First Reading - Isaiah 35:1-6, 10 ©
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm
145(146):6-10 ©
Second Reading - James 5:7-10 ©
Gospel Acclamation – Isaiah 61:1
(Luke 4:18)
The Gospel According to Matthew 11:2 -
11 ©
(NJB)
Listen!
Isaiah has written a prayer of hope, do not mistake this poem of praise as the literal truth or the historical record of anything. This is not a recounting of events, or a foretelling of the future; it is a discourse on joy, whose central message is: do not be afraid.
This is a prayer from the school of Isaiah, it is a prayer for healing and restoration, it is a prayer for salvation: a blessed state of being that God, the creator of the universe, intends for everyone to achieve, though not in this life.
This prayer is not a promise concerning the expectations we should hold for this world. It is a prayer reflecting our hope for what we will attain in the next, divine deliverance, not from present peril, but from the material condition altogether.
Isaiah’s reflection highlights the fundamental choice before us:
We may choose to live our lives as if we believe in the things we hope for; the belief in what we hope for is an extension of trust in the divine spirit guiding us through time and space, this mode of trust is the essence of faith, which is not a thing you can possess, nor a state of being, it is an action that is best expressed in its imperfect form…never-completed in the continuance-present.
In the reality we shall experience in the world to come we will witness the entirety of the created order lifted-up in exultation of God; this will not be a state of mindless adulation, it will not be a grand and endless glorification…that is not the way of the divine, who expresses jubilation in direct relation with us…just as we do with one another, in thanksgiving and humility according to the simple—endless bounty of God’s love.
I am with the school of Isaiah when it expresses the hope that we, both as individuals and as the corporate whole, that we will face our fears and watch them disappear; I am with those who teach us to have courage in the present moment, to have patience in the here and now as we engage in lives of service to one another.
I am not with Isaiah when he petitions God for vengeance in pursuit of retribution, noting that most (nearly all) human beings have limits as to what they can endure and those writers in the school of Isaiah, or its editors certainly delineated theirs. Rather, I am with Jesus who took no enemies to himself, even from among his persecutors; he forgave those who betrayed and hurt him, making his final prayer one of reconciliation, which he issued with his final breath from the cross…forgive them, for they know not what they do.
Isaiah’s prayer is a prayer for universal healing, asking each of us to take this prayer and find in our own hearts the will to heal everyone...to be healed ourselves; if you take up this prayer in the present moment you will experience a foretaste of the world we hope for in the here and now.
Meditate upon the wisdom of the psalmist who instructs us to praise God with words and song, praise the author of our salvation. Praise God and set aside the trust you give to princes and kings, and all of the other little-lords of the church and the world. Listen to the psalmist and be wary of his words, knowing in your heart that these are true: God is not a king, and kings are not gods.
Look up on the life of a human being, think about the many years that we have walked the Earth; look down that long arc of time and then reflect on it brevity. Our window of life is but a spark in the night. We are born, we breathe for a time, then we are gone; the Earth itself will not survive the dying of our sun and even our galaxy will vanish in the cold and dark.
Consider these things and consider how happy are those whose who devote themselves to God in furtherance of mercy and justice.
Lift up the oppressed, wherever they are: feed the hungry, free the prisoner, teach the ignorant. Pray for your own faults to be forgiven, your own blindness lifted…accept it when it is given. Advocate for those who need an advocate, care for those who cannot care for themselves. Find those who are lost and bring them home
Be mindful of the teaching of the apostle; if we think of the second coming of Jesus as an actual return, we are mistaken. Jesus will not return in the flesh; we know this because that would be against nature, and Jesus, like all human beings, had just one life to live on planet Earth.
If we think of Jesus returning to Earth as God, descending from the heavens to issue judgement and about the end of time, to draw down the curtain on our drama as if it his was the final scene in the final act of some tragic play; we are mistaken. God will not intervene in the life cycle of our planet, of our solar system, of our galaxy or the universe as a whole…God does not do that, and we know this because we understand that the order of creation, as well as we who dwell in it, are absolutely free from divine coercion.
Accept these truths and you must know that the apostle was wrong to engage in idle speculation about the end of the world; be mindful of this error; it is poetry not prophecy, do not repeat it as if it were true.
Be patient, live a good and loving life; even in the midst of turmoil; when we fulfill the promise of the way, the way becomes the reality of our lives…at least for a moment.
Praise God, and pray for God’s servants wherever they are, knowing that when the will of God is done, the message is clear and the mission is pure…love one another, as God loves you.
Consider the Gospel reading for today:
John came before Jesus; the lore tells us that they were cousins, but the evidence for this claim is scant. It is said that James, the apostle and bishop of Jerusalem was Jesus’ brother, but that notion has long been rejected by the Church; there is no way for us to know the veracity of these claims…it does not matter.
