“DIDJA KNOW?”
by: Deacon Paul Rooney (deaconpaul@cox.net)
3rd Sunday of Advent
(Cycle “B" – December 11, 2005)

Q. 349:   Both Isaiah and Jesus felt the “spirit of the Lord God” upon them.   Yet centuries have passed without solving the problem of injustice. Is the passage (First Reading) relevant today?

A. 349:   A friend (Rev. Mickey Anders) once pointed me to a website that asks for your solutions or opinions on “how to fix the world.”   They have some interesting remedies, ranging all over the spectrum - - from “how to prevent tailgating” to “how to solve world hunger.”   Like most inventions or pregnant ideas, there is usually something missing; but what is not omitted is the problem that led to the quest for a solution.

In our First Reading today (Is 61:1-2, 10-11) the “problem” is clearly stated.   Far too many people are poor and brokenhearted, and many are prisoners (both spiritually and physically).   Social injustice and lack of brotherly love are at the root of the problem, caused and aggravated by an unfaithfulness to God’s expressed will for his people.   This problem seems to appear in every generation, because even Jesus tells us that we will always have the poor with us (Mt 26:11).  But the “solution” is also clearly stated by Isaiah.   Unlike the “fix the world” website suggestions, which are more like dreams without a chance of fulfillment, the Prophet Isaiah points to the “core” of the matter: justice and love.

Our God is a God of mercy and love; he is also a God of justice.   In His divine plan, justice and love go hand in hand and are almost synonymous.   You see this clearly in the Commandments and Beatitudes, and in the “last judgment” scenes from scripture.   You cannot have one without the other.   And God calls us to be his disciples, the instruments of his love and justice.

You will know that the “spirit of the Lord is upon you” when you treat everyone equally; when you speak out against social injustice; when you denounce cultural immorality; when you obey God’s chosen representatives (the Catholic bishops); and when you engage regularly in the well-known trilogy of prayer-almsgiving-fasting.

KNOW YOUR CATECHISM!   Jesus Christ made this scripture above from Isaiah his inaugural address, proclaiming the Good News (CCC #714).  It is because he embraced our death that he can now communicate his own Spirit of life to us (CCC #713).  Isaiah (and Jesus) use the language of “promise” (CCC #715), and his mission becomes the mission of the Church – you and me (CCC #730), his instruments for transforming the world.   Our empowerment comes from our Baptism and Confirmation.

Deacon Paul Rooney
Mary Our Queen Parish, Omaha