December 11, 2012

Tuesday of the Second Week of AdventLectionary: 182

Reading 1 from the Holy Book of Isaiah
Is 40:1-11

Comfort, give comfort to my people,
says your God.

God instructs Isaiah to speak kindly to the people of Jerusalem.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her service is at an end,
her guilt is expiated;
Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD
double for all her sins.

God says to Isaiah that He has punished Jerusalem two times over for her sins.

A voice cries out:
In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!
Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill shall be made low;
The rugged land shall be made a plain,
the rough country, a broad valley.
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

This is a direct prophecy of the coming of St. John the Baptist and indirectly of the coming of the Lord.

A voice says, "Cry out!"
I answer, "What shall I cry out?"
"All flesh is grass,
and all their glory like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower wilts,
when the breath of the LORD blows upon it.
So then, the people is the grass.
Though the grass withers and the flower wilts,
the word of our God stands forever."

The voice of God tells Isaiah to speak and Isaiah asks, "about what?"  And God says, "Tell the grass, the people who grow and die, that I God, live forever."

Go up onto a high mountain,
Zion, herald of glad tidings;
Cry out at the top of your voice,
Jerusalem, herald of good news!
Fear not to cry out
and say to the cities of Judah:
Here is your God!

Then Jerusalem is instructed to pass the news on to all the cities of Judah, that God is going to save them.

Here comes with power
the Lord GOD,
who rules by his strong arm;
Here is his reward with him,
his recompense before him.
Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers the lambs,
Carrying them in his bosom,
and leading the ewes with care.

And Jerusalem is told to prophecy about the coming of Christ.  This verse reminds me of another:

Revelation 22:12-15
King James Version (KJV)
12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 96:1-2, 3 And 10ac, 11-12, 13

R. (see Isaiah 40:10ab) The Lord our God comes with power.

Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name;
announce his salvation, day after day.

R. The Lord our God comes with power.

Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
Say among the nations: The LORD is king;
he governs the peoples with equity.

R. The Lord our God comes with power.

Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
Then let all the trees of the forest rejoice.

R. The Lord our God comes with power.

They shall exult before the LORD, for he comes;
for he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
and the peoples with his constancy.

R. The Lord our God comes with power.

Isaiah's message to Jerusalem, we should also learn.  God is God and we are not.  We are here today and gone tomorrow.  God is forever.  

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew
Mt 18:12-14

Jesus said to his disciples:
"What is your opinion?
If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills
and go in search of the stray?
And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it
than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.
In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father
that one of these little ones be lost."

Jesus told the disciples that God the Father loves each and everyone of us.  In a veiled manner, He also reveals why He took flesh and came to earth to die for God's people.

Sincerely,

De Maria