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Pope John Paul II continued his series of meditations on the psalms and canticles of the Liturgy of the Hours during his general audience with 7,000 pilgrims on Nov. 20. His weekly catechesis focused on a canticle from Isaiah 40 that depicts God as the Good Shepherd.

“This image, which appears frequently in the Bible and in other ancient writings, evokes the ideas of leadership and domination,” he noted. “But in this case the characteristics are above all those of tenderness and passion since the shepherd is also the traveling companion of his sheep. He cares for his sheep not only by feeding them and making sure that they do not get lost but also by carrying his lambs in his arms and leading the ewes with care.”

At the same time, he emphasized that the canticle also recognized God's omnipotence as Creator of the universe. “No one can equal him in this grandiose and colossal work,” he noted. “No one is capable of measuring the immense universe that God has created.”

The Holy Father pointed out that St. Cyril of Jerusalem warned us not to “measure God with the yardstick of our human limitations.” Likewise, St. Gregory of Nyssa encouraged us to adore the almighty God.

Nonetheless, the Pope pointed out, St. Jerome recognized that the most amazing evidence of God's power and tenderness can be contemplated at Bethlehem, where God, who is infinite and omnipotent, made himself little and limited. John Paul ended by quoting St. Jerome: “Behold, he who holds the universe in one hand fits in a narrow manger.”

The book of the great prophet Isaiah, who lived in the eighth century B.C., includes words of other prophets who were his disciples and carried on his work. Such is the case with a prophet from the time of Israel's return from exile in Bablyon that took place in the sixth century B.C., whom biblical scholars call the “Deutero Isaiah.” His work is found in Chapters 40-55 of the Book of Isaiah. The canticle that we have just heard and that is recited during morning prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours is taken from the very first of these chapters.

This canticle is comprised of two parts. The first two verses are taken from the end of a very beautiful word of consolation that announces the return of the exiles to Jerusalem under the leadership of God himself (see Isaiah 40:1-11). Subsequent verses form the beginning of an apologetic discourse that exalts God's omnipotence and omniscience and that harshly criticizes those who make idols.

The Good Shepherd

The powerful figure of God appears at the beginning of this liturgical text, as he returns to Jerusalem preceded by his trophies, just as Jacob returned to the Holy Land preceded by his flocks of animals (see Genesis 31:17; 32:17). God's trophies are the exiled Jews, whom he snatched from the hands of their conquerors. Therefore, God is depicted “like a shepherd” (Isaiah 40:11). This image, which appears frequently in the Bible and in other ancient writings, evokes the ideas of leadership and domination, but in this case the characteristics are above all those of tenderness and passion since the shepherd is also the traveling companion of his sheep (see Psalm 23). He cares for his sheep not only by feeding them and making sure that they do not get lost but also by carrying his lambs in his arms and leading the ewes with care (see Isaiah 40:11).

The description of the entrance on the scene of the Lord, who is both King and Shepherd, is followed by a meditation on his work as Creator of the universe. No one can equal him in this grandiose and colossal work: certainly not man, much less dead and impotent idols. The prophet then engages in a series of rhetorical questions — questions, that is, that already include the answer. These questions are asked like in a trial: No one can rival God or claim his immense power and unlimited knowledge.

No one is capable of measuring the immense universe that God has created. The prophet helps us to understand that any human instrument is ridiculously inadequate for such a task. Moreover, God is its sole artisan: No one is capable of helping him or advising him in such an immense project like that of creating the universe (see verses 13-14).

God Is All-Powerful

In his 18th Baptismal Catechesis, which is based on this canticle, St. Cyril of Jerusalem instructs us not to measure God with the yardstick of our human limitations: “For you, who are a small and weak man, the distance from Gotia to India and from Spain to Persia is great, but for God, who has the whole world in the palm of his hand, every land is near” (Le catechesi, Rome, 1993, p. 408).

After having extolled God's omnipotence in creation, the prophet describes his lordship over history and over the nations — over mankind that inhabits the earth. The inhabitants of those lands that are known as well as those remote regions that the Bible calls far-flung “islands” are a microscopic reality in relation to the Lord's infinite grandeur. The images are brilliant and intense: The nations are “as a drop of the bucket,” “as dust on the scales” and “weigh no more than powder” (Isaiah 40:15).

No one is capable of preparing a sacrifice worthy of such a glorious Lord and King: All the sacrificial animals of the earth would not be enough, nor would all of Lebanon's cedar trees suffice for lighting the fire for this holocaust (see verse 16). The prophet makes man aware of his limitations before God's infinite grandeur and supreme omnipotence. His conclusion is incisive: “Before him all the nations are as nought, as nothing and void he accounts them” (verse 17).

The faithful are invited then, from the very beginning of the day, to adore the omnipotent Lord. St. Gregory of Nyssa, a father of the Church in Cappadocia in the fourth century, meditated on Isaiah's canticle with the following words: “When we hear the word ‘omnipotent,’ we think about the fact that God holds everything together in existence, both those that are intelligible as well as those that belong to material creation. For this reason, therefore, he maintains the entire earth in existence, for this reason he holds all the ends of the earth in his hand, for this reason he is able to hold heaven in one fist, for this reason he measures the waters with his hand, for this reason he contains within himself the entire intellectual creation: so that all things will remain in existence, held powerfully with the power that embraces them” (Teologia trinitaria, Milan, 1994, p. 625).

For his part, St. Jerome was amazed by another surprising truth: Christ, who “though he was in the form of God … emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming into human likeness” (Philippians 2:6-7). This infinite and omnipotent God, he noted, made himself little and limited. St. Jerome contemplates him at the stable in Bethlehem and exclaims: “Behold, he who holds the universe in one hand fits in a narrow manger” (Letter 22:39 in Opere scelte, I, Turin, 1971, p. 379).