Make Straight a Path for Him

December 9, 2007, 2nd Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 11:1-10 Romans 15:4-9 Matthew 3:1-3

To the church in the diaspora[1]
& to the church of the unchurched[2]

First reading

On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse,[3] and from Jesse’s roots a bud shall blossom. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord. Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips, he shall slay the wicked.

Justice shall be the band around his waist and faithfulness a belt upon his hips. Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with young goats; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child shall lay his hand on a snake’s nest. There shall be no harm or ruin on my entire holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord, as water covers the sea. On that day, the shoot sprouted from the stump of Jesse will be a banner raised on high for all the nations to see.
Isaiah 11:1-10

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
Glory to you, Lord.

John the Baptist appeared preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” The prophet Isaiah was referring to John when he said, “Someone is crying out in the desert, `Get the Lord’s road ready for him; make a straight path for him to travel on!’”
Matthew 3:1-3

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.----------------

Introduction
Advent old and new

Before Vatican II, Advent used to be a penitential season, which put the damper on all parties and gift giving until Christmas Day. There was even an unwritten law that the Christmas tree was not to be brought into the house and decorated until Christmas Eve. All that has changed quite drastically. Christmas now begins with a vengeance with the start of Advent and even with Thanksgiving. By the 24th Christmas has been worn out even before it has arrived. By the 24th, we’ve been exhausted by and even bored with Christmas, and it’s not rare to see trees defrocked and cast out on the curb by the 26th.

In the old days, Christmas began with a vengeance on the Christmas Eve and not before. When Christmas did finally arrive, we would hold on tightly to it and wouldn’t let it go. We held on to it beyond the 26th until the octave of Christmas -- New Years Day. Then we held on to it some more -- until the arrival of the Three Kings, January 6. Then even still more -- until the feast of the Purification, Feb 2, when Mary was purified in compliance with the Law of Moses (Num 18:15), and when her first-born, who belonged to the Lord (Ex 13:1-2),was presented to God and was redeemed or bought back by an offering of five shekels made to the sanctuary (Num 3:47; Lk 2:22-24). With February 2, the curtain finally came down on the Christmas season, and we knew it was time to dismantle the tree.

The promises of Advent

With Vatican II that has all changed. What has not changed, however, is Advent’s traditional division into a first and second part. The first part, also called Early Advent, runs from the beginning of Advent to December 17. It gazes forward to a glorious future awaiting the human race at the end of time. The second part, also called Late Advent or the Novena of Christmas, runs from December 17 to Christmas Eve. It gazes backward to a joyful past when Jesus was born of Mary in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King.

In Early Advent, the first readings at Mass are from the prophet Isaiah. Gazing into a glorious future at the end of time, the readings abound with a litany of promises of what is to be. All Isaiah’s verbs are in the future tense because that’s the tense of promise. He promises there won’t be any more wars like the one in Iraq. “In those days, they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. One nation shall not raise the sword against another nor shall they train for war again “(Is 2: 4-5). He promises there won’t be any more suicide bombers to detonate themselves and make a rich kill of men, women and children at a bus stop or market square. “In those days, the Lord God will strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay them” (Is 11: 4). He promises that Palestinians and Israelis, Islamists and Western Infidels won’t make war on each other anymore but rather peace. “In those days the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the goat; the calf and the young lion shall romp together“(Is 11: 6-7).

Isaiah promises there will finally be justice. “And in those days a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and he will judge the poor fairly and defend the rights of the helpless. And justice shall be the band around his waist and faithfulness a belt upon his hips” (Is 11:5). He promises also an expedited arrival of God’s glory in our midst. “In those days every valley shall be filled in and every mountain shall be leveled off and the hilly lands shall be made smooth. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all mankind shall see it. The Lord himself has promised this” (Is 40:3-5; Mt 3:3).

