Reading 1 is 40:1-5, 9-11
Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her that her service is at an end,
her guilt is expiated;
indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.
A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!
Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low;
the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley.
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Go up on to a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings;
cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news!
Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God!
Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who rules by his strong arm;
here is his reward with him, his recompense before him.
Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom,
and leading the ewes with care.
Commentary below is Father Robert Barron’s Advent Reflection, day 7, 2014
Advent Day 7 – Love Both Gentle and Fierce
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| What does God’s love look like in a world gone wrong? During Advent we prepare for the Incarnation, when Jesus reveals a God who is nothing but love. But this enfleshment takes place in the midst of a fallen, sinful world. Therefore, it will naturally appear threatening, strange, or off-putting.Consider when you are in a particularly grouchy mood, when things are not going well. Who is the most obnoxious person to have around? Someone who is in a good mood. There is no one more annoying to a grouch than the sunny optimist.If you have been stuck for two weeks in the depths of a cave, what would be most tortuous to you? Light.If you have been swinging a golf club incorrectly for many years, who is most painful to you? The teacher who compels you to change everything you’ve known and to swing in a new way. The world, on the biblical reading, is a dysfunctional family. As G.K. Chesterton put it, “We’re all in the same boat, and we’re all seasick.” Therefore in light of this disorder, when Jesus comes, he necessarily comes as a trouble-maker, as a breaker of the peace. It’s helpful to remember during Advent that there is no contradiction between God’s gentleness and God’s fierceness: they are both expressions of his love. They both emerge when love breaks into our dysfunctional world and sets it right, which is precisely what commences at Christmas. |
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