Rain on the Earth Living in Omaha, Nebraska, where we are experiencing an unusually cold and snowy beginning to December, the words and images of Isaiah as well as those of today’s Responsorial Psalm seem to describe a far-away scene: “Let the clouds rain down the Just One, and the earth bring forth a Savior.” Rain and budding trees are indeed far from this part of the earth at the moment. Perhaps because of that, we appreciate theses words and images all the more as we anticipate the coming feast of Christmas. “Let the clouds rain down the Just One, and the earth bring forth a Savior.” The Just One enters our atmosphere and penetrates the earth’s surface like rain. The Savior springs up from the earth itself. The clay that was used to fashion Adam now takes shape in a new form, we might say an “unbreakable” form. Jesus is the Just One, Jesus is the Savior, Jesus is the one who fulfills the deepest yearning of human hearts: that God should be one with us, sharing our flesh and all that touches it. Advent teaches us to celebrate the coming of Jesus in the flesh, born of Mary; to yearn for his coming in glory; and to yearn for and to celebrate his coming here and now—today, at every moment. Today’s images provoke some questions: what in me or us refuses to let him in? From what human or earthly experience in my “today” have I eliminated the Lord? Where am I refusing to let him penetrate and spring up within the experiences of today? |