Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Isaiah 49:18

Eastern Fathers

Cyril of Alexandria

What, then, is the message promised by the divine words? Namely, the calling and assembling of those who were scattered and a return in the spirit for those who were lost and a way back for those who fled, and a return and a reawakening as well as the reward of love for Christ.… "And I have put them on" says the Lord, "to be the ornament of a bride." Such is the beautiful order of the churches. For it is customary in the divinely breathed Scriptures to decorate the church with gold and colors.

Commentary On Isaiah 4:4.49:18 ↗

Western Saints

Ambrose of Milan

And he added: And in the blood of the grape, his garment: that is, in the suffering of his body, he washed the nations with his blood. For indeed, the nations are the garment of the Word, as it is written: As I live, says the Lord, unless I clothe them all as a garment. And elsewhere: You will change them as a garment, and they will be changed. Therefore, he has cleansed not with his own blood, their sins which they did not have, but with our sins which we have committed.

On the Blessings of the Patriarchs, 4.24 ↗

Jerome

And to make us secure: As I live, says the Lord (which is said according to the custom of swearing in the Old Testament), you will be clothed with all these as with ornaments, and you will surround yourself with them, as a bride adorns herself with a necklace. Blessed is he who has such great merit and virtue that he is called an adornment of the Church. I think, however, that these various spiritual graces are signified, by which the bride is adorned. …

Commentary on Isaiah ↗

Gregory the Dialogist

We have often said already that blessed Job stands for a type of Holy Church. But all they, who are joined to it by the unity of the Faith, are the garments of the Church. Of which the Lord says to the same Church by the Prophet, "As I live, thou shall be clothed with all these, as with an ornament." But by the south wind, which is doubtless warm, is designated, not improperly, the Holy Spirit, for when any one is touched by It, he is freed from the torpor of his iniquity. …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book 27, Section 38 ↗