Pure Land Ministries: A Homily – The Second Sunday of Advent (Year A)

First Reading – Isaiah 11:1-10 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 71(72):1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17 ©

Second Reading – Romans 15:4-9 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 3:4, 6

The Gospel According to Matthew 3:1 - 12 ©

(NJB)

Listen!

Let your heart be filled with hope, filled to overflowing; let it flow through the wisdom of Isaiah. Reflect on the power of his words, and the sense of encouragement he shares with the people as he recapitulates the past while directing them toward a blessed future.

Let me be clear, Isaiah is a fictional person, the writings attributed to Isaiah (first and second) should be seen as belonging to a school of thought, one that is articulated to the people of Israel and Judea over the course of several generations. These writings represent the real concerns of real people dwelling in the midst of crises over the course of several decades.

The School of Isaiah served as a beacon of hope, promising the people a return to the way of justice, to the way of peace, and an end to the wars and the conflicts that had come to be an ordinary feature of life in the land.

Hope is eternal and though God does not intervene in the order of creation, the divine purpose is present in all times and places, in all things and beings. Through the eternal mystery of the divine will, God draws the whole of it to God’s own self…reordering creation in the process.

God’s promise is real and true, according to Isaiah; there is a way to justice and peace, there is a way to end war and heal the wounds of conflict. This is the hope Isaiah expresses when he tells us that the wolf lives with the lamb, the panther lies down with the kid, calf and lion feed together, with a little boy to lead them. This beautiful world can exist if we endeavor to make it so, through our collective will, we can do this, though we must do it for ourselves.

Know this.

God made the world and we in it, God made us absolutely free, and out of respect for our freedom God will not interfere in the choices we make or spare us from their consequences. We are fragile creatures and we live by each other’s leave; we are always at each other’s mercy and God will not interfere with that, but God has lit the way for us, God has provided a way for us that we may understand our purpose in the divine plan, if we listen to our heartbeat, we can hear its rhythmic calling.

Be mindful.

God is not a king, a dread-lord…or even God (for that matter), as many have come to believe God to be…

Listen to the apostle; listen to the teaching of the prophets, give some mind to our sages and our seers; consider the testimony of the patriarchs and judges as they are recorded in the sacred texts; they lived for one purpose, to furnish hope in the hearts of the people.

The path before our generation is just as it was in Isaiah’s time, and Jesus’ time, and the apostle’s time; our path is lit by the lamp of hope as well, it is the same hope shed by the divine will for the same purpose…now being shared with us, who are the same people, so that in its light we may abandon fear and find ourselves free to love one another as Jesus taught us to do..

Faith is trust; it is marked by a willingness to believe in the that which we hope for, a world at peace, where justice is never without mercy, and where those called to govern, govern with humility.

Be mindful!

For two thousand years the normative mode of the Christian tradition has (at least) attempted to root itself in historical realities, with greater and lesser degrees of success. The importance of understanding history cannot be underestimated, including, most especially, its limitations.

The dedicated study of our tradition in the modes of textual and narrative criticism is what gave birth to the fields of literary criticism and modern historical criticism, from which wre developed the fields of dialectics and de-constructuralism, including all modern and post-modern theory, without which we would be culturally bereft and have no understanding of the uses and limitations of history whatsoever.

Our stories and narratives about the life and mission Jesus, his arrest, torture and murder are a part of the testimony of our faith. These narratives allow us to locate in time, as a historical reality, the singular moment when for Christians, the principle commitment to the teaching of Jesus took place.

Through the story we tell we recall the rule of Tiberius, heir to Augustus; we recall the reign of Herod, and the governance of Pontius Pilate. We recall the role that Pilate played in the killing of Jesus, we shout it out at every hour of every day, in every part of the world; at every mass that is held we say the words: that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified and was buried; this story is told unceasingly…it is the story that never ends.

It may be time to say something else.

As heirs to the ministry and teaching of Jesus we might consider forgiving Pilate, and Judas, and Herod, and the Sanhedrin for the role they played in that political murder.

Jesus forgave them, our story also tells us that...so maybe we should let them off the hook.

Our theology tells us that Jesus died for the sins of the world; we all have a hand in that, each and every one of us, all of us who have ever been and who will ever, so we can all take a little responsibility there, and let the other players rest for a moment.

John the Baptist taught us to repent and be forgiven, but Jesus taught us to simply forgive, and in so doing, accept the forgiveness that has been granted us, to drink from it, like a fountain or a well overflowing with hope.

