Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Isaiah 61:8

Western Saints

Jerome

And I will give their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. And their seed will be known among the nations, and their offspring in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them, that they are the offspring whom the Lord has blessed. LXX: And I will give their labor to the righteous, and I will establish an eternal covenant with them. And their seed will be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples. …

Commentary on Isaiah ↗

Gregory the Dialogist

But it is one thing to show mercy for sins, another to sin for the sake of showing mercy, which cannot really be called mercy since it does not issue in sweet fruit, since it is embittered through the influence of a diseased root. For here the Lord rebukes such sacrifices through the prophet, saying, "I, the Lord, love justice and hate robbery with whole burnt offerings." … Such people also often withdraw from the poor what they give to God. But the Lord shows how strongly he disowns and censures such conduct.

The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 3, Chapter 21 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

And he assigns the reason: for I am the Lord. And this is the sense: because the Lord loves justice, he will grant to you that you will be just, that thus you may be pleasing to him, and he will make a covenant with you of everlasting joy; I hate robbery in a holocaust: he that offers sacrifice of the goods of the poor, is as one that sacrifices the son in the presence of his father (Sir 34:24); a perpetual covenant: and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah (Jer 31:31).

Commentary on Isaiah ↗