Word to the Wise
Monday, December 7, 2009 - St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
[Isaiah 35:1-10 and Luke 5:17-26]The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom. They will bloom with abundant flowers, and rejoice with joyful song. The glory of Lebanon will be given to them, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God. Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak. Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God......
Although Isaiah is trying to bring a note of hope to those returning from exile in Babylonia to their ruined land, his words could be offered to anyone recovering from a devastating event. In those cases, one is faced first with the pain of the devastation and second with the overwhelming task of recovery. [This could be true even if those who were present for the initial catastrophe are not the ones who are returning!] That task of recovery would turn out to be unending for the Jews. The Davidic kingdom lasted less than a hundred years before it divided and fell prey to the Assyrians (Northern Kingdom] and the Babylonians [Southern Kingdom]. The return from Exile was to a continual occupation by various Middle Eastern powers! It is still going on! If we see this as just history of politics, etc., we entirely miss the point. The religious hope of the Jews was intimately (and for some still is) tied to the land. Until the kingdom of God would be established, there would be no true "return." The temple was in operation in Jesus' time, but the Romans ruled the land, not God. The many and varied "messianic" threads of hope in Jesus' time included violent revolution (Judas the Galilean tried just before Jesus was born) and apocalyptic language of the kind that we see in the gospels! Can it be any wonder that the birth of a carpenter's son in a stable somewhere would not attract the notice of very many people, or that this child would be God's response to centuries of prayer and hope? His life moved hope beyond geography. We need Isaiah's words to focus our hopes in our many ways of recovery. Jesus offers something more than a geographic kingdom in the Middle East. A new "flowering of hope" comes each year with the celebration of Advent and Christmas. Each desert has the chance to come alive again. Each frightened heart can receive strength! AMEN
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