Reflection on Today's Readings, Tuesday, First Week of Advent, Year B, December 1st, 2020
Texts: Is. 11:1-10; Ps. 72:1-2.7-8.12-13.17; Luke 10:21-24
Prophet Isaiah, in today's first reading, tries to tell us the character of the Messiah we are expecting. Speaking in the religious context of his time he used the language that could best communicate that the Messiah shall be both God and man. He says, "On that day: There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jess, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." These words of his tells us that the Messiah will have a human lineage and as such he is going to be a man born of a woman. He uses the image of stump to show that his kingship shall come forth from kingship that is no longer existing. This reminds us of God who creates out of nothing, the God who gives life to the dead. God makes way where there is no way, he gives hope where there is no hope. He shows he is God when he acts this way. Many a time we are not ready to give God a chance to show himself in our lives; at the point God wants to show himself in our lives, we lose faith and turn away, taking our lives into our hands. We are called today to stay with God no matter the situation.
Isaiah, continuing with the character of the Messiah, he says, "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord." These words of prophet Isaiah shows that the Messiah is God, for the seven spirits of God shall rest upon him. Number seven signifies perfection and completeness. Hence, the seven spirits means the full dwelling of God in the Messiah. This recalls Hebrew 1:3: "He is the reflection of God's glory and bears the impress of God's own being". In Jesus Christ, God takes flesh and dwells among us. Because he is God, his judgement shall be just, and he shall bring peace. He shall influence the natures of creatures: "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox." Only God could achieve this feat, not man. Today's first reading shows that our expected Messiah, the Saviour, is both God man. Being God assures us that he can save us and that he deserves our hope, love and faith.
The gospel reading reminds us that God is the Lord of heaven and earth to show that God is the one who has the power to change the nature of creatures in heaven and earth. Being the Lord of heaven and earth, he is God on earth as he is in heaven. Jesus Christ is also the Lord of heaven and earth, for he says, "All things have been delivered to me by my Father".
We are also told that God delights in revealing himself to the weak such as infants. This saves man from arrogating God's glory to himself and to be clear to man that he, God, is the one working, not man. This also shows why he took flesh: he chose what is weak to save man.
In today's gospel reading Jesus says, "no knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." These words show that we can only know the Father by approaching Jesus Christ and know Jesus Christ by approaching the Father. Jesus Christ reveals himself by revealing the Father, so knowing Jesus Christ is knowing the Father and knowing the Father is know Jesus Christ (John 14:6-9). That was the problem Jesus had with the Jews: they claim to know God and yet not knowing him, Jesus Christ (John 8:19). This is not the case with us, for we now know that the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. So we are counted among the blessed.
Lord our God, by your grace, banish ignorance and grant us the knowledge of you that we may be fervent in faith. Amen.
Rev. Fr. Andrew Olowomuke
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