Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

An article by Msgr. Stuart Swetland:

Second Sunday of Advent, December 4

Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; Psalm 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8

The readings for the second week of Advent all reflect prophecy. The first comes from the Old
Testament, what scholars today refer to as Second-Isaiah. Isaiah chapters 40-55 are referred to as the Book of
Comfort. For the first thirty-nine chapters, the author told the kingdom of Judah (the southern kingdom) that
it was about to undergo God’s judgment for having betrayed the Covenant. Among those ills that would befall
them was the destruction of Jerusalem and exile into a foreign land. The Book of Comfort is directed to the decedents of the rebellious generation addressed in the first 39 chapters. Appropriately, the book starts out then with the command, “comfort, comfort my people.”

In the Old Testament, divine comfort is true consolation of the heart, a divine strengthening of the
human spirit, which can come only from God. Yahweh is God over His Covenant family and it is He who corrects but also comforts them. Yet, in the Old Testament, God never directly comforts His people. Comfort is always mediated through a prophet. And so Isaiah prophesies to Judah that God will allow the Gentiles to humiliate them and when this humiliation has achieved its purpose, Judah’s repentance, He will restore them.

Thus Isaiah calls Judah back to authentically living their Covenant with God. Prophets are not so
much people who predict the future as much as those who call the people to return to God and His ways. This is why the Hebrew word shûb (return) is the quintessential prophetic word.

The view of prophets as predicting the future is perhaps reinforced by both of our first two readings. But the real prophetic message here is that God is coming to shepherd His people. God most often sends His prophets when His Covenant family, including their leaders, has violated the Covenant and fallen into unfaithful behavior. While seldom welcomed, these prophets announce the good news that God will always be faithful even if men are not and that we must only turn back and return to Him.

Our reading from Mark’s Gospel cites the passage from Isaiah, combining other Old Testament references, to reveal that John the Baptist is the most important prophet. He is the messenger who is coming to proclaim the advent of the long hoped for Messiah. John the Baptist is proclaiming God’s comfort to those who recognize their sinfulness, repent, and return to Him. He tells of a new Covenant that is coming in the person of the Messiah. Unlike the Old Testament, New Covenant comfort will come directly from “God with us.” Jesus will later show that He Himself is the Comforter sent by the Father and when He is taken up, He will send another Comforter, the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn 14:16).

This is the Advent message. We have a Comforter-God who offers us a relationship of true consolation of heart and soul. Through repentance and Baptism we receive grace and the peace that only God can give. We are called to continually recognize anew the Baptist’s message of repentance; we must ever prepare the way for the Lord in our hearts and souls, making a pathway for our God. Not only will this make us ready to receive Him when He comes to us in Holy Communion and at our deaths, but it allows us to become prophets like-unto Isaiah and John the Baptist. By our very lives, we can then bear witness to the truth by pointing to Truth Himself and saying Behold the Comforter—Here is your God! He comes to save. Return to Him and find peace.