Fr. Pat's Blog

2^nd Sunday of Advent

The first ready from Isaiah today is full of poetic and metaphorical language. I love the first line. “A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse.” We’ve all seen those stumps. They are dead lifeless things you see in the forest. They are the remnant of some forgotten tree cut down years ago. You can’t imagine them coming to life again. The prophecy of the Messiah belonged to the Jewish people but because they waited hundreds of years for this prophecy to be fulfilled many abandoned it. The precious jewel of a prophecy became the stump of an old tree. Suddenly life springs forth from it. First, the green bud appears and then a flowering plant. The spirit of the Lord in all His manifestations rests upon it. This powerful Divine life issues forth and it brings peace and justice to the land. The sign of it will be that strange things appear. Natural enemies in the animal world begin to lie down together. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. Isn’t that lovely!
One of the things I love about God is that He reveals Himself in such mysterious ways. He chooses the strangest sorts to be His messengers. We are given John the Baptist, a lunatic by all accounts. He is not exactly the prophetic material we expect for the coming of the Messiah. We would be much happier with a couple of heavenly Angels playing their bugles. Instead we get a flea infested long haired wild man from the desert. Clearly this one was another stump of Jesse. You couldn’t imagine him prophesying the coming of the Messiah. Yet, beautiful words emanate from his lips. John seems a little bit manic in his preaching. Once he opened his mouth it seemed like he could never close it again. It was as if the words were expelled from his mouth. He is all intense and serious. John demands attention not just by his wild clothes and bearing but also by his wild words. “Repent! Brood of vipers! Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance! John means business. Now is the time to get ready for the Messiah. This is serious stuff. Prepare the way of the Lord. More like, get out of His way! He comes with power and He pushes aside all the impediments that block his way. He is coming to find us and we have put up our Les Miserables barriers to stop his advance. It will never work. He is coming looking for us and He is going to find us. This is the Good Shepherd searching in the wilderness for His lost sheep. We are out there lost and alone. We wander aimlessly without direction. We want to be found. We want someone to bring us to safety. The psalmist cries out today: “For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out, and the afflicted when he has no one to help him. He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor; the lives of the poor he shall save.”