Isaiah — Chapter 64
Synopsis Capitis
Synopsis: Continuation of the great prayer of ch.63 — 'Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down' (v.1). The confession of universal sinfulness: 'We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment' (v.6). The image of the potter and the clay (v.8). Lapide reads v.4 (cited by Paul in 1 Cor 2:9) as the supreme statement of heaven's transcendence over all human expectation.
Verse 4
A saeculo non audierunt nec auribus perceperunt: oculus non vidit Deus absque te
From ancient times no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. Paul (1 Cor 2:9) adapts this: 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.' Lapide's extensive treatment: Paul's version is slightly different and broader than Isaiah's (Paul extends it to the general beatitude, not just to God's saving acts). The passage proves that the beatific vision surpasses all natural human expectation and imagination — a key text for eschatological theology. 'No eye has seen' = the beatific vision is not the highest mode of any human experience but an entirely new category of knowing God.
Verse 8
Et nunc Domine, Pater noster es tu: nos vero lutum et figulus noster tu
But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. The potter-clay image (cf. Jer 18, Rom 9:20-21): God's absolute sovereignty over human nature, history, and destiny. Lapide: the prayer does not use this as a counsel of despair ('we are mere clay') but as a plea for mercy ('you made us; you can remake us'). The potter who shapes the clay is responsible for it in a way that the clay is not responsible for itself. Applied to prayer: the soul that acknowledges its total dependence on God ('we are your work') has the strongest possible basis for petitioning divine mercy.