Fulfillment of Prophecy

December 22, 2019

4th Sunday of Advent (A)
(Is 7:10-14; Mt 1:18-24)

When Matthew explains the extraordinary circumstances of the birth of Jesus Christ, he appeals to one of the greatest, if not the greatest, prophecies of the Old Testament: Isaiah 7:14: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.”

There are hundreds of prophecies in the Old Testament that describe and prepare for the Messiah, but none quite like this one. Isaiah himself prefaces it in a very explicit way, as we heard in the first reading. He goes to the king at the time, Ahaz, and challenges him to ask God for a sign, to perform a miracle. “And let this miracle,” he says, “be high as the heavens and deep as sheol.” In other words, let this miracle be the greatest thing possible, something greater than the whole cosmos.

The king defers. But what, in retrospect, could he ask for? How can any man know what such a miracle would be? Anything man could conceive would still be limited by his concept of the universe. (For that matter, such a miracle is even beyond the ability of the highest angel in heaven or hell to conceive). Isaiah is challenging Ahaz to rise to the level of God, or perhaps humbling him for daring to think too much of himself.

Isaiah tells him not to worry, because God himself will give this sign, and then he proceeds to articulate the prophecy, word for word as he has received it from the mouth of the Lord: “the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.”

That a virgin should conceive a son would certainly be a great miracle (presuming this prophecy is being spoken literally, but many people would interpret “virgin” to simply mean a young woman about to be married). But even if the prophecy referred to a miracle of nature by which a child is conceived through a special power of God, it is still not clear how that would be something higher than the highest heavens, and deeper than Sheol. It is still a miracle very much within the universe, and within nature. Perhaps it is the second part that makes it something outstanding: the child to be born will be called “Emmanuel,” a Hebrew name which means, as St. Matthew explains to his Greek audience, “God is with us.” Here too, however, it remains ambiguous, because many prophets and holy men received names that referred to God in some way (Isai-Jah, Jeremi-Jah, Ezeki-El, Dani-El, etc.). The exact meaning of this prophecy, and how it is the greatest possible miracle God can accomplish, will remain to be revealed only when it is actually fulfilled.

Thus it is that prophecy is both direct and clear, and at the same time hidden and obscure. Thus it is that its fulfillment confirms the prophecy by actually revealing its full meaning, unveiling and completing it. Only with the coming of the Messiah, does the Old Testament become clear.

In Prison

December 15, 2019

3rd Sunday of Advent (A)
(Mt 11:2-11)

While in prison, John the Baptist sends two of his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the Messiah. John the Baptist was the one who first recognized the Messiah, when the Holy Spirit came on Jesus in his baptism. Is John now doubting?

This is unlikely, and John asks the question more for his followers than for himself, so that they might come to see what he already knows: Jesus is the Messiah, and through him the signs of the Kingdom are being revealed. John is helping his own disciples recognize that he is passing away, while Jesus whom they must now follow, is increasing.

Nevertheless, even though John does not doubt the Lord, the news from Jesus is a consolation and confirmation for him in his time of trial. Shortly after the baptism of Jesus, John was arrested for having spoken against king Herod’s unlawful marriage to Herodias, his sister-in-law. At the very high point of his life’s mission, which is to “prepare the way of the Lord,” John is taken away from his mission. At the very moment of welcoming the groom for the wedding, he the best man cannot participate in the celebration, due to his arrest. The suffering of this imprisonment must have been profound; the darkness, the sadness, the regret.

The message sent to him by Jesus is a confirmation of his life, and a source of profound peace that enables John to accept his situation as part of God’s plan. He who witnessed publicly to thousands of people through fiery preaching now witnesses in obscurity, in silent pain and suffering.

In our parish [and every parish] there are a large number of homebound parishioners, who due to the debilitation of old age or sickness are not able to get out and go to church. Many of these parishioners were here every Sunday, they were once very active, serving in many capacities. Now they are almost forgotten, and their contact with the outside world is increasingly limited. They are imprisoned, like John.

Like John, they undergo the trial of questioning the meaning of this isolation, and strive to accept it humbly according to God’s will. It is incumbent on the church to visit these imprisoned, with the Advent message of hope; to let them know that the Kingdom of God flourishes, and that their silent witness contributes to that flourishing. That in fact, their prayer and sacrifice is the indispensible source of the fruitfulness of parish life. God sees the hidden witness and character of those who suffer in this way, and accepts their martyrdom as a pleasing gift.

Rev. Glen Mullan

Make Straight His Paths

December 8, 2019

2nd Sunday of Advent (A)
(Mt 3:1-12)

In elementary school we had workbooks without lines. As we needed to do exercises, practicing words and letters, we had to manually draw the lines on the paper. And this required a ruler, because it was impossible to draw a straight line by ourselves.

In the task of preparing for the Lord’s coming, the spiritual exercises likewise require a ruler, and this is John the Baptist. It is his role, as Isaiah prophesies, to “make straight the paths of the Lord” (Mt 3:3). The role of John the Baptist is an important one, and it continues in our lives today through the authority of the Church. By means of God’s law, teaching, and discipline, the Church helps us to rule, or order our lives correctly, a task we could not accomplish by ourselves.

