ISAIAH: COME DOWN TO RE-CREATE US

 

THE SCRIPTURE READINGS:

ISAIAH 63:16-17;  64:1,3-8

Isaiah 63:16-17

16. But You are our Father, 

         though Abraham does not know us

         or Israel acknowledge us;

    You, Lord, are our Father,

         our Redeemer from of old is Your Name.

17. Why, LORD, do You make us wander from Your Ways

          and harden our hearts so we do not revere You?

     Return for the sake of Your servants,

          the tribes that are Your inheritance.

Isaiah 64: 1, 3-8

1.   Oh, that You would tear the heavens and come down,

       that the mountains would tremble before You!

3.   For when You did awesome things that we did not expect, 

        You came down, and the mountains trembled before You.

4.   Since ancient times, no one has heard, 

         no ear has perceived, 

       no eye has seen any God besides You,

         Who acts on behalf of those Who wait for Him.

5.  You come to the help of those who gladly do right,

        who remember Your Ways.

     But when we continued to sin against them,

        You were angry. 

        How then can we be saved? 

6.   All of us have become like one who is unclean, 

        and all of our righteous acts are like filthy rags;

      we all shrivel up like a leaf; 

        and like the wind our sins sweep us away. 

7.  No one calls on Your Name

        or strives to lay hold of You;

     For You have hidden Your Face from us

        and have given us over to our sins.

8.  Yet You, LORD, are our Father.

        We are the clay, You are the Potter;

      we are all the word of Your Hand. [1]

REFLECTION:

This powerful text expresses a passionate longing for God to come down among His people to heal them. "Oh, that you would tear the heavens open and come down . . ." 

These words were written soon after the exile. A group of Israelites had returned to a temple and city which lay in ruins. The situation was a discouraging one, and they may have felt that they were in much the same situation as sinful individuals before the exile.

The future was bleak. God may have seemed silent and distant from this sad plight of His people, 'For You have hidden Your Face from us...'  Now in this time of great change, Isaiah writes these words in which Israel prays with great determination and sincerity, addressing God with loving words as 'Father' and 'Redeemer'. 

Israel experienced hope for the future, due to the powerful deeds of the past in which God liberated the people from bondage. The people open themselves to God, as clay is available for work by the potter. God may come and create them anew. [2]

And just so are we today. We turn to God in this season of Advent, and ask Him to model the clay which is our inner being into His Image and Likeness. We turn from the ruin of past sin in our everyday lives, without making excuses for ourselves. Yes, we made mistakes. Yes, we were fearful. Yes, we did not have the full story. Yes, we were lied to. Yes, we were less aware then.

Yet, our sin was part of the equation. We have given in to temptation, been less than we could have been, shown lack of courage, less than gracious decisions, weakness, sinfulness, emotional and spiritual failings.

Yet all is not lost. We are as clay in the Hands of the Potter. Turn to God and ask Him to remodel you to be the best person you can be. Trust that the work in your soul is not yet finished, and trust that God will faithfully complete what He has begun in you.

In this season of Advent, turn to God. Love Him with all your heart, your mind, your decisions, your actions, your soul.

Then you can't go wrong!

PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, as the potter moulds the clay: mould me.

As the heavens rend open and pour down light, change indifference in our world to care, and pour down heavenly grace upon kindly efforts.

Bring us into everlasting life. Allow us to grow in grace and dignity, knowing that - despite misunderstandings and mis-steps in our past, we truly are Your children. And You love us. And we love You!

Happy Advent!

[1] The Holy Bible 

[2] Inspired by: OMI sermon, 1984

Image courtesy of Freepik AI generated content with CN Whittle   

HUMAN ACTIVITY AND CHRIST'S REDEMPTIVE WORK

 

   "Just as human activity proceeds from man, so it is ordained toward man. For when a man works he not only alters things and society, he develops himself as well. He learns much, he cultivates his resources, he goes outside of himself and and beyond himself. Rightly understood, this kind of growth is of greater value than any external riches which can be garnered. A man is more precious for what he is than for what he has. Similarly, all that men do to obtain greater justice, wider brotherhood and more human ordering of social relationships has greater worth than technical advances. For these advances can supply the material for human progress, but of themselves alone they can never actually bring it about. Hence the norm of human activity is this: that in accord with the Divine Plan and Will, it should harmonize with the genuine good of the whole human race, and allow men as individuals and as members of society to pursue their total vocation and fulfil it. 

