In Friday morning prayer, following the great Psalm 51 of Repentance, one prays with a canticle from the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah reflects on God’s greatness as revealed in creation and history — a God who discloses himself while remaining fundamentally hidden. It’s rooted in the historical shock of Israel’s liberation from the Babylonian exile, a deliverance almost as astonishing as the Exodus itself.
In his catechesis on Isaiah 45, Pope St. John Paul II examines the key themes.
The hidden God who acts in history. God works “behind the scenes” as, in John Paul II’s words, a kind of hidden director who “holds in his hand the thread of world events” while still respecting creaturely freedom. His providence isn’t a one-time act at creation’s dawn but a continual sustaining of the world.
Radical monotheism and the rejection of idolatry. Because God alone is God, nothing can rival or replace him — a point the prophet presses sharply against idol-worship. John Paul II notes that this ancient severity toward images doesn’t invalidate the later Christian use of sacred art, since the real danger of idolatry isn’t imagery as such but putting any created thing in God’s place.
A universalist horizon. Israel’s election was never meant as exclusion but as a sign and instrument of God’s love for all humanity. The catechesis reads Isaiah’s climactic line — “To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear” — through the lens of Philippians 2, where this homage is fulfilled in every knee bending at the name of Jesus.
Missionary praise. The Pope closes by framing this prayer as itself missionary: it speaks on behalf of those who don’t yet know Christ, propelling the Church outward to proclaim him as Savior of the world.
Read the Catechesis of John Paul II: On the Mystery and Providence of God
Pray and Meditate on Isaiah 45:15-25, the God of Israel, the savior
Who would ever have thought that the exiles of Israel would be able to return to their country? Considering the power of Babylon, they could easily have despaired. Yet there came the great announcement, the surprise of God, which vibrates in the words of the prophet: as at the time of the Exodus, God will intervene.