Sunday Meditation: May We Have the Courage to Imitate the Prophets!

I'm still working my way through the book of Isaiah in these early days of Christmas. I love the faithful prophets who suffered so much to bring the truth to Israel. They suffered abuse, persecution, and murder; but they never flinched.

Sunday Meditation: "Come now, let us reason together." Isaiah 1:18

Jean Louis Meissonier (1815–1891)

The way people argue on social media is so often so mindless that I decided to go back and review the rules of logic. I took down Introduction to Logic by Irving Copi and Carl Cohen from a shelf in my home library to check out the fallacies. Originally published in 1994, it's a college textbook. Interestingly Part One on reasoning begins with the quote in the headline from Isaiah, "Come now, and let us reason together." Even before I had a chance to dive into the subject of logic, I was intrigued and distracted by the quote and decided to look it up and check out the context.

Bible translations vary greatly and there are a number of different translations for this particular verse. I checked them out at Bible Hub which I often use as a reference. Most of the bibles listed use the words "reason together." I'll just list one example:

English Standard Version: “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Called to be a prophet

I am slowly moving through the book of Isaiah on my Advent journey. Christmas will come and the prophet and I will have walked only a short way toward the New Jerusalem. But that's okay; I'd rather enjoy his company on a long-distance walk than a run. In chapter six the voice of the Lord calls out, "Whom shall I send?" (to be a prophet to the nations). Isaiah has just confessed his sinfulness as a "man of unclean lips." He has seen the Lord of hosts, but recognizes his own unworthiness to speak the words of God. That's no problem for the Lord...He sends one of the seraphim "holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar." The angel touches Isaiah's lips saying, "Your wickedness is removed, your sin purged." With that assurance, Isaiah can answer the Lord's question, "Whom shall I send," calling out "Here I am; send me!"

Every Christian is called to be a prophet in his own times. The prophet's role is to call people back to the Lord. He usually brings evil tidings that are unwelcome, not to discourage people, but to warn them and sound the alarm. Some evils are so obvious that it hardly takes a prophet to predict them, which is certainly the case with what I'm going to say now. I predict that in the next few years, likely before the end of Obama's first term, we will see both homosexual marriage and assisted suicide brought to us, not by popular vote, not by state legislatures, but exactly the same way we saw abortion forced upon us through Roe v. Wade...the courts will impose them. Both issues will be treated as civil rights undergirded by the same spurious principles that the Roe court found in the "penumbra" of the Constitution. Assisted suicide will likely be cast as a "privacy" issue like Roe using Griswold v. Connecticut which also legalized contraception. What I do with my body (contracept it, abort it, fornicate it, adulterate it, kill it) is up to me. I think the homosexual issue will be framed as equality. If heterosexual couples have a right to marry, adopt, etc. so do we. The natural law, the inability of two same-sex individuals to have a child will likely be turned upside down by cloning and other evil reproductive technologies. Until that happens, same-sex couples will play let's pretend as they "parent" children together.

Is there anything Christians can do to halt this from coming to pass? I don't know. When the Lord told Isaiah to warn the people about imminent evils, the prophet asked, "How long?" until the people would be healed. God's answer was not encouraging. "Until the cities are desolate, without inhabitants...and the earth is a desolate waste."

But the very next chapter of Isaiah offers the hope of the coming Messiah. The Lord sends Isaiah to the evil king Ahaz telling him to ask for a sign. Ahaz pretends piety (Oh how like a modern politician he is.) saying, "I will not tempt the Lord" by seeking a sign. God gives him one anyway. "The virgin will be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel."

Advent is a dark time, but one filled with the glowing twilight of the SON rising in the east, the morning star. It is a time to rededicate ourselves to the Lord's truth and to reform our lives through Confession and penance. The Lord is coming. He will not disappoint. He chastises us only because He loves us. Take heart and do not be afraid.

Reading Isaiah for Advent

I'm reading the book of Isaiah for Advent. Check out chapters one and two which set up two key themes: the infidility of Israel and God's judgment and punishment to call her back. "Sons have I raised and reared, but they have disowned me!...you that rebel again and again? The whole head is sick, the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot to the head there is no sound spot....Your country is waste....Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good....Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow;...If you are willing, and obey."

Certainly, the United States is as unfaithful as Zion of old. We spurn God, the ten commandments, and turn truth on its head calling good evil and evil good. We choose evil leaders and worship our material prosperity. How many obey only their own evil desires? Isaiah proclaims the Lord's message, "Their land is full of idols; they worship the works of their hands." How many of us worship at the mall on Sundays or in front of our TV shrines? Isn't it interesting that we talk about American "idols" and treat celebrities, including our president-elect, like little gods.

What can we expect from our Father who chastises his children, not to condemn them, but to bring them back to His loving arms? "I will turn my hand against you....Get behind the rocks, hide in the dust, From the terror of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty!...Human pride will be abased, the arrogance of men brought low, And the Lord alone will be exalted." We are created, as psalm 8 says, "little less than the angels." What have we done to the divine image in which we were created?

Despite these grim images, Isaiah is full of hope if we only choose to walk in the way of the Lord. "Come, let us climb the Lord's mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways and we may walk in his paths."

What a glorious opportunity the season of Advent is. Two great figures set before us by the Church are St. John the Baptist and Mary, the Mother of God. Take to heart John's message to "reform your lives and prepare the way of the Lord" and Mary's desire to be the obedient "handmaid." If we follow in their holy footsteps we truly will have a merry and a Mary Christmas. Offer a decade of your rosary today for those who are so caught up in the things of this world that they are clueless about what really matters, the things of our God.