     With the consciousness of this total vocation, there grows the sense of greater responsibility. But it is only in freedom that man can direct himself towards goodness. Our contemporaries make much of this freedom, and rightly so, to be sure. For God has willed that man be left in the hand of his own counsel so that he can seek his Creator spontaneously and come freely to utter and blissful perfection through loyalty to Him. Hence, man's dignity demands that he act according to a knowing and free choice. Such a choice is personally motivated and prompted from within. It does not result from blind internal impulse nor from mere external pressure. Man achieves such dignity when emancipating himself from all capacity to passion, he pursues his goal in a spontaneous choice of what is good, and procures for himself. through effective and skilful action, apt means to the end.

    Christ's redemptive work, while of itself directed to the salvation of men, involves also the renewal of the whole temporal order. Hence the Mission of the Church is not only to bring to men the message and grace of Christ, but also to penetrate and perfect the temporal sphere with the spirit of the gospel.

   It is clear that men are not deterred by the Christian message from building up the world or impelled to neglect the welfare of their fellows. They are rather more stringently bound to do these things."

Fr G.M.A. Jansen. (Norbert Jansen OP). pp 8-9, Pro Veritate Vol VII No. 2 Jun 15. The Secularisation of the Church. June 15 1968

https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/archive-files4/PvJun68.pdf

LAITY AND FORMATION IN THE SACRED SCIENCES

 

       "Furthermore, it is to be hoped that many laymen will receive an appropriate formation in the sacred sciences, and that some will develop and deepen these studies by their own labours. In order that such persons may fulfill their proper function, let it be recognized that all the faithful, clerical and lay, possess a lawful freedom of inquiry and of thought, and the freedom to express their minds humbly and courageously about those matters in which they enjoy competence."

Fr G.M.A. Jansen. (Norbert Jansen OP). p 8, Pro Veritate Vol VII No. 2 Jun 15. The Secularisation of the Church. June 15 1968

https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/archive-files4/PvJun68.pdf

THE VOICE OF CHRIST

 

"The voice of the Vatican Council is the voice of Christ

  Himself, Who speaks through His body, the Church."

Fr G.M.A. Jansen. (Norbert Jansen OP). p 11, Pro Veritate Vol VII No. 2 Jun 15. The Secularisation of the Church. June 15 1968

https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/archive-files4/PvJun68.pdf

With thanks to Sahistory.org.za and Pro Veritate. Accessed 2 December 2023

GREATEST INSPIRATION OF VATICAN COUNCIL II

 

"(i) The Council's greatest inspiration was to raise the lay-people out of their state of passivity and to make them conscious that they really formed the essence of the Church, the People of God."

Fr G.M.A. Jansen. (Norbert Jansen OP). p 10, Pro Veritate Vol VII No. 2 Jun 15. The Secularisation of the Church. June 15 1968

https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/archive-files4/PvJun68.pdf

With thanks to Sahistory.org.za and Pro Veritate. Accessed 2 December 2023

DEEPEST CONCERN OF VATICAN COUNCIL II

 

“... the Council’s deepest concern lay with:

(i)    resurrecting of the status of the layman,

(ii)   breaking down the barrier which the Church had thrown up against the reunion  of the Churches.” 

Fr G.M.A. Jansen. (Norbert Jansen OP). p 10, Pro Veritate Vol VII No. 2 Jun 15. The Secularisation of the Church. June 15 1968

https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/archive-files4/PvJun68.pdf

With thanks to Sahistory.org.za and Pro Veritate. Accessed 2 December 2023

WE NEED TO REJECT THE WAYS OF WAR, AND WORK TOGETHER FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE

 

Mother Mary knew the human cost of the gift of Christ's Life to the world

There is so much suffering and injustice in the world. In juxtaposition with this inescapable fact, there is also much joy, healing and bringing of justice to earth. Men and women have pivotal roles to play in bringing tenets of the gospel of peace to a suffering world.

