Toward the end of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, the people of Israel are at last returning from exile in Babylon, and Isaiah reveals God’s promise of many blessings to come: Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you. Where other nations may remain in the darkness of ignorance of God, the people of Israel may now look forward to prosperity and to a restoration of their relationship with God. It is by that light, concrete evidence that the love of God has been restored to them, that Israel itself can become a light to other nations, the people's joy causing them to be radiant and to shine as a beacon drawing all to the Lord. The king himself plays an important role in God’s activity. Psalm 72 is the people’s prayer for their king, that he may be blessed with God’s judgment and justice, so that he might govern God’s people equitably, and himself be blessing to all in return.
Light is again a powerful image of blessing in the story of the kings who come to pay the Christ child homage, in Matthew’s Gospel. Following the star they saw at its rising, the arrival of foreign kings reminds the Jewish community of Matthew’s time that Christ, the ultimate Incarnation of the blessing promised in Isaiah and now fulfilled in the birth of the Messiah, came to bring salvation for all people. The light of that star is a revelation – an epiphany – of God’s universal call to holiness, a fact echoed in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians: it has now been revealed that the Gentiles are coheirs, copartners in the promise, Paul writes. The blessing that is the Light of Christ, revealed in the light of that star shining over Bethlehem, shines for all peoples. Thus is darkness dispelled, that all may be radiant witnesses, shining beacons to the joy that comes of the manifold blessings of God!
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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