1^st Sunday of Advent (A); 12-1-2019

Is 2:1-5   Ps 122   Rom 13:11-14   Mt 24:37-44

Deacon Jim McFadden

 

As we enter into the great season of Advent, we await the coming of the Lord. Our first reading is taken from the prophet Isaiah, often referred to as the prophet of Advent since we rely so heavily upon him. The master image that he presents is Yahweh’s holy mountain: Listen: “In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills” (Is 2:2ab).

This exhortation raises the question: Is the mountain of the Lord’s house really the highest mountain in your life? Is it more important than your job, of your personal autonomy, of your friendships, of your country. Is it more important than your own family—the people you love the most?

If not, something is off-kilter in your life. So, this is a good point of meditation: what is the highest mountain for you?

            We all have a highest mountain. There are so many things that preoccupy us, that compete for our attention. But, amidst all of them there is a highest mountain, which the Protestant theologian Paul Tillich calls our Ultimate Concern. What is it for you? If it’s not the mountain of the Lord’s house, something will go wrong.

There’s a very simple way of stating this: if you don’t have the love of God first in your heart, then you will not know what to do with the other goods of your life. If you have wealth, status/accomplishments, pleasure, and power in your life, but you do not have the love of God, then you won’t know what to do with them and they will at the end of the day destroy you. But, if the love of God is the highest mountain, then you will know what to do with the other goods in your life.

Now, listen as Isaiah goes on: “All nations shall stream towards it” (v. 2:2c). This is a proper eschatological reference because the Chosen People believed that all peoples would be eventually drawn to God because of Israel’s worship. But, for our purposes during Advent, let’s put it down to a more down-to-earth register. Does every nation in your—every interest, endeavor—stream towards Jerusalem? Is your private life ordered to God and his purposes? Is your professional life attuned to the worship of God? Is your family life under the aegis of God. Does your mind belong to Jerusalem? The mind is preoccupied with all sorts of things during the course of the day. Is it above all preoccupied with the things of God? –searching out God’s purpose for you, searching out life’s ultimate purpose?

Or, is your mind filled with a lot of garbage? Is it preoccupied with a lot of trivial matters? Have you become a smartphone zombie? Or, does your mind stream towards Jerusalem.

            How about your will, which seeks all sorts of good things. Do you seek above all the praise and worship of God? Or, is your will preoccupied with all sorts of trivial things?

How about your passions? Do they stream towards Jerusalem? Or, are they a conflicting mess of energy? Now here, now there: careening towards that good, then another. Are your passions in your heart ordered to God or are they disordered?

How about your friendships? Are they streaming towards Jerusalem? Do they conduce to a deeper relationship with God or are your friendships leading you astray? The point is that everything in our should go up to Jerusalem which is the highest mountain.

            Listen, as the prophet Isaiah continues: “Many people shall come and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways” (v. 3ab).

People come to the Jerusalem temple to be instructed in the Law, the Torah. They got their “marching orders,” their orientation of life from this teaching. Well, as you know that the dominant consciousness of our society is not the Gospel, but secularism holds sway. Where do people today, especially the young get their instruction? Largely, they get it from the Internet, from films, TV, the avatars of pop culture and the like. There nothing wrong with them in themselves, but when they become the determiner of values, they become the place where we go for instruction. When that happens, something is out of whack. Where do you go for your deepest purpose and meaning of your life? Where do you go for instruction? You probably know that 75% of U.S. Catholics stay away from Mass on a regulars basis . That tells us that they’re going somewhere else for their instruction.

Then we hear this: “He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, or shall they train for war again” (v. 4) .

One of the core principles of genuine faith is that the only ground of peace is the worship of God. Again: the worship of God is the only true ground for peace. We won’t find it in our bloated military budget, nor in our continual state of war preparation, which amounts to a permanent war.

Why’s that the case? All the goods of the world—wealth, honor, pleasure, and power—are necessarily finite, exclusive, and ephemeral. I mean, there is only so much wealth to go around. There’s only so much prestige and acclaim to go around. Only one person (or a few) are named as ‘Person of the Year’ for Time magazine or ‘Sportsperson of the Year” for Sports Illustrated. There’s only so much power that can be exercised. Only the President of the United States is authorized to have at his disposal the nuclear codes, which is a scary thought. Therefore, when the desires for these things become absolute, conflict necessarily follows Not sometimes, not usually, but always. The goods of the world are finite, exclusive, and ephemeral; so, we fight and keep our share. Violence inevitably ensues.

Now, listen, the only good that is unlimited, that is inclusive, that is everlasting is God! God is infinite which means God can be desired absolutely and by everyone, but in a non-conflictual way. We can all love the Lord, our God with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our strengths (cf. Deut. 6:4). And, this conduces not to struggle, jealousy, and violence but to peace.

We have the formula for this truth: ‘Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on earth.” That’s the formula for spiritual peace, which can’t be found elsewhere. Everybody loves God absolutely, then peace will breakout. That’s why on God’s holy mountain, God is being worshiped by everybody; so, we can beat our swords into plowshares. The instruments of violence become the instruments of cultivation of justice.

All of this leads to the beautiful conclusion: “House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord” (v. 5).   The great exhortation of the prophet Isaiah rings out 2,600 years to reach our ears today in 2019. Let us stop walking in the ways of rivalry, jealousy, conflict, competition, violence, and warfare. It is possible to walk according to a different Light. Amen.