Tag Archives: day of the Lord

Advent: Monday, 2nd Week

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Today’s readings from the Old and New Testament complement one another, as the readings all through Advent do. Isaiah 35:1-10 speaks to Jewish exiles in Babylon, calling them to take a “holy way” through the wilderness to Jerusalem’s “holy mountain. Yet not just exiles in Babylon are called, God calls all nations to take the journey. All people, even the frailest, the weakest, are called to take it: the blind, the deaf, the lame, the fearful will take it, for God will strengthen them. The lame will leap “like a stag” and the “tongue of the mute will sing.”

The paralyzed man brought to Jesus in the gospel and sent away singing and dancing, (Luke 5:17-26), is a symbol of a paralyzed world that Jesus invites to take this journey, and humanity’s hopes are fulfilled as well as the hopes of prophets and peoples of the Old Testament are fulfilled. Our hopes as well. God wishes to heal our paralyzed world. Isaiah’s vision isn’t small.

Our vision shouldn’t be small either. When we hear ourselves saying “They’re not going anywhere.” “They’ll never change.” “The world’s never going to change.” we need to listen to ourselves. We’re living in a cynical world. We shouldn’t let our hope become too small.

Let’s not forget those in the gospel who lowered the paralyzed man from the roof down to where Jesus was. They were people of hope, willing to chance it with someone who looked like he would never move his limbs again. We need more of their kind today.

“They will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God. Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak, Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes to save you.Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; Then will the lame leap like a stag,then the tongue of the mute will sing… A highway will be there, called the holy way;
No one unclean may pass over it,
 nor fools go astray on it.
 No lion will be there,
  nor beast of prey go up to be met upon it.   It is for those with a journey to make,
 and on it the redeemed will walk.”

This is the Day

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cross, 4th Century Sarcophagus, Rome

Easter’s over for many people, but it isn’t over. We celebrate Easter for 50 days, from the Easter vigil till the feast of Pentecost. It’s a long day. Over and over we say: “This is the day the Lord has made.”

The reason we celebrate the long day of Easter is because the Lord’s plan takes time to understand.  Jesus spent many days with his disciples, who were  “slow to understand.” So are we.

Cardinal Newman spoke of this long day:

“Let us rejoice in the Day that He has made… the Day of His Power. This is Easter Day. Let us say this again and again to ourselves with fear and great joy. As children say to themselves, ‘This is the spring,’ or ‘This is the sea,’ trying to grasp the thought, and not let it go; as travellers in a foreign land say, ‘This is that great city,’ or ‘This is that famous building,’ knowing it has a long history through centuries, and vexed with themselves that they know so little about it; so let us say, This is the Day of Days, the Royal Day, the Lord’s Day.

“This is the Day on which Christ arose from the dead; the Day which brought us salvation. It is a Day which has made us greater than we know. It is our Day of rest, the true Sabbath. Christ entered into His rest, and so do we. It brings us, in figure, through the grave and gate of death to our season of refreshment in Abraham’s bosom. We have had enough of weariness, and dreariness, and listlessness…

“May we grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, season after season, year after year, till He takes to Himself, first one, then another, in the order He thinks fit, to be separated from each other for a little while, to be united together for ever, in the kingdom of His Father and our Father, His God and our God.”
John Henry Newman, “Difficulty of Realizing Sacred Privileges,”