PaddlingPadre

The land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, the land West of the Jordan, Galilee of the gentiles—the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. These words of Isaiah are probably familiar to us—we hear them here as they are taken up by Saint Matthew, and they are quite prominent during advent as well, for it is but a few verses onfrom where our first reading ends that Isaiah attributes the dawning of this great light to the birth of a child who will be called Wonderful, Counselor, God the Mighty, Father of the World to Come, the Prince of Peace.

Now, the historical context of these words originally is that these lands of Zebulun and Naphtali, two of the northern tribes, had been devastated by the Assyrians, one of the great enemies of Israel and Judah, which is why Isaiah remarks that at first the Lord degraded these lands – that is, he allowed them to suffer at the hands of the Assyrians. And so, given this context, we could say that this prophesy of Isaiah has its proximate fulfillment in the person of King Hezekiah, one of the only truly righteous kings of Judah, who would, for a brief time at least, reverse this misfortune and bring back prosperity to these beleaguered lands.

Of course, Hezekiah, as righteous as he may have been, hardly measures up to the fullness of Isaiah’s words. And this is so typical, really, of biblical prophecy: an Old Testament prophecy may seemingly have an Old Testament referent, but that referent leaves the prophecy less than half fulfilled – Hezekiah was no ultimate savior, no Mighty God, no Prince of Peace, no Father of the World to Come. The Kingdom which he brought, the light that in his day began to shine on Galilee of the gentiles, was in but a few generations to be snuffed out, Jerusalem being destroyed and its people being exiled just as Samaria had been. And yet, though Hezekiah goes to his fathers and his Kingdom is destroyed, the prophecy of Isaiah lingers, awaiting its ultimate fulfillment in the dawning of that light which will never fade, which will never be put out, in that liberation and cause for rejoicing which will be eternal, the promise of which serves as a great comfort to Judah during his long exile in Babylon.

And, of course, we know what is the fulfillment of this promise, we know who is the child who fully lives up to the prophecy of Isaiah, and behold:when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled. And so, we see that definitive and everlasting light rising on that gloomy land, as from that time on Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

That Kingdom which Jesus announced has gone on spreading, his light has gone on shining, down through the centuries and across continents and oceans even to this very place. Surely it is of us too that Isaiah wrote when he said, “You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing, as they rejoice before you as at the harvest, as people make merry when dividing spoils.” For, by our baptism and by our partaking of his flesh and blood, are we not made citizens of the Kingdom of heaven? Have we not been forgiven for all our sins, have we not been reborn in love, have we not escaped the clutches of death as eternal life is vouchsafed to us by the sure sign of our Lord’s resurrection? Truly, what joy could compare with this, or what light could be as brilliant!

Now, if all this is true, then it ought to have certain effects on us, as well as to confer certain responsibilities. First of all, if we belong to the Kingdom of heaven, if we belong to that light that is Christ, then we should flee from darkness! As Saint John says in his first epistle:If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not do the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is also in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin. So make no provision for the deeds of darkness, for the false promises of the flesh and of the world, but rather walk uprightly as in the day.

And as you walk thusly in righteousness, in liberation from sin and death, do so with the cheerfulness and radiance that is born of the hope that is in you. For what a sign of contradiction is a Christian soul that is dour or cynical! True enough, the world may give us reason for sorrow, and the news and the media may even seem as if they are especially contrived so as to sow in our hearts seeds of anxiety and cynicism. But if Christ has risen from the dead, if Christ has conquered the world and the ultimate defeat of evil and death is assured, then why do we yet give our hearts to earthly things and earthly events, the inconstancy of which cannot but rob us of our peace?

 This is not to say that we should be indifferent to worldly affairs. As a secular priest, and even more so for all of you as members of the laity, we do live in the world, and it is the special charge of the lady in particular to sanctify the world. And often when we hear that we think of it in political terms, and it is true: you have a responsibility as Catholics to protect life, the unborn and the elderly especially, to stand up for the family, for the poor and the outcast, to stand up against unjust aggression, both by other nations as well as our own, and to do all of this by political means, remembering your faith at the ballot box.

But far more fundamental, far more foundational, far more necessary – and how easily do we forget this in a culture that substitutes politics for religion – is that we proclaim the gospel! How important is it that we in our turn radiate that light that has dawned upon us, so that it might also come to shine on those who still today dwell in darkness, on those who sit in the gloom of a godless culture, overshadowed by death, having no hopes but those of this present life, and no king but Caesar. It is for us—for me and for you—to bring to those perishing souls the light of Christ which has the power to set them free, even as the missionaries once brought that light to us or to our ancestors, whether it was St. Augustine to the English, St. Patrick to the Irish, St. Boniface to the Germans, St. Francis Xavier to India and Japan, or even the apostles themselves! Do not marvel that you stand in their company for you as well are called to be a missionary—here in Knoxville you are called to a missionary life, to a life that is capable of bringing others to Christ in the light of the joy that you possess, in the light of the love and forgiveness that you exhibit, in the light of your readiness to give an account for the hope that is in you. For this is the great fact that ought to determine every other aspect of our lives:that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.