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.
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.
For Week 1 click here and 2 here, and finally 3, here.
Your King Is Coming
The final chapters of Isaiah are all focusing on the future and the glory that God was going to make Zion. It was healing balm to a people who had been carted off to exile and their beloved City burned. But Isaiah had a much larger canvas in which he was painting, and this is the reason why the Church has so loved his Book, for in it he prophesises new names, a new heaven and new earth - and peace. He tells his people:
Go through, go through the gates,
prepare the way for the people;
build up, build up the highway,
clear it of stones,
lift up an ensign over the peoples.
11 The Lord has proclaimed
to the end of the earth:
Say to daughter Zion,
‘See, your salvation comes;
his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.’
12 They shall be called, ‘The Holy People,
The Redeemed of the Lord’;
and you shall be called, ‘Sought Out,
A City Not Forsaken.’
In St Mathew’s Gospel, he uses v11 and another in Zechariah to describe the riding of Jesus into Jerusalem on a colt. The imagery of going through the gates is exactly that of one leading a triumphant people, an expectant people who have cleared a path for Him to come. In chapter 62 Isaiah tells them that no longer are they called Desolate or Forsaken, but are to be called ‘My Delight’ and ‘Married’ which describes that ever present image of the Bride and the Bridegroom. They will be called Holy and Redeemed, Sought out and Not Forsaken, these names are identities the people of God were to be given and we know Isaiah was not just speaking to the Jews of that time but to us also. For it is in these final chapters of Isaiah we find the beginning of Jesus ministry. Jesus quotes from Chapter 61, saying of Himself:
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. Isaiah 61:1 -3
When we read the Old Testament, we know that it is a shadow of things to come, what was unclear then came to being in the Person of Jesus and His Church. So when we read the names, like; ‘My Delight’ we can say them to ourselves. For Jesus indeed was coming to free us, to take away our sin and shame, to be a people of God no longer locked out of His covenant but looking forward to a new covenant written on our hearts, instead of one written on stone. If we feel isolated today, in faith because of Christ we can say; ‘ I am Sought Out’. If we feel unlovely today we can say God takes delight in us. If we feel like things have not been going our way lately, we can say; ‘This is the year of the Lords Favour’ and if we feel faint and things are just too hard, take up that mantle of praise, which is a bold spirit and yet another gift of God to us.
The last two chapters of Isaiah then sets humanity up for the final gathering of all peoples under the name of God. When all flesh shall come to Zion and worship Him, which, has seen partial fulfillment in the Church but is also looking forward to the new heavens and new earth when the ‘former things’ will not be remembered and the scenes described in Revelations of a ‘New Jersualem’ come to pass. In all of this God is weaving this giant cosmic scene into our everyday lives, where like a shepherd drawing His flock after Him, or a Mother holding her child in her arms, so God is with us. Isaiah wanted his people to understand that God had an eternal plan for them, and we see then snatches of the plan God had for the rest of us, which was fulfilled in the coming of Jesus.
Sometimes it is hard to see this great picture, and hard to believe in our times of decreasing belief in Christ that history’s ultimate culmination is in this new heavens and new earth. It is also hard when the Church, who is the heir and ultimate aim of all of God’s covenants, has been so battered and polluted by our own sins. We can all think of the deficiencies of our Church, whether it is in how she has handled abuse or just how life in a parish can be. But God has not forsaken His Church, He has not forsaken us, we may feel like a small minority in a secular culture but God has ALWAYS worked with remnants. We can dare to belief that regardless of all our issues, God has promised to bring forth beauty and not ashes. In Isaiah 66:9 he tells us:
Shall I open the womb and not deliver?
says the Lord;
shall I, the one who delivers, shut the womb?
says your God.
God did not come into the world as a man to save us and then to just wander off when we made mistakes. He did not form a Church so that it would crumble into nothingness. In Isaiah’s time the Jews were in terrible difficulties and asked the same questions we do, but Isaiah as we have seen foresaw our time and the future glory that we are waiting on. We are indeed waiting and we do not know when that will be over so in between now and then let us ‘gird our loins’ and be ready in faith each day knowing that we are beloved of the Lord and trusting in His plan. Let us walk humbly after our Lord on that Colt, and like Mary say Yes to Him without having to know all the details of His purposes. Let us also take confidence again in the message of the Gospel, joining Isaiah:
Get thee up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion: lift up thy voice with strength, thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem: lift it up, fear not. Say to the cities of Juda: Behold your God:
Behold the Lord God shall come with strength, and his arm shall rule: Behold his reward is with him and his work is before him. Isaiah 40:9-10
As Advent comes to its culmination; Behold Your God, rejoice in the One born to a Virgin, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; who after three days rose again from the dead breaking our chains of captivity and leading us to the perpetual Light of the new Jerusalem where we will join all the Angels and Saints in singing: ‘Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.’