insight on this verses from today’s First Reading:
“The sense that the Septuagint gives is confused and all things are disordered, so that what is said is hard to understand. It is not that I do not know what that very wise man has said on this chapter but rather that it does not satisfy my mind. For he takes it to be about a figurative flood that means the Savior’s baptism that in baptism he removed all sins. In this figure the water cleanses us, not washing away the dirtiness of flesh but by the appeal of a good conscience to God. The mountains and the hills are those saints who were not moved in the flood of this sort, having accepted the eternal covenant, although in the previous flood they were moved, but they left their weakness behind.” (Commentary on Isaiah, 15.)
Collect
Unworthy servants that we are, O Lord,
grieved by the guilt of our deeds,
we pray that You may gladden us
by the saving advent
of Your Only Begotten Son.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
grieved by the guilt of our deeds,
we pray that You may gladden us
by the saving advent
of Your Only Begotten Son.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen
