The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to contemplate the possible tension between prophetic advice and peace in our lives.
Prophecy and Peace
The reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah declares an Eternal Covenant of Peace in the New Zion.
* [54:4–8] As with some other Old Testament themes, Second Isaiah uses that of Israel as the Lord’s bride in a new manner. Whereas Hosea and Jeremiah had depicted Israel as the Lord’s spouse to emphasize both Israel’s infidelity and the Lord’s continued love (Hos 1–3; Jer 2:2; 3:1–15) and Ezekiel to accuse Israel unsparingly (Ez 16; 23), Second Isaiah speaks only of the love with which the Lord restores the people, speaking tender words with no hint of reproach.1
Psalm 30 offers Thanksgiving for Recovery from Grave Illness.
* [Psalm 30] An individual thanksgiving in four parts: praise and thanks for deliverance and restoration (Ps 30:2–4); an invitation to others to join in (Ps 30:5–6); a flashback to the time before deliverance (Ps 30:7–11); a return to praise and thanks (Ps 30:12). Two sets of images recur: 1) going down, death, silence; 2) coming up, life, praising. God has delivered the psalmist from one state to the other.2
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus gives testimony to John the Baptist as Prophet and Messenger.
* [7:24–30] In his testimony to John, Jesus reveals his understanding of the relationship between them: John is the precursor of Jesus (Lk 7:27); John is the messenger spoken of in Mal 3:1 who in Mal 3:23 is identified as Elijah. Taken with the previous episode, it can be seen that Jesus identifies John as precisely the person John envisioned Jesus to be: the Elijah who prepares the way for the coming of the day of the Lord.3
Andy Alexander, S.J. (in 2016) comments that these readings offer a different kind of hope. They offer us the opportunity to have hope based upon a sense of God's fidelity, to such a degree that we trust it. Trusting God's assurances of love and a promise "My love shall never leave you," we can believe our God has mercy on us.
Hope and joy comes from experiencing mercy and the promise that we will never be alone, that God's love endures forever. That confidence is so freeing. As the joy grows, we can actually feel the self-absorption fall away. We can sense ourselves no longer carrying the same burdens. Our hearts begin to become sensitized again to notice and care about the suffering of others. Our own Advent hope is the "glad tidings" we have to share with others. The "gifts" we have to give to others, for the world, are more about our hope and joy, to lift others' spirits, to allow us to be a community which cares for each other. Yes, we have great differences and deep divisions, and we've almost been trained by our culture to demonize each other - the ultimate self-absorption. With hope and joy come freedom to pay attention to what disturbs others and leads to anger and even hatred. We can be Advent people when we move to heal and comfort, to have compassion on woundedness and rejoice that our God is near, in fact, always with us, with all of us. We may not be able to imagine how God can love us all. That's what it begins with really believing our God can really love me.4
Don Schwager quotes “Born of Woman or Born of God?”, by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).
"'What then did you go out to see?' Perhaps you say, 'A prophet.' Yes, I agree. He is a saint and a prophet. He even surpasses the dignity of a prophet. Not only did he announce before that I am coming but pointed me out close at hand, saying, 'Behold the Lamb of God that bears the sin of the world' (John 1:29). The prophet's voice testified of him as the one who was sent before my face to prepare the way before me (Malachi 3:1). I witness that there has not arisen among those born of women one greater than he. He that is least, in the life according to the law, in the kingdom of God is greater than he. How and in what manner is he greater? In that the blessed John, together with as many as preceded him, was born of woman, but they who have received the faith are no longer called the sons of women, but as the wise Evangelist said, 'are born of God'" (John 1:12). (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 18)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Isaiah 54:1-10 comments that God is immutable. He is unchanging. He is constant and firm in his love for you. His attributes, his will, and his promises “do not change” (Malachi 3:6). If God says something, he will act on it; and if he declares something, he will bring it about. Not always in the way we expect and not always when we think it should happen. But it will happen. And he has promised that his love will never leave us.
This all-powerful, unchanging God wants to be the source of your peace. He wants to calm your heart when, like Israel, you face uncertainty and suffering. When your sins feel too great for him to forgive, he wants to remind you of his omnipotent and immutable love. When you are tempted to embrace the weak, changeable love of this fallen world, he longs to gather you to himself in great tenderness (Isaiah 54:7). This is the God whose love will never leave you! “Lord, I praise you for your unchanging, all-powerful love!”6
Friar Jude Winkler connects the text from Deutero Isaiah to a promise of restoration to the exiles in Babylon. The “tough love” of God is not vindictive but is restorative. Friar Jude reminds us of the expectation of the Pharisees of a conquering hero.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that many of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, along with thinkers and mystics in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, have described prayer as bringing our thinking down into our heart. It is not the words themselves as much as the rhythmical repetition that localizes one in the heart. Greek Orthodox author Frederica Mathewes-Green describes the practice of the Jesus Prayer, which is the simple repetition of the phrase: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.”
At first the Prayer is just a string of words repeated, perhaps mechanically, in your mind. But with time it may “descend into the heart,” and those who experience this will be attentive to maintain it, continually “bringing the mind” (the nous, that is) “into the heart.” . . . This “descent into the heart” does include reference to the physical heart (or the general region of the heart within the chest). This blending of matter and spirit can be surprising to Western Christians, but it came naturally to the earliest Christians, who inherited from ancient Judaism an expectation that God is present throughout Creation. “Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD” (Jeremiah 23:24). “Prayer of the heart” occurs when the Prayer moves from merely mental repetition, forced along by your own effort, to an effortless and spontaneous self-repetition of the Prayer that emanates from the core of your being, your heart. You discover that the Holy Spirit has been there, praying, all along. Then heart and soul, body and mind, memory and will, the very breath of life itself, everything that you have and are united in gratitude and joy, tuned like a violin string to the name of Jesus.7
We are invited to bring the tension between prophecy and peace to prayer in communication with the Spirit to seek resolution and restoration.
References
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