Homily
for Christmas
Mass
during the Day
Dec. 25, 1981
Isaiah
52: 7-10
St. Vincent de Paul, Charlotte, N.C.
As noted last
weekend, we are quarantined because of Covid-19 in the house.
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, and saying to Zion, ‘Your God is King’” (Is 52: 7).
Thruout the Advent
season the Church has been reading from Isaiah the prophet, particularly from
the second half of his book, known as the Book of Consolation. This second half of the book emphasizes their
long exile in
I don’t suppose
any of us have ever thought feet were beautiful, not even at Christmas. Of course, the prophetic emphasis is on the
good news arriving at Jerusalem —arriving with a messenger who has travelled on
foot over the mountains.
The glad tidings
being carried to Jerusalem—the city is little more than a ruin after the siege,
capture, and sack by Nebuchadnezzar 50 years earlier—the glad tidings are that the Lord is comforting his people at last.
He is baring his arm like a warrior preparing for battle (52:9-10).
The prophet thus
speaks of the Lord redeeming Jerusalem. In
the Bible, redemption doesn’t mean paying a ransom or buying back. It means fulfilling the family obligation of
vengeance.
The word for glad
tidings or good news, translated into Old English, was Godspell—our modern “gospel.”
The gospel message in 540 B.C.
was redemption, restoration, freedom, and peace for God’s people—in an earthly
sense of return home from exile, the rebuilding of a ruined city, and the
renewal of worship in the holy city.
For ages the
Church has applied Isaiah’s prophecies to the messianic time, to Jesus the
Messiah and what he has done for us. The
glad tidings today are our God is King.
He has shown his power in our world by giving us a Savior, a redeemer.
But this time
Zion, that is, God’s holy people, is not redeemed from a worldly conqueror but
from an other-worldly one. We have been
ravaged by sin. We have been conquered
by the powers of darkness and by death.
And today light shines in our world!
Death is beaten back by life, sin is overcome by grace—not a payoff, a
bribe, or a ransom, but by the awesome might of our God—awesome, yet gentle
enuf to come to us in the form of an infant, a savior whose glory inspires us
with love, nor with fear. Jesus restores
us to our Father from the exile of sin.
He shares his eternal life with us who accept him, his victory, his good
news that we are loved.
At Christmas we
easily see the effects of salvation. We
not only wish each other peace, but we share it. We try to give joy and comfort to one
another. We act kindly even to
strangers. And it’s beautiful. That is the gospel message proclaimed in the
world for everyone to see. Men and women
are restored to God in the sacraments.
But the effect is
lasting only if it survives the Christmas season. It has to carry over into our everyday lives;
it has to endure, as does God’s love for us.
Only then will the world that sin has ruined begin to be restored as a
holy land where God evidently dwells.
May God bless you
with peace, not only today and not only for yourselves, but always and for
everyone whose life you touch.
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