MMaC Secretary, Chris McDonnell's weekly column in the Catholic Times (reproduced here with permission)

13 December 2019

Isaiah the prophet of Nativity

By the time these few words are published, our General Election will be over and we will know the result of the people’s vote after weeks of debate. It has at times been logical and reasoned, on other occasions acrimonious and spiteful. Now we have to move on and trust that our democracy is strong enough to cope with the consequences. 

Trust and hope are Advent words, words that look beyond the immediacy of our experience, words of expectation. The prophets of the Old Testament asked the people to lift their heads from their difficulties and doubts and raise their eyes to the horizon. 

It is all too easy to become weighed down with the day to day experience of living, to lose sight of the destination of our journey. We need encouragement in the darker times, the promise of light lifts our spirit and we move on.

Throughout the readings at Mass during the Weeks of Advent, the name of the prophet Isaiah is ever present. It is in this book of the Old Testament that we find so many of the familiar texts that point towards the coming of the Messiah, the One whom Israel expects.

The Icon of Isaiah is from the Novgorod Museum in Russia. It originally came from the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the Monastery of St Anthony in Novgorod. Isaiah is shown  holding an open scroll on which are written the words of his prophecy: “I foretell that you will be born of the

Virgin” His right hand points to the scroll, while in his left hand he holds tongs, a symbolic attribute alluding to the vision which marked the beginning of his ministry as a prophet.

Early in Advent, on Saturday in the first week, we are offered these words from Chapter 30 of Isaiah. “People of Zion, you will live in Jerusalem and weep no more. He will be gracious to you when he hears your cry; when he hears he will answer. When the Lord has given you the bread of suffering and the water of distress, he who is your teacher will hide no longer, and you will see your teacher with your own eyes. Whether you turn to right or left, your ears will hear these words behind you “This is the way, follow it.“  

There is a promise here that the distress of the people will be heard and their confidence rewarded. It is a time of trust and hope.

That theme is continued on the Thursday of the second week when we hear these words from Chapter 41 “I, the Lord, your God, I am holding you by the right hand; I tell you, do not be afraid, I will help you.” Those words ‘do not be afraid’ concluded Seamus Heaney’s final text to his wife, Marie only, scholar that he was, he wrote them in Latin- Noli Timere.

The next day, Friday of the second week we are told in words from Chapter 48 that “I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is good for you, I lead you in the way that you must go. If only you had been alert to my commandments, your happiness would have been like a river, your integrity like the waves of the sea. Your children would have been numbered like the sand, your descendants as many as its grains. Never would your name have been cut off or blotted out before me.” Respecting the goodness of God will ensure the future of the people. If only the people had listened to his word they would never have lost sight of their destiny.

By the time we reach the Vigil of the Nativity, that hope and trust is fulfilled in words taken from Chapter 62.   “You are to be a crown of splendour in the hand of the Lord, a princely diadem in the hand of your God; no longer are you to be named forsaken, nor your land abandoned, but you shall be called my delight and your land the wedded.” 

So we are taken through the days of Advent in the company of Isaiah, his words leading us ever forward to the feast of Light that leads us out of darkness, one step at a time. It’s time once more to become pilgrims in a Pilgrim Church.

Time slips through our fingers and the days are gone. They are days of joy and happiness, of grief and tears. On that first celebration of Nativity, poverty and simplicity were at the heart of the story, amazement and

wonder spread through the land. As we listen again to the story from the Gospels, reflect on the gift of the Lord to the people in the birth of a Child. Come, Lord Jesus