12/ 6/ 16
Note that the first reading is taken from Chapter 40 of the
Book of the Prophet. In it the Lord, through his prophet tells the people that
their time of captivity in Babylon is at an end, and he will facilitate their
return to Jerusalem for rebuilding the city and the temple. That was to take
place in the year 530 B.C.
An odd thing about this, is that the previous chapter, 39, recounts
events from a hundred and seventy three years before that in 703 B.C. . Back
then, Babylon, a new nation in Mesopotamia, had sent an emissary of peace to confer with Judah’s
King Hezekiah. The king showed his treasury and armory to the visitor, and the
Prophet Isaiah told him he had made the
mistake of inviting the Babylonians to
conquer Judah.
So, although today’s Chapter is presented to us as the work
of Isaiah, it was actually the work of another prophet who came along a hundred
and sixty years later The task of this second Isaiah was that of wedging the
people out of Babylon where they, their parents and grandparents had made homes
for themselves.
What is more, those people are frightened of what would
happen to them on the way to old Jerusalem, and they lacked the skills to
rebuild Jerusalem. But God here tells them he was sending his angel to prepare
the way for them. He says it will be smooth going, with every crooked way made
straight, every hill made low .
Jesus when he would come along two hundred years later,
would tell them that the angel mentioned back then was actually a prophesy
concerning his forerunner, John the Baptist.
Fifty years ago the St. Louis Jesuits made a hymn out of the
final words here.
Like a shepherd he feeds his flock: and gathers the lambs in
his arms;
Holding them carefully close to his heart, and leading them
safely back home.
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