GOD'S WORD CONSOLES HIS PEOPLE


TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Isa 40:1-11; Ps 96:1-3,10-13; Mt 18:12-14

Consolation to the People of God

The prophetic message of Isaiah today is similar in content to that of the prophet Baruch, we read yesterday. The similarity lies in their contents, which is the message of consolation for Jerusalem and her children exiled in Babylon. The second Book of Isaiah or Deutero-Isaiah was written during the exile in Babylon as the Book of Baruch. Jerusalem was to take consolation in serving her term of God’s punishment for her sins. “‘Console my people, console them’ says your God. ‘Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call to her that her time of service is ended, that her sin is atoned for, that she has received from the hand of the Lord double punishment for all her crimes.’” We are to learn from this that whatever God has decreed by his holy will and announced by his word must come to pass. God decreed seventy years in exile as the punishment for the sins of his people through Jeremiah the prophet. He encouraged them to serve the divine sentence in faith and not be dismayed. God punishes us when we are obstinate in our sins with unpleasant experiences he sends to us. We must receive the punishment pronounced by divine justice and humbly and faithfully serve the sentence to the glory of God and our salvation. No number of supplications or penance will change the will of God once he has passed the sentence. The prayers, sacrifices, and penances we offer God before the sentence runs its term are not useless, for they win us graces to remain faithful and submissive to God in our trials.

We obtain the grace of salvation at the end of our suffering or punishment by faithful submission to God’s will. Thus, the message of consolation comes with a call to prepare for the coming of the Lord to Jerusalem. “Prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord. Make a straight highway for our God across the desert. Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low… then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all mankind shall see it; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” The same steadfastness with which his justice punished us, he will lift us from our situation and restore us to his glory. But we must prepare for his coming, which requires our cooperation. Unlike his punishment of our sins, achieved by his departure from us, it does not need our cooperation. He needs our cooperation for his presence to bring about the required effect of salvation in us. His presence among us is brought about by the revelation of his will to us for our salvation; Which is what helps us to fill the valleys, level the mountains and hills, and create a straight path in our wilderness, but only if we acknowledge and receive it in faith. Human strength is nothing and can accomplish nothing when it comes to human salvation. Hence, Isaiah reminds us immediately that all flesh is grass and fades like the flower of the field; only the word of God can support our weak humanity to accomplish the will of the Father.

The inability of human nature to accomplish the will of God unsupported is what the parable of the lost sheep teaches us. Our fallen nature constantly disposes us to stray away from the presence of God by abandoning his divine will. But the Eternal Word of God seeks us out everywhere and every time to bring us back to the fold. “Tell me. Suppose a man has a hundred sheep and one of them strays; will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go in search of the stray? I tell you solemnly, if he finds it, it gives him more joy than do the ninety-nine that did not stray at all.” The point is not that the Lord loves us more when we stray, but the same love with which he loves the whole and each sheep makes him seek out any that strays from the fold and brings it back. This same love makes him remove his presence from us to receive the punishment for our sins and learn the discipline of following his divine will. The extra joy of the Lord is in the fact that his discipline produced the desired effect in us; that is, our repentance and salvation. He rejoices in an extra way seeing what was corrupted and defaced, purified and wholesome again. The Shepherd expresses this extra joy in his holding the lost one close to his breast. “He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against his breast and leading to their rest the mother ewes.” They are like nursing mothers, those attached to worldly things and pleasures.

Let us pray: O God, who have shown forth your salvation to all the ends of the earth, grant, we pray, that we may look forward in joy to the glorious Nativity of Christ. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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