A reflection on the daily readings, for Tuesday of the First Week of Advent, by Father Perry.
Woody Allen once said, while semi-quoting this passage from Isaiah: “The lion will lie down with the lamb; but the lamb won’t get much sleep.”
To be sure, one might find it nearly impossible to find a more idyllic passage than this one from Isaiah.
He describes the beginning of the time that God was setting before man, starting with a sprout coming from the stump of Jesse.
In other words, someone from the line of David is already being imagined in the mind of God and also being proclaimed by the mouth of Isaiah; the results would be an outpouring of Godliness upon this special person.
And those results would be that: “Justice will flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever.”
This Messianic promise in the making would indeed change hearts and lives and desires forever.
How good that on this second weekday in the first week of Advent we are already being filled with such a promise.
As we remember back in time to such a promise, we hopefully are filled in the present with such gratitude for all that has happened and for all that has been given to us in Christ.
And, to be sure, even though we are still sinners and very imperfect, what an amazing gift to have seen and heard what many prophets and kings have desired — have even longed for — to see and hear.
Justice and peace, indeed, come together so perfectly in Jesus the Christ.
Even his unjust death is filled with love and peace and forgiveness in such quantity and quality that the Messianic message was implanted into the Christian DNA, that we certainly can say that humanity and hu-womanity have been forever changed.
It may have sounded a little ridiculous; but a good prophet and a good storyteller will tell it not just like it is but poetically and in true-story fashion, way beyond literal and filled with wonder.
Yes! The wolf and the lamb and the leopard and the kid and the calf and the lion and the cow and the bears and the cobra and the baby and the adder will browse together — eat together, play together, lie down together, be neighborly and lay hands upon one another (in a good way).
There shall be justice and peace forever.
And it will flourish!
Father Perry D. Leiker is the 13th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at pleiker@stbernard-church.com. Follow Father Perry on Twitter: @MrDeano76.
