Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday in Advent

Rejoice, thirsty deserted land! Let a deserted land rejoice, and let it blossom like a lily. And the desolate places of the Jordan will blossom and rejoice. The glory of Lebanon was given to it, and the honor of Carmel. And my people will see the glory of the Lord and the exaltation of God. Be strong, hands at ease and feeble knees! Give comfort, fainthearted in mind! Be strong; do not be frightened! Look, our God is repaying judgment, and he will repay! He himself will come and save us! Then blind people’s eyes will be opened, and dumb people’s ears will hear. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the stammerer’s tongue will be clear, because water has broken forth in the desert, and a ravine in a thirsting land. And the waterless place will turn into marshes, and there will be a spring of water in the thirsty land; there birds’ happiness will be a dwelling of reed and marshes. A pure path will be there, and it will be called a holy path, and certainly no impure person will pass by there, nor will there be an impure path there, but those who are scattered abroad will walk on it; they will certainly not be misguided. And there will be no lion there, and certainly none of the evil beasts will come up to it or be found there, but rather a redeemed people will walk in it, those gathered because of the Lord; and they will return and come into Zion with happiness, and eternal happiness will be over their head. There will be praise and rejoicing, and happiness will overtake them; pangs and sorrow and groaning have fled away! (Isaiah 35:1–10 LXX)

After prophesying about this and clearly announcing the coming of God, the Word introduces signs and tokens of his virtuous actions when he says next: Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of stammerers shall be clear. And these things were distinctly fulfilled during the advent of our Savior, Jesus Christ, when each of these statements found fulfillment, for in his divine and rejuvenating power he healed every sickness and infirmity. He healed not only the sufferings of their bodies with the word of his teaching but also of their souls. Still, even now throughout the whole world, among all the nations, there are those who, in their crippledness and blindness of soul, were once astounded at the lifeless and motionless statues. Illuminated by his light, the eyes of their souls are enabled to see what kind of gods these statues are, and so they eschew the superstition handed down to them from their ancestors and instead make known the one and only true God. And the dumb and those who were at first deaf to the divine words, through his grace they have now become versed in listening to the inspired words, and those who passed by the steps of the soul leaped up like “deer” and became like their teachers, whom the prophecy called “deer” a little earlier. And the tongue of stammerers, which “Satan bound” so that it would not acknowledge the true God, this tongue has learned to utter clear and articulate sounds. And one would not be incorrect to say that the stammerers are none other than “the wise men of this age,” who scarcely ever dare to think or say anything correct about God.

Eusebius of Caesarea, Commentary on Isaiah 35

It follows, No lion shall be there, namely our adversary the devil, who prowls about roaring [cf. 1 Pet 5:8], seeking how he might be able to enter the sheepfold of the Lord [cf. John 10:1, 10], and no evil beasts, his accomplices, shall go up by it. For the traces of the serpent cannot be found on the rock [cf. Prov 30:19]. But those shall walk by it who have been delivered from the chains of sins, and have been redeemed by the blood of the Savior, and have done penance, and have “come into Zion.” Of “Zion” we have quite often spoken: “You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” [Heb 12:22]. May we not seek in a Jewish manner a golden Zion and bejeweled Jerusalem [cf. Rev 21:10–11, 19–21], which, according to the prophecy of Daniel was reduced to everlasting ashes [cf. Dan 9:26–27]?

And there shall be everlasting joy upon the heads of those who praise the Lord, that after they have overcome the world, they will be able to say with the Apostle and the prophet, “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of justice” [2 Tim 4:7–8]; and “O Lord, You have crowned us as with a shield of your good will” [Ps 5:12]. Then, while joy and gladness increase, sorrow and groaning shall flee away, when He who rescues will come out of Zion [cf. Isa 59:20]. In accordance with the Apostle Paul, we interpret all these things in respect to the first coming of Savior; the Jews, however, and our Judaizers, relate them to the second coming, on the pretext of the one little line, They shall return and shall come into Zion with praise, longing for the blood of sacrifices and the servitude of all the nations and the beauty of women.

St. Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 10.35