Isaiah: a Dream for our Times

Advent One, Year A

Isaiah the Prophet, whom we hear today in the first reading, had a dream, a beautiful dream, a dream which flew in the face of the reality which he and the people of Israel were living at the time. From the very outset this people was tempted to depend on the force of arms to protect themselves and find their way in a warlike world. They often fell into this temptation. They thought that they could at least end up gaining respect. They trusted in the power of their horses and chariots, rather than in the God who had made a covenant with them. They sought alliances with other powers. They wanted to be like the other people around them, and have a king rule over them.

God knew that this was not the path for them, but rather than block them, he gave them their way. He knew that they could only receive his teaching in their hearts through suffering and struggle and experiencing the disaster that comes from wrong decisions. The prophets learned through this suffering, and taught the people what they learnt. Some followed their teaching, but many others continued in their wrongful ways.

God gave them their way, and they ended up in wars and alliances that brought them low, and eventually lost both their kingdoms and went through the major upheaval known as the Babylonian captivity, where they were dispersed over many countries. Isaiah made today's prophecy before the Babylonian captivity, but already the process of self-destruction was engaged. And in later years when the Prince of Peace came on earth, he was put to death.

What Isaiah proclaimed was a vision completely contrary to the reality of the world of his day. A vision of peace, of harmony. A peace not built on the superiority of one’s weapons, but a peace grounded in the word of God. Obeying that word is a source of power. Not the power to dominate and to compel, but the power to invite others and to attract their hearts. Those who come up to the mountain of the Lord come of their own free will, because they are ready for a new vision: “that he may teach us his ways and that we will walk in his paths”. They are not in shackles and in a forced military march. They want to ascend the mountain of the Lord because their hearts are willing.

When Israel is enticed by the political and military power that surrounds it, it fails miserably. When Israel submits to God’s word, it will becomes not a world empire but an agent of peace, helping to institute a new order, allowing God to “judge between the nations, and arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Not only shall war disappear from the face of the earth, but warlike dispositions shall disappear from the human hearts: waging war will no longer part of our instinctive behaviour, our way of thinking.

Translate this passage into today, and the result is striking. The same dynamic is present as was present in the time of Isaiah. Many countries are building up their armed power, not with chariots and horses but with reactors and uranium. Other countries are caught in a bind. They do seek peace, but feel the need to make themselves strong enough that no one dares attack them. The issue for them is whether the peace they seek is just the stand-off that comes from destructive forces in equilibrium or the real tranquillity which comes when people hear the word of God and put it into practice. Pope Benedict keeps warning the countries of the West, especially in Europe, that they are losing their roots in Christianity and in the process losing themselves. The situation keeps on worsening.

But the dynamic has another side. There are also messengers of peace like Isaiah at work in our world, seeking to defuse, to improve communications, to bring people together so that they might genuinely communicate and find a path to resolving their differences. They reach out, in big ways and small ways, in season and out of season, to others, hoping to break down barriers one at a time. Champions of change, but genuine change that will transform hearts.

We desperately need Jesus to come into our world with his power. Yes, he will come at the end in majesty, but the end is already upon us, and he keeps coming to us in unexpected ways and at unexpected times. We need to be able to recognize his coming, to allow it to transform our attitudes and our lives, to make of us agents of peace, beginning with peace in our own back-yards, but reaching all the way to the global peace which eludes our grasp.

May these words and the nourishment of the Eucharist set us on our path. We will not change the world overnight, but better to light one candle than to let the darkness take over. Let us be ready, let us keep awake, for He is surely coming.