Thursday of the Second Week of Advent

Lectionary: 184 

I am the LORD, your God,
    who grasp your right hand;
It is I who say to you, “Fear not,
    I will help you.”
Fear not, O worm Jacob,
    O maggot Israel;
I will help you, says the LORD;
    your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

With these words the "Isaiah" among the Jewish exiles in Babylon reassured his defeated, struggling compatriots. He invoked the words and spirit of the first Isaiah, the priest/prophet of Jerusalem who had seen a vision of God in the temple. He remembered the awful majesty of that vision: the Lord God sitting on a throne with seraph angels hovering around shouting Holy, Holy, Holy as the earth quaked and the building trembled. He remembered the thunderous voice of God, "Whom shall I send?" And the courageous priest who answered, "Here I am! Send me." 

This Babylonian Isaiah invoked that courage and reassured his neighbors, "Fear not! I will help you!" and "Your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel." 

We can wonder to this day how the exiles managed to retain their memories of Israel and Jerusalem. In the United States, not many descendants of Europe remember the language, songs, customs, or cuisine of their ancestors. Their names often betray an Irish, French, Italian, or German origin but they speak only English. Many people remember that their parents or grandparents spoke the old language, but they never learned it. In some cases, the ethnic songs and sayings were shamed into silence. 

But the Spirit of God remained with the Jews in Babylon and they would not forget their native land. As the psalmist said, 

"If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget. May my tongue stick to my palate if I do not remember you, If I do not exalt Jerusalem beyond all my delights." (Psalm 137:5-6)

I wonder if these early years of the twenty-first century will be remembered as the "Age of Terror," and if historians will say it began when they suppressed their ancestors' languages. In the United States, many Native Americans valiantly tell the stories and teach the languages with their songs and poetry. Some create new poetry in the old language, with symbols, meanings and resonances hidden from the vast majority. There are enclaves in major cities who speak Yiddish. I met an old Cajun woman in Louisiana in the 1980's who spoke no English, and I overheard a father speaking to his son in Cajun French. But the old ways struggle to survive under the regime of conformity. 

Catholics. too, struggle to practice our traditional faith in this country. G.K. Chesterton once observed, "The United States is a very Protestant country. In the United States, even the Catholics are Protestant." Much of the impulse that swept the  American church in the 1960's and 70's was not the Spirit of the Second Vatican Council but the spirit of conformity to the dominant Protestant religion, a disembodied spirituality that despised religious practices. 

Is it any wonder we're terrified of Muslim extremist, African males, and white men with guns? They're different and we're not! We are afraid to be ourselves -- that is, holy, honest, and generous -- among suspicious neighbors. 

"Fear not, O worm Jacob, O maggot Israel!" The Lord teases us like frightened children. Stop hiding behind your computer screens, smart phones, televisions; come out and meet your neighbors, friends, and family! Come out and share your confidence in the Lord when others live in constant fear. 

Don't take your guns to the city park, the church, the parade, or the public demonstration! Remember who you are,

"...a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were “no people” but now you are God’s people;. Once you “had not received mercy” but now you have received mercy.