Homily for Tuesday
Week 1 of Advent
Dec. 3, 2024
Is 11: 1-10
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle
David (in Church of St. Mary Major)
by Nicolas Cordier
“A
shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse” (Is 11: 1).
The
dynasty of David, son of Jesse, led Israel into ruin, exile, and subjugation by
a series of imperial oppressors:
Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.
The prophets constantly criticized the corruption of Israel’s kings and
ruling class—not only their idolatry but also the social injustice. Under the empires there were no kings;
David’s royal family tree had been reduced to a stump.
Even
before all that disaster, Isaiah foresees a restoration of right order
generated by a “sprout” from that stump of David’s family. This son of David, inspired with wonderful
gifts of the Spirit—wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, and
reverence for the Lord—“shall judge the poor with justice and decide aright for
the land’s afflicted” (11:2,4).
This
son of David shall be so aligned with the Lord, so attuned to justice, that he
shall right the degradation of paradise wrought by Adam: “There shall be no harm or ruin on all my
holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord”
(11:9), and all created beings will dwell in harmony (11:6-8).
Jesus
of Nazareth, son of David, has begun the restoration of justice and right
order. He bestows the divine Spirit upon
us and enables us to do what’s right.
Whenever and wherever people take Christ to heart, human society and
earthly realities flourish.
The Earthly Paradise
(Pieter Bruegel the Younger)
We
await and pray for Christ’s return to complete what he began in Galilee and
Jerusalem, to bring to full light the little sparks fired in the lives of the
saints, to make a new creation, Eden restored, so that God shall reign over all
the earth and over all people in peace and happiness.
Christ
has begun what Isaiah foresaw. May his
grace touch our hearts and thru us advance God’s reign.
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