The famous cantata of the German composer Bach above has the theme of the end of year and Advent: keep watch, keep vigilant, watch for the Lord, Whose coming is imminent. Our Advent readings add to that theme an increasing amount of hope that the Holy One, God our Lord, would begin a new eruption of Himself into history, to enlarge or complete His reign on earth. As we say in the great prayer of the Church, ‘Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, here as there.’
Advent invites us to put our feet into the shoes of the ancient Jewish people of the centuries before the coming of our Lord. These men and women had been given a spiritual inheritance under the prophet Moses, and were promised prosperity if they were true to the God Who had called them. But religious observance waxes and wanes, and the Chosen, the Elect of God had been lured into the same laxity and temptation as Adam and Eve in the garden. Their earthly prosperity under the great kings David and Solomon was threatened, then was lost beyond hope. Many were the prophets who sought to draw the people as a whole out of their religious complacency, then to salvage what was left of their spiritual inheritance. In our first reading today, the voice of Isaiah echoes from those last centuries of the Israelite kingdoms in a cry of repentance, calling upon God to strengthen the hearts of His people, to return them to Him.
“Bethink Thee now, in heaven; look down from the palace where Thou dwellest, holy and glorious. Where, now, is Thy jealous love, where Thy warrior’s strength? Where is Thy yearning of heart, Thy compassion? For me, compassion is none. Yet, who is our father, Lord, if not Thou? Let Abraham disown us, Israel disclaim his own blood, we are Thy sons still; is it not Thy boast of old, Thou hast paid a price for us? And now, Lord, wouldst Thou drive us away from following Thee, harden our hearts till worship we have none to give Thee? For love of Thy own servants, relent, for love of the land that by right is Thine. Is it nothing to Thee, enemies of Thy holy people should have the mastery, trample Thy sanctuary down? Fared we worse in old days, before ever we called Thee King, ever took Thy holy Name for our watchword? Wouldst Thou but part heaven asunder, and come down, the hills shrinking from Thy presence, melting away as if burnt by fire; the waters, too, boiling with that fire! So should the fame of Thee go abroad among Thy enemies; a world should tremble at Thy presence!”
Prophecy of Isaias, 63: 15-19; 64: 1-2 [link]
Oh that God would rend the heavens open and descend to confirm the faith of His chosen. This must have been the prayer of those centuries between the time of Isaias and that of Christ. Surely, seeing God, men and women would repent and return to a stronger faith and hope. We can’t say that God did not answer the prophet. He did descend, but He was not what they expected and they got foreigners to crucify Him. Today, we can use Isaiah’s prayer and call for Him to descend once more, to return to us. Surely, seeing Him, men and women will repent and return to a stronger faith and hope. As the prophet says, we have all withered like leaves, and our sins blow us away like the wind. Few in our society now invoke the Name of the Holy One, or tries to get a hold of Him in prayer and study. And yet, we are the clay, and He is the potter. May He prepare us for His Second Coming, as He once did for His first.
“We are men defiled; what are all our claims on Thy mercy? No better than the clout a woman casts away; we are like fallen leaves, every one of us, by the wind of our own transgressions whirled along. There is none left that calls on Thy Name, that bestirs himself to lay hold of Thee. Thou hidest Thy face from us, broken men caught in the grip of their wrong-doing. Yet, Lord, Thou art our father; we are but clay, and Thou the craftsman Who has fashioned us; wilt Thou crush us, Lord, with Thy anger, wilt Thou keep our sins ever in mind? We are Thy people, all of us.”
Prophecy of Isaias, 64: 6-9 [link]
England was once great, so faithful and so attached in particular to the Holy Mother of God that she was called as a nation ‘the dowry of Mary.’ Let us sing once more the refrain of the psalm this weekend: ‘God of Hosts, bring us back; let your face shine upon us, and we shall be saved.’ Meanwhile, those of us who do still call upon the Name of God must keep awake, stand vigilant in our lives of devotion and charity. This is the call of our Lord from the gospel reading this weekend. He gives us the example of a householder travelling abroad but with servants left behind to keep the household running and prepared for his return.
“Look well to it; watch and pray; you do not know when the time is to come. It is as if a man going on his travels had left his house, entrusting authority to his servants, each of them to do his own work, and enjoining the door-keeper to watch. Be on the watch, then, since you do not know when the master of the house is coming, at twilight, or midnight, or cock-crow, or dawn; if not, he may come suddenly, and find you asleep. And what I say to you, I say to all, ‘Watch.'”
Gospel of S. Mark, 13: 33-37 [link]
Our Lord Himself is that householder, His house is the Church. Many years ago, He left that house in the care of His Apostles, who appointed bishops and priests and deacons to keep it. And in a sense, He left it to all of us. And we’ve made quite a mess of it, for the most part. A great intellectual of the twentieth century once said that the proof of the divine foundation of the Church is that she hasn’t yet been ruined by those who have been appointed to serve her. But we shall be positive. Christ is always around the corner, His Second Coming is always tomorrow. Every day in a sense is Advent. And the cry of Advent is ‘Stay awake and watch.’
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 