Of Stumps and Roots

Homily for Tuesday of the 1st Week in Advent

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah has sometimes been called a very long meditation, sixty-six chapters long, on the fact that God’s promise that the Davidic dynasty would last forever. Isaiah refers to the dynasty as a stump. To understand this symbol, it would be helpful to read the two verses that immediately precede today’s passage:

“Now the Lord, the LORD of hosts, is about to lop off the boughs with terrible violence; the tall of stature shall be felled, and the lofty ones shall be brought low; he shall hack down the forest thickets with an ax, and Lebanon in its splendor shall fall” (Isaiah 10:33-34).

The mighty Davidic dynasty has been cut down like a tree to the ground. Nothing remains but a dry stump and some hidden roots. When this tree had been cut down by the Babylonians in 587 B.C., the people were shocked to realize that the House of David was not really eternal. Yet, through the prophet Nathan God had assured David: “your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever” (2 Samuel 7:16). In shock, the author of Psalm 89 cried out: “You have rejected and spurned your anointed. You have hurled his throne to the ground. How long, O Lord? (Psalm 89: 39, 45, 47).

Isaiah, however, could not repudiate the tradition of the Davidic dynasty. God must always be true to his word. The dynasty in some way will revive. The spirit of the Lord will rest upon the stump and the roots of Jesse.

That same Holy Spirit is now resting on us and especially upon those parts of ourselves which seem dead and maybe betrayed. We must believe that god inspires no honorable desire nor offers any promise that will not be fulfilled. Thus we once again keep the holy season of Advent in which we remember the coming of Jesus among us and prepare not only for the celebration of his birth, but also for the day when Jesus will return again to honor God’s promise that David’s House will last forever.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator