Light, Advent 1

Isaiah 2:1-5

Ps 122

Romans 13:11-14

Matthew 24:36-44

This is what Isaiah saw from God: “In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains.” This symbolic language points both to future times and the end of time. If we read these words in Christ, we can see why church Fathers claim the mountain is our Lord Jesus Himself, while the Lord’s house is the church. Clearly, Isaiah is referring to Mount Zion and the Temple, but the deeper meaning in Jesus is equally clear. Since 9/8/70, the earthly Temple is no more. God’s temple is in heaven, and it is manifest spiritually in the Body of Christ which is the church. In His earthly ministry, Jesus (Mt 12:6) had already said that there is something greater than the Temple here, in reference to the kingdom at work among His disciples. In Matthew 26:61 & 27:40, during the crucifixion the crowds mock Jesus and Jesus that He had said that He would destroy the temple and build it in three days. When Jesus dies, Matthew tells us an earth quake tears the temple veil in two—a literal apocalypse—unveiling the presence of God to humanity. The purpose of the temple is now completed by Jesus Christ and, by extension, His church. This is why Paul tells the Corinthians “you are the Temple of God and the Holy Spirit.”++ God is present in each of us and all of us.

The church is a sacrament of the New Jerusalem. We must hear Isaiah’s exhortation “Oh, House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” as the church’s vocation—to walk in light on His path.

There are two actions: “cast off the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.” The deeds of darkness flow from the unholy desires of our false self. Our healing is incomplete—our wounds fester, doubt and fear weaken our love of God and others. The story of Eve, who gazes at the fruit of the tree and feels a strong craving, is our story as well. The forbidden still appeals. She forgets God and focuses on the hunger within and in the process (with Adam) ruins herself and her family. Eve is a model of the sinning church, even as Mary is the holy church. If the church is the temple of the Holy Spirit, time and again she erects the Abomination of Desolation in the holy space.

What is the answer to the question, “Why did you sin?” Is it not always, “because I wanted to?” I desired, craved and lusted after the forbidden. This is the darkness of “the passions” which we must cast off in order to embrace the Light. Advent says “Christ has come, Christ is coming, Christ will come.” Our faith is that together we are Christ in the world, we are children of light. Let us cast off the deeds of darkness and live as light.

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+In Mark 14:58 the accusation includes the claim “I will destroy this temple made with hands and in three days I will build another, not made with hands. It is John 2:19-21 which clarifies the mystery—Jesus said, “Destroy this temple [i.e., His body], and in three days I will raise it up.
++1 Corinthians 3:16 “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and the Spirit of God dwells in you?” and 6:19 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, which is from God within you?” 
+++in Genesis 3. Eve stops thinking of God and gazes at the fruit. The eye of her soul darkens as she craves what is forbidden. She loses trust in God and listens instead to a serpent and her own hunger for self-rule. Humans cast God out and the darkness results from the absence of God’s presence. Our epithymia (cravings/desires) become a root cause of social and personal problems.