Visions and Prophecies
Second Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 11:1–10 / Psalm 72:7 / Romans 15: 4–9 / Matthew 3: 1–12
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Reflecting on the Word
By Rev. James A. Wallace, C.Ss.R.
Last year I went to a Christmas concert to help get myself into the Christmas spirit. The concert was moving along at a comfortable and comforting pace, enjoy able but nothing out of the ordinary, when suddenly the choir came out and sang a piece that moved me to tears. I searched the program and found its name and composer: The Dream Isaiah Saw by Glenn Rudolph. I went home and found it online, a youth choir performing it.
Its refrain brought together the passage of Isaiah we heard today and the event that we will celebrate in a few weeks. It does this very simply with several variations for the final line: “Little child whose bed is straw, take new lodgings in my heart, Bring the dream Isaiah saw: a) life redeemed from fang and claw; b) justice purifying law; c) knowledge, wisdom, worship, awe.”
Advent is a season that sets before us visionaries and prophets like Isaiah, the missionary Paul, and the herald John. Each offers us a vision of things coming together. For Isaiah, it is all creation—animal and human; for Paul, it is Jews and Gentiles; for John, it is the One who is coming to gather the wheat into his barn, God’s harvest, those baptized in the Spirit.
We are brought together each Sunday to think, live, and sing in harmony to the gracious God who has come to us in Jesus Christ, the One who came filled with the spirit of the Lord, to draw us more deeply into the life so generously offered by God.
Consider/Discuss
- Does the dream of Isaiah with its pairing of opposites offer hope in our own day, when there is so much division in the world, in government, and even in the Church?
- What would arouse John the Baptist’s wrath today? What in our lives can be considered as worthy wheat and as chaff to be swept up and tossed into the fire?
Responding to the Word
We pray this season that we may come to “think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus, that with one accord [we] may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:5–6).