Homily for Tuesday, Week 2 of Advent

Homily for Tuesday
Week 2 of Advent

Is 40: 1-11
Dec. 7, 2021
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God” (Is 40: 1)

These are the opening words of Handel’s Messiah, introducing that greatest of all oratorios, a musical summary of our redemption.  Handel, of course was quoting the KJV text of Isaiah 40 in that opening segment.  Isaiah 40 is itself an opening segment, the beginning of the 2d part of the Isaian collection we now call 2d Isaiah or Deutero-Isaiah.

2d Isaiah, ch. 40-55, is an extended prophecy of Israel’s impending liberation from their exile in Babylon, their 2d exodus thru a wilderness into the Promised Land.  “Proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated.  In the desert prepare the way of the Lord!” (40:2,3).

(from www.bible.com/bible/1/ISA.40.4-5.KJV)

Now the Lord thru Isaiah announces to a world bound in servitude yet another liberation, yet another path of the Lord.  Now our servitude isn’t to Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar but to Satan; our liberation is from the guilt of our sins and the damnation they merit.

Jesus Christ has marked out the path thru the wilderness of our human sinfulness, the way of the cross, leading to the new Jerusalem:  “Cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news!” (40:9).  From God’s holy city on high comes the announcement that “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed” (40:5), that our God is at hand to save us—to save us with a shepherd’s tender care (cf. 40:11).