Reject the ways of war

What can you and I do to bring peace and justice to situations where there is conflict and injustice? Reverend Vanessa Wyse Jackson preached that "We need to reject the ways of war, and work together for justice and peace." [1]

Women know the price to be paid

Women know the price to be paid for the building of a human life. Countless women have grown babies within their bodies, struggled with morning sickness, pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, perineal tears, post-partum psychosis in order to deliver the gift of a healthy baby to the world.

Olive Shreiner and the knowledge of woman

Olive Shreiner posited that "No woman who is a woman says of a human body, 'it is nothing'... on this one point, and on this point alone, the knowledge of woman, simply as woman, is superior to that of man; she knows the history of human flesh; she knows its cost; he does not." [2] 

Labor which brings forth a child

The labor which brings forth a child makes of a woman a realist. She knows what her child cost. Every woman who becomes pregnant faces the realization that she will have a lifelong reponsibility as mother towards this child. Is this not true courage indeed?

A woman knows the history of human flesh

On the website of artist Dina Cormick appears a haunting portrayal of Shreiner's quote, "A woman knows the history of human flesh, she knows its cost." In the depiction, a woman holds a child up towards heaven, her face would appear to be ravaged in grief. From the time I saw this artwork during the time of loss and death during Covid pandemic, I pondered its meaning. Reflection from personal inspiration I received from this image on Dina Cormick's art website has resulted in this article. [3]

The image suggested to me that a mother is holding her child up to God, the little one appears to be no more. The apparently bereaved mother is crying to Heaven for the little one, who was born of her love for another and from the sacrifices and pain of her own body. Now the little one is lost to earth, but not to Heaven. What happened? What tragedy occurred? I do not know. I do know, that this art work inspires me yet again to realize the inestimable value each precious life has in the Sight of Almighty God. 

Blessed are the peacemakers

Horrendous images and accounts of the true horrors of war have been available. Unimaginable pain, suffering and death in many countries trouble our earth. Men and women have mandate from Jesus Christ to be peacemakers and prevent this bloodshed, "Blessed are the peacemakers; for they will be called children of God," Jesus Christ tells us. [4] This seventh beatitude takes every Christian worker into the task of conflict resolution. Conflicts arise whenever people have differences of opinion.

Let us manage conflict. But let us do what we can to prevent the horrors of war. 

Mothers are less inclined to send their children into battlefields

In the context of war, Diplomat Dawie Jacobs considers that 'The burden always falls on the shoulders of the next generations. They are paying for "the sins of the fathers." ' [5]

Diplomat Jacobs goes on to write that "The only dim light ahead is that the new generation is, broadly speaking, less indoctrinated and blindfolded and that more women are slowly moving into positions of power.

As mothers they are less inclined to send their children into battlefields and generally are not as driven by a lust for power.

They rank brainpower higher than muscle power and generally put a high premium on the kind of world they leave behind for their children.

We need a new generation of leaders. Leaders that see consideration for others not as a weakness, but as a strength. Leaders that care about the kind of world they want to leave behind for future generations." [5]

Let us work for peace

Let us pray for end to war. Let us work for peace. And may women, who grow infants within their bodies and labor to bring new life into the world, continue to be life-bearers and witnesses to the utter sanctity of each human life.

As Mother Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour did.

[1] Rev. Vanessa Wyse Jackson B.A., H.dip.Ed. Public sermon July 2016. Dublin, Ireland

[2] Olive Shreiner. Woman and Labor. 1911. Olive Shreiner Quote

https://libquotes.com/olive-schreiner/quote/lbb2m8a

[3] Dina Cormick. About the artist

https://www.creativewomanartist.com/about-the-artist/

[4] Matthew 5:9

[5] Jacobs, Dawie (Diplomat). Pretoria. "Sadly, history keeps repeating itself in senseless wars". Sowetan. Letters, Tuesday November 21 2023.

https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/opinion/letters/2023-11-21-reader-letter-sadly-history-keeps-repeating-itself-in-senseless-wars/

With thanks to Rev Vanessa Wyse Jackson public sermon, libquotes.com, creativewomanartist.com and sowetanlive.co.za