God will restore

Monday, December 05, 2016

During these early days of Advent, we are coddled with beautiful and fantastical predictions of the prophet Isaiah. If you have a chance, I encourage you to take your Bible and read Isaiah 11:1-10 and 35:1-10, the two readings we had at Mass on Sunday and again at Mass today.

As I sat and listened to the Isaiah reading yesterday, I felt washed by the Spirit as (S)he is identified by the prophet speaking of the coming Savior: The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord. Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice . . .

We do well to consider these qualities of the Spirit in Our Lord, and ask that He touch us with a measure of each as we need it and as we have the capacity to receive the gifts. Always remember that the power of a particular gift depends on some extent on us, on our openness and willingness, on our sensitivity and humility, on our readiness and our open acknowledgment of need. I can’t help thinking of the lines of psalm 24:

O gates, lift high your heads;

grow higher, ancient doors.

Let him enter, the king of glory!

And so, lift high your gates and open wide. Let him fill you with good things. Make your Christmas list and make it big. Expand your faith that God, in His goodness and love, wants to do good things for you.

This God even has the power to restore nature and to redeem it. Many of the prophecies of Isaiah speak of things which have not happened yet, particularly things involving nature. From today’s first reading:

The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom.

And from yesterday:

The wolf shall be the guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.  . . . . . there shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain . . .

These prophecies are particularly poignant to me this year as I often read of the devastation our planet is suffering, and of the terrible things to come.

But God will restore. And He will restore whatever devastation lies within you as well. Hope in Him and wait for His salvation!

God bless you!