Jesus forgave those who killed him, he asked God to forgive them, broken as he was, hanging from the cross, he pointed the way and it is time we followed.

The promise of Isaiah, the prophetic tradition to which both John and Jesus belonged, the promise which John sang out in the wilderness, the promise which Jesus proclaimed on the mountain, that promise cannot be realized until we take it up for ourselves and do our partand do our part. God is the author of our salvation, but we ourselves are the agents, and it is incumbent on us to proceed with the healing, if there is to be any healing at all.

Remember!

John the Baptist was a social critic, and to be a social critic that is the role of the prophet, he stood within the tradition and criticized its institutions. John was not alone in this, he dwelt on the fringe of society along with those who saw and experienced the same troubles as he did. He and his people were on the margins both figuratively and literally; they belonged to the community of Qumran in the desert, which provided the foundation for a new-movement to form. John preached a new path for the people to follow, a new way of living an intentional life; his little cousin Jesus came along after and showed us how it could be done.

John and Jesus were so controversial, they had to do their preaching away from the towns and cities. They took to the wilderness and the people followed them there.

Now let’s get real:

Isaiah did not foretell the coming of John the Baptist.

As stated, Isaiah was not a real-life historical-figure, but the School of Isaiah, those who wrote in his name, they offered a criticism of their tradition, while assuring people that when they were gone others would come…others like John and Jesus would surely come…they foresaw that.

John did the same thing when he knew his days were numbered, he knew another would come after him. He might even have believed that his cousin Jesus, of Nazareth, would pick up his work, but that fact is unimportant, because he knew that if not Jesus, then another would follow; sooner or later another would follow…this is always true.

The prophets are among us, they are preaching and teaching and pointing out the way. The prophets are present in every generation. The voice of the prophet is present in the heart of every human being; waiting, nascent, patient, desiring to be heard.

Understand this.

Do not believe that being baptized and being a Christian makes you special. Being a member of group, belonging to an organization, coming from a certain family, having membership in a clan or tribe or identifying with any other proto-nationalistic nonsense does not make a person special…no matter how highly you and others regard that group.

Being a Christian does not impart a special gift to anyone, only a special responsibility. Being a Christian means that you have accepted the sacred burden of speaking with the voice of a prophet, that you are prepared to demand that the unjust be just, that you kindle hope in the hopeless and be merciful toward the outcast.

This is the way: serving the good, loving justice and being merciful to all of those within your power to help; there is no other way.

Do not be distressed or afraid of the harsh language that you might sometimes encounter in the gospels. Do not be afraid of the fire, rather discover what it means, because in scripture our encounter with fire is always symbolic of our encounter with God…the fire that never ends is the eternal fire that burns in the heart of the creator; it is the fire Holy Spirit and of grace. We know this because God, and God alone is arbiter of the eternal, and there is no eternality without God.

Our encounter with God, whether in fire or water, or sewage and vomit, our encounter with God by whatever means it occurs is a moment of transformation, of transfiguration for every person who experiences the ordeal. The encounter might be painful depending on who you are or how ready you are to experience it, the encounter may be painful but it will not be harmful, because the divine purpose is not destructive but restorative.

The fire of God refines, just as the power of love refines, just as justice does when trued by mercy.

Go into the world and remember to be like John: preach the faith, love the good, walk humbly in the world, serve justice with mercy all the days of your life.

Spread the good news; God loves you.

First Reading – Isaiah 11:1-10 ©

A Shoot Springs From the Stock of Jesse

A shoot springs from the stock of Jesse, a scion thrusts from his roots: on him the spirit of the Lord rests, a spirit of wisdom and insight, a spirit of counsel and power, a spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

(The fear of the Lord is his breath.)

He does not judge by appearances, he gives no verdict on hearsay, but judges the wretched with integrity, and with equity gives a verdict for the poor of the land.

His word is a rod that strikes the ruthless, his sentences bring death to the wicked.

Integrity is the loincloth round his waist, faithfulness the belt about his hips.

The wolf lives with the lamb, the panther lies down with the kid, calf and lion feed together, with a little boy to lead them.

The cow and the bear make friends, their young lie down together.

The lion eats straw like the ox.

The infant plays over the cobra’s hole; into the viper’s lair the young child puts his hand.

They do no hurt, no harm, on all my holy mountain, for the country is filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters swell the sea.

That day, the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples.

It will be sought out by the nations and its home will be glorious.

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 71(72):1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17 ©