“The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to answer the weary a word that will waken them. Morning after morning he wakens my ear to hear as disciples do.” (Isaiah 50:4.)
Saint Justin of Rome comments on this verse from the First Reading proclaimed at Mass today:
“The power of his mighty word with which he always refuted the Pharisees and scribes, and indeed all the teachers of your race who disputed with him, was stopped like a full and mighty fountain whose waters have been suddenly shut off when he remained silent and would no longer answer his accusers before Pilate, as was recorded in the writings of the apostles, in order that those words of Isaiah might bear fruit in action: “The Lord gives me a tongue, that I may know when I ought to speak.” And his words, “You are my God, depart not from me,” teach us to put all our trust in God, the Creator of all things, and to seek aid and salvation from him alone; and not to imagine, as other [people] do, that we can attain salvation by means of birth, or wealth, or power or wisdom..” (Dialogue with Trypho, 102)
Collect
O God,
Who willed Your Son
to submit for our sake
to the yoke of the Cross,
so that You might drive from us
the power of the enemy,
grant us, Your servants,
to attain the grace of the resurrection.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Who willed Your Son
to submit for our sake
to the yoke of the Cross,
so that You might drive from us
the power of the enemy,
grant us, Your servants,
to attain the grace of the resurrection.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
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
