Julie Davis's Blog - Posts Tagged "second-coming"
A Word From Our Sponsor: Isaiah in Advent
On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will prepare for all peoples a banquet of rich food, a banquet of fine wines, of food rich and juicy, of fine strained wines.
On this mountain he will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples, and the shroud enwrapping all nations, he will destroy Death for ever.
The Lord will wipe away the tears from every cheek; he will take away his people’s shame every where on earth, for the Lord has said so.
That day, it will be said: See, this is our God in whom we hoped for salvation; the Lord is the one in whom we hoped.
We exult and we rejoice that he has saved us; for the hand of the Lord rests on this mountain.
Isaiah 25:6-10
I heard this when listening to Pray As You Go this morning. I was so struck by the imagery when thinking of Advent and Christ's second coming. The reflection for the day focused listeners on their own personal sorrows and disappointments which would be wiped away with the tears from our cheeks.
I really couldn't do anything with that, though. I just couldn't come up with anything which I hadn't dealt with already or was in the process of dealing with ... and so no revelations were forthcoming from that viewpoint.
What hit me ... what continues to hit me, hard ... was the picture of perfection that is painted for us by Isaiah.
A celebratory feast for all of us.
No more sadness or death for any nation because the veil is removed. That's what we hope to find in prayer and at Mass, a time when that veil between God and us is lifted just a little. But Isaiah tells us that it will be permanently removed for all of us. Every person, every nation.
It will be as it should have been from the beginning.
During Advent we are to look for the two comings of Christ. We look for his Incarnation as a baby among us. We look for his second coming. For the first time, I really caught a sense of just what that second coming means. For all of us. For every person, every nation. I can look forward with great anticipation, thanks to that moment when the veil lifted for a second so I got the bigger picture from this reading.
Come, Lord Jesus.
