Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent (Year A)

Two people figure prominently in the Scripture passages in Advent: The Old Testament Prophet Isaiah and the New Testament Prophet John the Baptist. We’ll hear more from Saint John next week, so for now, let’s look closely at the prophecy of Isaiah.

He speaks of evidence of the Coming of the Kingdom with two images: the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and what he describes as the Peaceable Kingdom.

He begins with the phrase, “On that day…” Here he’s not speaking of a particular day on the calendar, nor in history; he speaks more of an “era,” as we sometimes hear people say, “In my day…” or perhaps “Back in the day…” This means that the Kingdom of God will begin with the life and ministry of Christ, and develop gradually, with some bumps in the road, over the ensuing centuries.

Not mentioning Jesus by name, he describes Our Lord as a “bud blossoming from the stump of Jesse.” He then goes on to introduce his Old Testament listeners to the Holy Spirit. Now remember: the Holy Spirit is still unknown to the Jews, and will first be manifest invisibly at the Annunciation and Incarnation of the Lord, and will then appear visibly as a dove at the Lord’s Baptism, and later, as tongues of fire at Pentecost.

Isaiah then goes on to anticipate the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, as we know them: Wisdom… Understanding… Counsel… Fortitude… Knowledge… Piety… and Fear of the Lord. He mentions Fear of the Lord twice, which means that this will be his central focus, and… one should note that when this particular Gift of the Holy Spirit is repeated in his words, he says, “his delight shall be the fear of the Lord.” Not his dread — his delight!

There was a time when committed Christians were known as “God-fearing people,” and this was worn as a badge of honor, unlike in our own time. So, what should this holy fear look like… feel like… and how shall we act upon it with grace, humility and “delight?”

In the Old Testament Book of Proverbs we read: “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom.” We speak here not of servile fear whereby one serves the Lord out of fear of punishment in either this life or the next. It is a filial, or reverential fear that moves a person to do God’s Will, and to avoid sin, because of love for God, who, as we pray in the Act of Contrition, “is all good and deserving of all my love.”

Later, in the Beatitudes, Jesus will describe Fear of the Lord as poverty of spirit, an assuredness of who God is, and of who I am in relation to Him who created me and sustains me throughout my life. Placing ourselves in the presence of God, therefore, does not bring about a meeting of equals. This holy fear, this poverty of spirit, brings hope, temperance and moderation. It keeps us from taking God’s love for granted, which becomes the sin of Presumption, lacking, perhaps, in contrition. We then can abandon ourselves into the goodness of God. 

In genuine Fear of the Lord we choose to love what God loves, and to despise what God hates, so that we don’t engage in phony or cowardly “tolerance” which is demanded by our politically-correct culture, and is touted as society’s highest good. It calls us to a holy Obedience, to obey God instantly in all that He has revealed through Christ to the Church.

With Isaiah’s prediction of “delight” we can obey God, even if His commands don’t make sense to us… even if we don’t see the benefit… and even if it damages our pride. In the Spirit’s Gift of Fear of the Lord, we find a conveyance of respect, awe, submission, reverence, thankfulness, true love, and dread of offending God, and all of this with an expectation of future judgment.

This “delight-filled fear” perfects our hope of remaining in God’s grace and some day being with Him in heaven. It creates a correct and proper search for the Good, the Holy and the True in our thoughts, words and deeds.

This brings us now to Isaiah’s “Peaceable Kingdom.” In the dining room of a Rectory where I once lived, I hung a copy of Edward Hicks’ famous painting of “The Peaceable Kingdom.” Working in the early half of the 19th century, he painted this motif more than sixty times, so popular it was. It depicted Isaiah’s prophecy, adjoining in fraternal love: the wolf and the lamb… the leopard and the goat… the lion and the calf… all with a child in their midst.

This foretells that in the Coming Kingdom, not only will mankind change, but all of nature itself will be transformed. While Isaiah’s words, and Hicks’ painting seem to display some elements of fables and fairy tales, the meaning of both is far more profound. In the Peaceable Kingdom there will be a correction of the enmity of Eden, through God overcoming the evil of sin, providing the ultimate “environmental impact statement” where there will bring healing and love between the wolves and the lambs… leopards and goats… lions and calves… Republicans and Democrats. 

Isaiah speaks of the culmination of human hope for a world transformed. His prophecy, and indeed, all of human hope was fulfilled in the Birth of Jesus Christ, which we are preparing to celebrate. Our hope is not grounded in human expectation, replacing Advent with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, because without Jesus, hope is dashed by the human desire for all that is worldly — not what is other-worldly, and all that is earthly — not what is heavenly.

If we have faith, we are bound for heaven, and, therefore, value all things as to how they pertain to that hope. So, save the earth if you must, but save your soul for certain. With faith, hope and charity — virtues, not feelings — we can begin to affect the Peaceable Kingdom where “our delight will be the fear of the Lord.”