2nd Sunday of Advent
ISAIAH 40:1-11
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
And a voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”
You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!” See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.
He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.”
The chapters 40-56 of the “Prophecy of Isaiah” were written around the year 550, during the exile in Babylon. The anticipated return to the Land is conceived as a new Exodus, from slavery to the Homeland. Its language is full of symbols, especially referring to the “encounter with the Lord who is coming.” It is one of the parts of the Old Testament most cited in the New.
Its theology, in this text, is clear: The Lord has punished his people for their sins, but now comes as a liberator. In contrast to the transience of all human life, the faithfulness of the Lord is forever. The Lord is already presented as the Shepherd and Liberator of the people.
Its images and words are especially applied in the NT to John the Baptist: “Prepare the way for the Lord.” The image of preparing a great royal highway is used, leveling mountains and filling valleys, for the access of the Great King. This image is taken up by John the Baptist to give it a spiritual meaning: prepare the way, that is, convert, change your hearts, turn to God.
From the second letter of Peter 3:8-14
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.
But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.
Scholars of these topics date this letter to the late 1st or early 2nd century. Some think it is the last writing of the NT. Belonging undoubtedly to the “circle of Peter”, it was written by one of his disciples, with strong dependencies on writings of Paul and the letter of Jude.
The third chapter addresses the theme of “the delay of the Parousia”, that is, the coming of Christ and the Final Judgment, in whose imminence the first Christian communities believed strongly.
It is a topic that makes us seriously reflect on the term “Word of God.” It is evident that this belief existed in the early Christian communities, and it appears in the writings of the New Testament, even put into the mouth of Jesus. Whether Jesus said it or whether the writers put it into his lips is a topic we cannot delve into now. But we must reflect on the fact that in the entire Bible, both OT and NT, many beliefs and expressions appear that are characteristic of the culture and the interpretation that each era and author has made of the Word.
In this sense, and not to dwell on this marginal topic, let us point out that sometimes we exaggerate the meaning of “Word of God.” It would be better to say that in the Bible we find “a lot of Word of God,” so as not to give the character of Word of God to so many expressions, beliefs, commandments, which are nothing more than samples of the culture or the way of thinking of the time.
However, it would not be correct to dwell on this secondary aspect, omitting the main message: the day of the Lord is coming, “the day” is coming, compared to which this is the night. We await new heavens and a new earth, we are on the way to a reality without shadows, a creation free from sin and death, free from the transient. That is, the same message of the Exodus and Isaiah: we are walking towards the Homeland.
These are texts to make an act of faith in God as a happy ending, and at the same time, texts of urgency to make that happy ending possible, which will not be the work only of the Lord who comes, but of us who go out to meet Him.
And it is convenient to point out that small phrase, hidden among the others: “not wanting that some should perish, but that all should reach conversion.” The will of God is that all reach conversion, that no one perish. And can God fail?
José Enrique Galarreta, S.J.