Lesson at Matins – Isaias xlii. 1‒7
Behold my servant, I will uphold him; my elect, my soul delights in him; I have given my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth judgement to the Gentiles. He will not cry, nor have respect to person, neither will his voice be heard abroad. The bruised reed he will not break, and the smoking flax he will not quench: he will bring forth judgement to truth. He will not be sad, nor troublesome, till he set judgement in the Earth: and the islands will wait for his law. Thus says the Lord God that created the heavens, and stretched them out: that established the earth, and the things that spring out of it: that giveth breath to the people upon it, and spirit to them that tread thereon. I the Lord have called you in justice, and taken you by the hand, and preserved you. And I have given you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles: that you might open the eyes of the blind, and bring forth the prisoner out of prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
Thanks be to God.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
How sweet and peaceful is your entrance into this world, O Jesus! Your voice is not heard giving its commands. And your hands, the hands of a yet unborn babe, seem too weak to break the reed, so frail, that a breath would break it. What is it you are come to do in this first Coming? Your heavenly Father tells it us by the Prophet. You are coming that you may be the pledge of a covenant between Heaven and Earth. O divine Infant! Son of God, and yet Son of man, blessed be your Coming among us! Your crib will be the Ark which will save us, and when you walk on our Earth, it will be to give us light and set us free from our prison house of darkness. It is just, therefore, that we should rise and meet you on your approach, seeing that you have come all this way to us. “If the sick man cannot go out some distance to meet so great a Physician,” says Saint Bernard, “let him, at least, make an effort to raise his head and turn towards Him as He enters. It is not required of you, O man! to pass the seas, or ascend the clouds, or cross the Alps. The way that is shown to you is not a long one. Go as far as your own self and there meet your God: for the word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart (Romans x. 8). Meet Him at least at your heart’s compunction and your mouth’s confession, that you may at least go out of the filth of your guilty conscience, for into that you surely never would make the author of purity enter!”
Glory, then, be to you, O Jesus, for sparing the broken reed that so it may regain its verdure and strength on the banks of the stream, of which you are the source! Glory be to you for having checked the breath of your almighty justice, and so cherishing the last spark left in the smoking flax that it might burn up again and give light at the Bridegroom’s feast.