Left to our own efforts, we inevitably live crooked, disordered lives. We veer off course, we constantly fail to avoid the pitfalls of vices and achieve the balance of virtue.

Advent is a season of preparation for Christmas, a time to straighten our paths, and straighten up our lives. As John the Baptist did 2000 years ago, so we must do today.

First, we must make confession of our sins and repent, renewing the grace of baptism that first made us children of God and upright in His sight. This is what John did by his “pre-sacrament” of baptism in the Jordan after confessing sin. We must make every effort to go to confession this Advent, and look to this sacrament as a means of straightening what is crooked in us.

Second, we must dedicate ourselves to a time away from distractions. John made the people come out to him in the desert, leaving the towns and villages. There he could lead them in prayer and reflection on their lives, so that their baptism would be a real conversion. He was severely critical of the Pharisees, who though they were extremely religious, were perfunctory in their prayer and worship. Sin creeps into our lives when we become lazy and fall into habits of merely “going through the motions.”

Advent requires real renewal of our prayer, and a true examination of our life on the spiritual level. Therefore we must find the time to avoid distractions, and escape the hectic frenzy of activity which seems to characterize this time of year.

To “make straight his paths” will likely require some exterior changes in our schedule and behavior, to remove obstacles which keep us from God, and God from ourselves. For instance, adjusting our lifestyle so that prayer and worship are not compromised or pressured by other activities. And it will likely require some interior changes, such as dealing with impatience or anger.

The role of John the Baptist continues today through the work of the Church: the ministry of clergy, the preaching of Scripture, the teaching of sacred doctrine, the celebration of sacraments. Let us rule our lives accordingly, ordering them by God’s law, and opening up the direct path for God to come and dwell within us, among us.

Rev. Glen Mullan

He Will Return

December 1, 2019

1st Sunday of Advent (A)
(Mt 24:37-44)

Christianity first arrived in Japan in the 1500s, through St. Francis Xavier and other Jesuits who came with European explorers. They encountered some initial success, especially among Japanese peasants, thousands of whom were baptized. However, it was not long before the rulers reacted against Christianity, banning the religion and exiling the missionaries. Soon the country closed itself off to all outside contact, and Christians were ruthlessly martyred and exterminated.

But Christianity was not completely eliminated. When trade finally opened again hundreds of years later in the 1800s, small communities came forward looking for priests, and the Eucharist. For many generations, surviving Christians held on to their faith. They had no Eucharist, no priests, no bibles, no churches. They handed on orally the prayers and scripture learned from the missionaries, and baptized their children. They held on to the hope and promise that one day the missionaries, who first came across the ocean to bring the Good News of salvation, would return again. And one day they did.

Christ came to mankind, not merely across oceans, but across the divide of eternity itself, from heaven to earth. And he too, remained on earth only briefly, to bring the fullness of the Gospel, open the way of salvation, and begin the Christian life. He too was soon exiled and put to death, but before leaving, promised that he would return: “As you see me leave, so you will see me return” (cf. Acts 1:11).

In today’s Gospel, Jesus urges his followers to keep vigil and watch constantly for his return, expecting him any day and any hour, even midnight. That first generation of Christians lived fully expecting Jesus to return during their lifetime. But as they grew older and passed away, they entrusted that task to the next generation. What the nascent Japanese Church experienced for several generations, the Church as a whole has experienced for 2000 years. Each generation in its turn takes up the faith, faces trials, lives in constant vigil and expectation of the Lord’s return, and faithfully hands on this task to the next generations in due time.

Another beautiful example of this Advent zeal is found in a monastery high in the mountains between France and Italy. In the 1100s a saintly hermit named Bruno withdrew from the world with a small community of fellow monks to focus on one thing: preparing and looking for the Lord’s coming. These are the Carthusians. They live in silence, and seven times a day gather in their church high in the mountains to pray and keep vigil. One of these times is the midnight hour, when the monks rise from sleep and gather in the large church in the darkness, by the light of a single candle, to sing the psalms. In this way they fulfill the Lord’s command to “stay awake,” and wait for him even at midnight.

For nine hundred years these monks have kept daily vigil – hoping to be the ones awake and ready when Christ comes again. Below them wars and revolutions have passed again and again. The world keeps changing and passing away, but they remain.

Even though we here are not called to this ascetical vocation, we can learn much from these monks, above all the need for prayer and silence in our lives. The world with its distractions makes prayer difficult, and it is hard to keep our lives focused on expectation of the Lord when our heart is pulled by so many other things. Though few of us can follow the discipline of rising in the middle of the night each day, at least we can give greater attention to the way we pray our night prayers before going to bed.

Advent is a time for us to renew our prayer, and remember what is our hope. The preparation for Christmas is not simply to remember Christ’s coming 2000 years ago, but above all to look for his Second Coming with eagerness, ready to be among those awake at his arrival.

Rev. Glen Mullan