John came before Jesus and for a time the two of them worked as contemporaries, they were cousins and they were both called to the same mission. It is said that they met at the river Jordan where John was carrying out his ministry of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, ritualized by the baptism of restoration.
John baptized Jesus when they had this meeting, the moment is depicted in the Gospel for today as a passing of the torch from the older to the younger, as when Isaac surpassed Ishmael, or Jacob his brother Essau, as able was set to do before Cain slew him.
There is no way for us to know if this event ever even happened, or if it did that John and Jesus viewed their meeting that day as such...but it does not matter, because the historical realities behind this narrative have been transcended by the allegory and metaphor in which John prepares the way for Jesus, just as the Gospel indicates today. He passes the torch to Jesus, he was arrested shortly thereafter, and shortly after that they cut off his head.
John and Jesus belonged a movement of the people, the am haaretz, a movement of the people, for the people, a movement that called for justice, unity and the salvation of everyone. They saw their work as something connected to prophetic traditions like the School of Isaiah, to Amos and Hosea, and Zecariah. These two cousins were reformers, they were people whose preaching synthesized the sacred texts, who were able to boil the law and commandments down to their essence, returning them to the people in the simplest form:
Love God, with all your strength and all your heart, and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.
That is the whole of the law and all the words of the prophet are summarized therein.
Many of John’s followers became followers of Jesus after John’s death. The leaders in John’s group became leaders among Jesus’ disciples, but not all who had followed John came along, and it is to them that the Gospel for today is pointed.
It was written to remind all new Christians: that first there was John, then there was Jesus. It is a political screed. It is a message to the holdouts among John’s group, expressing love and pride in John’s work, while telling them in no uncertain terms that the way, if they should choose to take it, that the way is now with Jesus.
This is the beginning of Church politics and as with all such actions it closed the divide between the two groups in some ways, while exasperating it in others…because that is how we are.
First Reading - Isaiah 35:1-6, 10 ©
God Himself is Coming to Save You
Let
the wilderness and the dry-lands exult, let the wasteland rejoice and bloom, let
it bring forth flowers like the jonquil, let it rejoice and sing for joy.
The
glory of Lebanon is bestowed on it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon; they
shall see the glory of the Lord, the splendour of our God.
Strengthen
all weary hands, steady all trembling knees and say to all faint hearts, ‘Courage!
Do not be afraid.
‘Look,
your God is coming, vengeance is coming, the retribution of God; he is coming
to save you.’
Then
the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed, then the
lame shall leap like a deer and the tongues of the dumb sing for joy for those
the Lord has ransomed shall return.
They
will come to Zion shouting for joy, everlasting joy on their faces; joy and
gladness will go with them and sorrow and lament be ended.
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm
145(146):6-10 ©
Come, Lord, and save us.
It
is the Lord who keeps faith for ever,
who is just to those who are oppressed.
It
is he who gives bread to the hungry,
the Lord, who sets prisoners free,
Come, Lord, and save us.
It
is the Lord who gives sight to the blind,
who raises up those who are bowed down,
the
Lord, who protects the stranger
and upholds the widow and orphan.
Come, Lord, and save us.
It
is the Lord who loves the just
but thwarts the path of the wicked.
The
Lord will reign for ever,
Zion’s God, from age to age.
Come, Lord, and save us.
Alleluia!
Second Reading - James 5:7-10 ©
Do Not Lose Heart; the Lord's Coming Will
Be Soon
Be
patient, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. Think of a farmer: how patiently he
waits for the precious fruit of the ground until it has had the autumn rains
and the spring rains! You too have to be patient; do not lose heart, because
the Lord’s coming will be soon. Do not make complaints against one another,
brothers, so as not to be brought to judgement yourselves; the Judge is already
to be seen waiting at the gates. For your example, brothers, in submitting with
patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
Gospel Acclamation – Isaiah 61:1
(Luke 4:18)
Alleluia, alleluia!
The
spirit of the Lord has been given to me.
He
has sent me to bring the good news to the poor.
Alleluia!
The Gospel According to Matthew 11:2
- 11 ©
'A Greater than John the Baptist Has Never
Been Seen'
John
in his prison had heard what Christ was doing and he sent his disciples to ask
him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or have we got to wait for someone else?’
Jesus answered, ‘Go back and tell John what you hear and see; the blind see
again, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead
are raised to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor; and happy is
the man who does not lose faith in me.’
As
the messengers were leaving, Jesus began to talk to the people about John:
‘What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the breeze?
No? Then what did you go out to see? A man wearing fine clothes? Oh no, those
who wear fine clothes are to be found in palaces. Then what did you go out for?
To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet: he is the one
of whom scripture says:
‘Look,
I am going to send my messenger before you; he will prepare your way before
you.
‘I
tell you solemnly, of all the children born of women, a greater than John the
Baptist has never been seen; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater
than he is.’
A Homily - The Third Sunday of Advent
(Year A)
