Behold Your God: Advent With Isaiah
What is the response God most wants to hear? Here I am!
"The Prophecy of Isaiah" by Lawrence OP is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
This year for Advent we thought we would concentrate on the writings of the Prophet Isaiah taking the broad themes in his book that make him one of the most beloved Prophets of the Church. Isaiah wrote some of the most sublime text in the Bible and through him God revealed the foundations of our beliefs in Jesus Christ. Many of our readings in this liturgical season are taken from his book, and although we intersect them slightly, we are following an alternative path through them.
We plan to publish every week through Advent with contributions from Sister Francesca Therese of the Sisters of St John in Aberdeen, Steve Hepburn (new writer to the Coracle) but author of the excellent blog: thoughtfullycatholic and myself. We will publish each Saturday preceding the Advent week in question.
If you want to get into Isaiah a bit and find out more, Catholic Answers has done a great little summary which you will find here.
Isaiah 6: Here I Am
Week 1 of Advent
Isaiah 6:1 - 9: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 And one called to another and said:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.’
4 The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5 And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’ 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’ 9 And he said, ‘Go and say to this people:
We are beggining our Advent series at the starting point of Isaiah’s ministry, and so, let our Advent begin here as well.
When reflecting on this scene one is drawn first to the grandeur of God, ‘high and lofty’, a vision of the Great King sitting on his throne - a sign of Judgement, surrounded and worshipped by these incredible beings who they even have to cover their faces and feet in the presence of the Lord. Isaiah is quick to recognise, like his forebears, that one cannot see God and live. Think of Moses or Elijah who were hid and forbade to see the face of God. He is terror stricken and rightly so because as Jesus said only the pure in heart will see God. Isaiah did not feel so pure and was so aware of how unclean he and his people were. This is a moment we can all recognise, we all know that shameful feeling, that failure, that uncleaness - Isaiah could have literally been destroyed by it, but grace makes it’s entry and mercy was given. To allow Isaiah to be in His presence one of the Seraphs flies to Isaiah with a burning coal from the altar which the Seraph touches his lips with and then tells him;
Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’
For St Cyril of Alexandria this was a picture of Christ, the coal was recieved from the altar, the coal signifying the Holy fire that burns inquity away. This is what Christ has done for us, as St Paul wrote:
Colossians 2:13 - 14
And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, 14 erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.
In this period of Advent in which the Church exhorts us to prepare for the coming of the Lord, we are at once looking backward to when He walked the Earth as a man, and forward to His second coming. But for any of that to mean anything we are actually seeking to make Him present now in our lives. His saving act is what we need to lean on now, in short Advent calls us to renew our focus on the daily graces Christ dispenses, converting us day by day to be like Him. That is things like confession, the Holy Eucharist, prayer and reflection. But all this is in cooperation with God who by His mercy gives us faith. Isaiah had an amazing vision of our Lord, one many of us will not recieve but what did it do to Isaiah? It gave him zeal and zealousness is what many of us lack.
In the Bible we see zeal mentioned many times, often in relation to God Himself who is zealous for His name. Or we are exhorted to have Zeal, by Jesus and St Paul for example. But people, especially in Britain seem to be almost embarrassed of zealousness when it comes to faith. Yet, it is zeal God wants - for Jesus spoke in Revelations saying:
So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
Isaiah’s zeal was obvious - God has a job he wants doing and asks who could be sent. At that moment I can just imagine Isaiah, kneeling before the throne but so enamoured, not afraid anymore, but in love and throwing both hands up and crying out HERE I AM! Send me! Isaiahs realisation of the grandeur and mercy of God changed him forever. So in awe and so thankful that a mere man could be blessed with so much mercy. As David marvelled a few centuries before Isaiah - why does God have regard for man?
Here I am - or in the Hebrew ‘Hinnei’ is a powerful response, it is saying I give myself completely. This phrase occurs in all the places God calls someone; Abraham, Moses and Samuel most notably. All these men acknowledged God before them, did not ask why they were being called, but simply gave themselves over.
In this Advent season, at the start let us respond with our own Hinnei. Firstly to His saving mercy, go to confession, joyfully partake of His body and blood. Then in the second instance, what might God be calling you to do? Maybe you already know - are you ready to respond like Isaiah?