One of my favorite things about Advent is all of the readings from Isaiah - and this Sunday's readings include one of my favorite passages. I love the opening words of this Sunday's first reading from Isaiah: "Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God" (40:1). I get a thrill every time I hear this verse. This is truly one of those "life verses" that jumps right out of the Bible and speaks directly to me - a reminder that the Bible is indeed God's love letter to me. But even more important than the moral sense of my own comfort are the literal and allegorical senses of this passage. Isaiah has just spent the past 39 chapters informing the kingdom of Judah of their impending exile as a consequence of their sin and lack of repentance; this first section is often called the Book of Woes, as it is full of Judah's unfaithfulness to God. But chapter 40 takes a new tone and offers comfort (giving chapters 40-66 the name of the Book of Consolations): God will not abandon Judah, even though they have broken the covenant. God will remember his promise to his people and send them a savior - Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who will feed his flock and gather and lead us with care.
The second reading, from the second letter of St. Peter, is an elaboration on this comfort promised by Isaiah: "The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard 'delay," but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (3:9). So many times in my life it has seemed like God was indeed delaying his promise. But just as God did not delay his fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy of salvation but rather waited for the fullness of time in which to deliver his people, so also in my life God's blessings come in his perfect time, not mine. Surely Israel would have been thrilled to receive the messiah when they returned from exile in Babylon instead of waiting another five centuries, but although that would have been a good, it would not have been God's best. The messiah was to come not only to save and lead Israel but to gather all the nations into the worship of the one true God. And so in the fullness of time Jesus came and founded his Church, in the midst of an empire that would facilitate the spread of the gospel and an intellectual tradition that had reached as high as the human mind could on its own.
This reading includes a slightly confusing statement: "conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God" (3:12). Wait... we can make Jesus return sooner? In a certain sense... yes! St. Peter gives the reasoning behind this in the verse quoted above: "he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (3:9b). Conducting ourselves in "holiness and devotion" hastens the "coming of the day of God" because God desires that "all should come to repentance." While it can be easy to look at how broken our world is and to think that the end has to be near (how much worse will God let things get before He returns?!), this passage from 2 Peter instead indicates a different way of looking at it: the sooner we allow God's grace to transform our own lives and invite our family and friends to allow Him to transform their lives, the sooner Christ will return.
Come, Lord Jesus!
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| Not in line with John the Baptist's statement... or much of anything Scriptural... catchy tunes, though! (credit: http://www.religionfacts.com/jesus/images/jesus-christ-superstar.jpg) |
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