The impatience of Advent

This litany of promises of Early Advent builds up to an impatience which cries out, “Oh, you heavens, hurry up and rain down the Just One” (Is 45:8) It has the church impatiently crying out at Vespers on the 19th , “O Radix Jesse,[4] veni ad liberandum nos! Iam noli tardare!” ”Oh Shoot sprouted from the stump of Jesse, come to free us! Stop now your delaying!” The Latin of the antiphon does not gently invite this descendant of Jesse and King David to come; it strongly commands him to quit his delaying and hurry up! The antiphon bursts with an impatience that cries out, “What in the world is keeping you!”

The potholes impeding the Messiah

There is, indeed, something in the world that’s keeping him. The Messiah is already en route but the going is rough. He has no hefty Hummer to drive in or super-highway to ride on. The roads dwindle down at times to mere trails cluttered by fallen trees and rolling stones. There are potholes all along his path. His coming needs our help. We are the facilitators of it. So John the Baptist stands before us today as a voice crying in the desert, beseeching us to enable the Messiah and hasten the day of his coming. “Get the Lord’s road ready for him! Make a straight path for him to travel on” (Lk 3: 3)!

Years ago, Rabbi Tsvi Schur wrote me saying,
If more people in the world were filled with love and compassion and tolerance we would enable the Messiah to come so much sooner. I often kid my synagogue that I visualize the Messiah about to be sent down to the world by God, but looking at all the violence, hatred, inhumanity, especially in the name of religion, the Messiah beseeches God not to send him down to this world of ours.

A Samaritan enabling the Messiah

The potholes along the Messiah’s path are many. One day a man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho and was waylaid by robbers who left him half-dead. Along came a Jewish priest, who saw the poor man and passed him by. Along came a Levite who also saw the dying man and passed him by. Finally, a Samaritan came upon this pothole in the road and patched it up. He poured the oil of compassion into the poor man’s wounds, hoisted him on his beast of burden and hurried him off to the nearest inn where he provided for his care and cure (Lk 10:25-37).

The Good Samaritan had leveled off the mountains and filled in the valleys, and had made a straight path for the Messiah to travel on. He had enabled the Messiah to come to a victimized human being. Restored to health, the man made it a point to go to the Temple to give thanks, for his eyes had seen the salvation of the Lord on the road to Jericho! In addition, when Rabbi Schur’s reluctant Messiah, still up in heaven, saw the goodness of the Good Samaritan, he told God that he was now, indeed, ready to be sent down to the good earth. We fellow travelers on the highway of life are enablers of the Messiah.

A morality enabling the Messiah

The potholes along the Messiah’s path are many. There are 37 million adults and 2.5 million children living with HIV, and half of them will be dead before they are 35. There are 40,000 new HIV infections diagnosed every year in the United States. Such an immense pothole pleads to be filled up not with sexual moralism[5] but with the compassion morality of the Good Samaritan.

Not too long ago the Anglican Communion had its foundations shaken with the consecration of a gay bishop. That ruffled also the Russian Orthodox Church. One Anglican Church leader said, “The church will never be the same again.” By going on record for being strong on sexual moralism, the Anglican and Orthodox Church (and all the other churches as well) were simply doing what they always do, and what they do best.

Had those churches put themselves squarely and ardently behind those millions of adults and children living and dying with HIV and those 40,000 new HIV infections diagnosed yearly, they would, indeed, “never be the same again”! They would, indeed, become a shining city built upon a hill for all to see (Mt 5:14). They would, indeed, clear the path before the Lord and hasten the day of his coming. A sea of HIV victims would now, indeed, be giving thanks for having seen the salvation of the Lord. And Rabbi Schur’s reluctant Messiah, having seen the reign of compassion morality in the churches, would be telling God that he is now, indeed, ready to be sent down to the good earth. Religious people, especially, should be enablers of the Messiah.

A justice enabling the Messiah

There are many potholes along the path of the Messiah who wears “justice as a band around his waist and faithfulness as a belt upon his hips” (Is11:5). On the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, there are not only millions of victims who are waylaid by HIV and are crying for compassion, there is also half of the whole human race crying for justice. On that road lies woman robbed and wounded by man. That’s a huge pothole both in society and in the church, and it cries out to be filled with justice, so that the path of the Lord might be smoothened and his coming be hastened.

