We are just about to
finish the study of Old Testament Canticles. Today’s canticle reminds us that “It
is not the nether world that gives you thanks…the living, the living give you
thanks”.
Isaiah 38:10-14,
17-20
I said, “In the prime of my life
must I go through the gates of death
and be robbed of the rest of my years?”
I said, “I will not again see
the Lord himself
in the land of the living;
no longer will I look on my fellow man,
or be with those who now dwell in this world.
Like a shepherd’s tent my house
has been pulled down and taken from me.
Like a weaver I have rolled up my life,
and he has cut me off from the loom;
day and night you made an end of me.
I waited patiently till dawn,
but like a lion he broke all my bones;
day and night you made an end of me.
I cried like a swift or
thrush,
I moaned like a mourning dove.
My eyes grew weak as I looked to the heavens.
I am being threatened; Lord, come to my aid!”
Surely it was for my benefit
that I suffered such anguish.
In your love you kept me
from the pit of destruction;
you have put all my sins
behind your back.
For the grave cannot praise you,
death cannot sing your praise;
those who go down to the pit
cannot hope for your faithfulness.
The living, the living—they praise you,
as I am doing today;
parents tell their children
about your faithfulness.
The Lord will save me,
and we will sing with stringed instruments
all the days of our lives
in the temple of the Lord.
JOHN PAUL II GENERAL
AUDIENCE Wednesday 27 February 2002
In the various canticles that it combines with the
Psalms, the Liturgy of the Hours offers us a hymn of thanksgiving with the
title: "The Canticle of Hezekiah, King of Judah, after he had been sick
and recovered from his sickness"…. today we have heard and used for our
prayer two strophes of the Canticle that describe the two typical movements of
the prayer of thanksgiving: first, one evokes the nightmare of suffering from
which the Lord has freed his faithful one, and second, one joyfully sings in
thanksgiving for the recovery of life and salvation…. As I said earlier, he [Hezekiah] first looks
to the past. According to the ancient conception of Israel, death introduced
one into a subterranean existence, in Hebrew Sheol, where light was put out,
life faded away and became almost ghostlike, time came to a halt, hope was
extinguished, and above all there was no longer any possibility of calling upon
God and meeting him in worship. This is
why Hezekiah recalled first of all the words full of bitterness that he spoke
when his life was sliding towards the frontier of death: "I shall not see
the Lord in the land of the living" (v. 11). The Psalmist also prayed this
way on the day of his sickness: "No one among the dead remembers you, O
Lord. Who sings your praises in Sheol?" (Ps 6,6). Instead, freed from the
danger of death, Hezekiah could confirm forcefully and joyfully: "The
living, the living, give you thanks as I do this day" (Is 38,19)…. in the day of sickness and suffering, it is
right to raise one's lament to God, as Hezekiah teaches us; using poetic
images, he describes his weeping as the chirping of a swallow and the moaning
of a dove (cf. Is 38,124). And, even if he doesn't hesitate to admit that he
feels that God is an adversary, almost like a lion that breaks all his bones
(cf. v. 13), he does not cease to invoke him: "O Lord, I am in straits; be
my surety!" (v. 14). The Lord is not indifferent to the
tears of the one who suffers, and he responds, consoles and saves, although not
always in ways that coincide with what we expect. It is what Hezekiah confesses
at the end, encouraging all to hope, to pray, to have confidence, with the
certainty that God will not abandon his creatures: "The Lord is our savior;
we shall sing to stringed instruments in the house of the Lord all the days of
our life" (v. 20)…. Thus, St Bernard reads the prayer of the king as
representing the prayerful song of the Christian should have the same constancy
and serenity in the darkness of the night and of trial, and in the light of day
and of joy.
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