Besides commemorating ancient traditional uncertainty,
two other modern contemporary uncertainties characterize this
Immediately, the issue of religious obedience, such as that of the Poor Clare nuns, arises. Monastic life is a special situation, wedded to hierarchy as an aspect of marriage to Christ. Marriage itself is a leveler between equals, something the current celibate hierarchy is abusing to the point of great scandal; scandal not found in nunneries.
Another, second, modern, contemporary uncertainty
concerns the Incarnation, the feast of
While it may seem unseemly to include menstruation in Notes such as these, last Sunday the First Reading at Isaiah 64:4 did mention menstrual rags. The Lectionary used the euphemism, polluted rags. Sometimes overcoming hierarchal abuse of authority, such as mistranslating Isaiah 64:4, does make the presence of God known. Perhaps the hierarchy is making another mistake, for example relative to abortion.
The readings for this Sunday, the Second Sunday in
Advent, begin with Second Isaiah, written about the time of the return from
Exile, about 600 years before
Isaiah 40:1-2a contains a hidden difficulty in the Old Greek, which adds the word priests. The Old Greek proclaims that the priests are doing the comforting. Scholars generally agree that the Old Greek draws from the Hebrew, referring not to priests, but to other gods, something the Old Greek translator did not like. The Old Greek lacks the sense of divine council.[5]
There is another explanation for the loss of the language of the divine council from the Old Greek. Perhaps the Hebrew for your God, O priests was misread as God, O priests.[6] The Lectionary translation avoids the problem altogether, give comfort to my people, says your God. Trying to reach the original meaning of the ancient manuscripts can afford great difficulties and, in the process, make the inscrutable presence of God known.
This Isaiah 40:1 points back to First Isaiah 12:1. The problem is that in the late Eighteenth Century, scholars discovered that Isaiah came in three parts, First, Second, and Third. Recently, scholars in the late Twentieth Century have gone about developing a basic unity throughout the three parts; three authors, one unity. This comfort is also found in Isaiah 49:13; 51:3, 9; 52:9. Isaiah 52:9 is also used on Christmas Day.[7]
The guilt forgiven in Isaiah 40:1-2 is the guilt of 1:4, Isaiah before the Exile. The Lectionary is drawing the Faithful away from their sins toward the New Jerusalem, within their own hearts. The Divine council in Isaiah 40:1-11 reverses the decree of destruction in Isaiah 6.[8]
Psalm 85:9, near
indeed is his salvation to those who fear him is about the presence of God
at the time of difficulties. The
prophecies of Advent carry at least two more types of God-presence difficulties. The first relates to what the original
prophets meant. As difficult as it may seem, some of those prophecies went
unfulfilled.[9]
I think, for example, of Jonah angry with God for not destroying
Manuscript difficulties continue, abounding in the
passage from the Second Epistle of Peter. I count thirty-one critical marks. 2
At issue is the prophecy of the Second Coming.
The Greek at 2
The Lectionary uses the occasion of the Second
Sunday in Advent to present the First Chapter and the first eight verses in
The American Historical Review for October 2005 reviews Home and Homelessness in the Medieval and Renaissance World, an edited work containing many scholars. Home is both a building and a place in the heart. The scholars study Renaissance Venice, Morisco Spain, colonial Peru, medieval Iceland, and Anglo-Saxon England. They found amazing similarities across the five cultures.[12]
The consistent themes are that home means much more than a dwelling because it implies and establishes a community. Homelessness means that the community is threatened and the reaction can be either to integrate the homeless or protect the community. For example, as a serene republic, Renaissance Venice tried to integrate the homeless. Morisco Spain, on the other hand invoked separation rather than integration eventually driving the Muslims into homelessness.[13]
The Spanish army wreaked havoc on colonial
Home for the Faithful, therefore, is not of this world. Both John the Baptist and Jesus were outsiders within their own human communities. The evil aspects of homelessness bring out the presence of God as home for souls. Consideration of homelessness suits the major theme for this liturgical Cycle B.
The theme for this Cycle B is that overcoming
difficulties makes the presence of God known. The first difficulties in the liturgical cycle
engage Christmas. Mark 1:2-3 points to
Isaiah who comforts the Faithful about not worrying, because the loving God is
in charge. 1 Peter
For more on sources see the Appendix file. Personal Notes are on the web site at www.western-civilization.com/CBQ/Personal%20Notes
[1]
[2]
[3]
Aelred Cody, O.S.B., “A Palindrome in Isaiah 40:4b: Allowing Restoration of an
Original
[4] Carroll Stuhlmueller, C.P., “Deutero-Isaiah: Major Transitions in the Prophet’s Theology and in Contemporary Scholarship,” the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 1 (January 1980) 6.
[5] Steven James Schweitzer, “Mythology in the Old Greek of Isaiah: the Technique of Translation," the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 66, No. 2 (April 2004) 226.
[6] Steven James Schweitzer, “Mythology in the Old Greek of Isaiah: the Technique of Translation," the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 66, No. 2 (April 2004) 226.
[7] Richard J. Clifford, S.J., “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah and Its Cosmogonic Language," the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 1 (January 1993) 1.
[8] Richard J. Clifford, S.J., “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah and Its Cosmogonic Language," the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 1 (January 1993) 1-2, 4.
[9]
[10] Terrance Callan, “The Syntax of 2 Peter 1:1-7," the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 67, No. 4 (October 2005) 636.
[11]
[12]
[13]