Barbara Horn is a feisty lady from Ireland who waits impatiently (a proper mood for Advent) and fights ardently for that pothole to be filled. With a penchant for the pen she writes eloquently about an ordination ceremony she attended on a glorious spring day in St. John the Baptist Cathedral here in Milwaukee.
The beauty of the music, the power of the liturgy and the ancient tradition of the laying on of hands, at moments left me breathless. The palpable joy and strength sweeping throughout St. John's Cathedral that lovely May morning will always be with me.

However, I must say that a great sadness arose in my heart; a feeling of how wrong everything was amid the beauty, the power and the strength. The procession of male clergy across the altar reverberated throughout my body, the visible reminder that the oldest, deepest exclusion and injustice -- the one we are all too accustomed to -- is alive and well in the bosom of my faith community. Here in our wonderful archdiocesan cathedral, where the most fundamental of expressions is uttered, the place where we give praise and thanks to our loving Creator for our very lives, here a line is drawn and we your sisters in Christ are to stay behind it…. This grieves me greatly.

Horn is not speaking about getting her hands on a share of power in the church. That would not patch up the pothole. Nothing would be changed; it would still be about power. She is speaking about the injustice of depriving woman of her baptismal inheritance. That deprivation is a deep pothole in the Lord’s path. Patch up that pothole, and the church would smoothen the path before the Messiah and hasten the day of his coming. Patch up that hole, and the church would lead the way for all religions and all cultures to give woman what is her birthright. Patch up that pothole, and the other half of the human race would give thanks for having, at long last, seen the salvation of the Lord. Patch up that pothole, and Rabbi Schur’s reluctant Messiah, seeing that justice now flows like a river on earth and especially in the church, would tell God that he is now, indeed, ready to be sent down to the good earth. The church, especially, must be an enabler of the Messiah.

Conclusion
The peal of the bells of Christmas

Though the new Advent isn’t a penitential season anymore, it is not a cakewalk. It still demands something of us. John the Baptist is still there in the desert crying out, “Get the Lord’s road ready for him; make a straight path for him to travel on!” Facilitate the Messiah’s coming to those waylaid by robbers or by HIV infection or by injustice or by anything else.
Though the new Advent isn’t a penitential season anymore, its traditional division into Early and Late Advent still remains. From the beginning of Advent until the 17th there are mountains to be leveled off and valleys to be filled in order to hasten the Messiah’s coming. That’s a big job. That’s the somber and serious facet of Advent. To neglect it, to turn the season into an unmixed orgy of joy, is to pervert the new Advent, and at the end of the day, such joy crumbles into depression on the 26th of December.

Some years ago a spokeswoman for Target Stores notified the public that it was banning the Salvation Army’s kettles and its bell-ringing in front of their stores. “We have adopted this policy in order to ensure a distraction-free shopping environment,” she said. Distraction from what? From hot pursuit of ourselves and our superfluous needs at Christmas time? Distraction from what? From the uncomfortable reminder that there are people who, through no fault of their own, are much less fortunate than ourselves? Distraction from what? From the unpleasant fact that there are mountains to be leveled off and valleys to be filled before it is Christmas Day?

If we toll the bells of the Salvation Army in Early Advent, then on December 17, when Late Advent begins, the toll of the Army’s bells will start to turn into the peal of the bells of Christmas.

[1] Diaspora is a Greek word meaning dispersion. Originally it referred to the settling of scattered colonies of Jews outside Palestine after the Babylonian exile. It’s now come to mean the migration or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland or parish!
[2]] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!
[3] King David’s father
[4] O Radix Jesse is the third of the church’s seven ancient O Antiphons sung in the Novena of Christmas. All the O Antiphons are impatient, but this one for the 19th is particularly impatient.
[5] Sexual moralism is not the same as sexual morality. Sexual moralism is a distortion which claims that sexual purity is the height of Christian morality, and sexual impurity is its very depths.