Memorial of Saint John of the Cross, priest and doctor of the Church

Lectionary: 187

The utterance of one who hears what God says, and knows what the Most High knows, Of one who sees what the Almighty sees, enraptured, and with eyes unveiled:
How goodly are your tents, O Jacob;
your encampments, O Israel!
They are like gardens beside a stream,
like the cedars planted by the LORD.
His wells shall yield free-flowing waters,
he shall have the sea within reach;
His king shall rise higher,
and his royalty shall be exalted.

 

Medieval scholars never hesitated to vilify Balaam for accepting a contract to lay a curse on Israel. They cut him no slack for being a pagan and not a descendant of Abraham. When we meet him during Advent, however, we hear his wonderful predictions of blessings for Israel and the rise of an exalted king. The story has several comical twists which accentuate the divine favor which rested upon the Holy People. Let the nations rage! Who cares? The Lord laughs at their impotent anger, and so do his people.

The Divine Author of Numbers saw Balaam's prophecy of a high king and exalted royalty fulfilled in King David; Christians of a much later era see it fulfilled to even greater depth in Jesus. We also recognize Balaam as the magus who prefigured the magi of Saint Matthew’s gospel. He predicted that a star shall advance from Jacob, and the magi discovered Jesus by following a star.

In recent centuries, as scholars developed new methods of researching the Bible; and as we pondered the horror of many centuries of anti-Semitism, questions are raised as to how we have mined the scriptures for prophecies of Jesus while discarding the rest as irrelevant slag. Some Christians believe that God annulled his covenant with the Jews when Jesus was crucified. If that is the case, the only purpose for the “Old Testament” is its foreshadowing of the Messiah.

They go further, finding in Greek philosophy, Roman paganism, and other religions symbols that foreshadow Christ. Ancient legends and myths are supposedly fulfilled by the Resurrected One who is neither Jewish nor gentile but the One whom God sends to people of every nation, language, and way of life. They might even equate the Jewish religion with other religions despite the preeminence it should have by its patriarch Abraham. 

   

When modern secularism appears and dismisses all religions, there is also a suspicion among Christians that the Hebrew scriptures are a disconnected assortment of books and documents which have no central theme or purpose. Historically, they were thrown together by an idle tradition without direction or purpose. A belief in Salvation History with its Lord of History (a personal God) does not mesh with deterministic theories like the march of technology, Darwinian evolution, the advance of democracy, or Marxist liberation. Where Salvation History teaches us that "God planned in the fulness of time", determinism predicts other, less hopeful prospects.

Advent calls us to reaffirm our belief in the Lord who has the whole world and all history in his hands. The Lord does not dismiss his covenants, neither the old nor the new. Indeed, we believe, “The Word of the Lord abides forever!” More than the prophetic types of the Old Testament -- snippet clues which appear here and there -- the entire Word of God with its histories, wisdom, laws and psalms –is made flesh. 

God has foreseen our troubles well in advance and still leads us as a tall parent leads his child through a crowd of pint-sized adults. Just as Balaam’s curses were miraculously transformed to blessings, so our tears shall become laughter.