Author: Msgr. Charles Pope

During Advent, we read a lot from the Prophet Isaiah. Therefore, for my own meditation and yours, I offer the following reflection on Isaiah, the man and his message. Each of the issues with which he dealt is still with us to today, even though we live in a far more secular world than he ever could have imagined. Let’s consider key elements of his life, struggle, and message. If you would like to read a shorter mediation and already have a firm grasp on Isaiah’s life and teachings, you can skip down to the section below labeled in red: Lessons from Isaiah.

The Prophet Isaiah was born in 760 BC and is further identified as the son of Amoz (1:1). His name in Hebrew (Yeshayahu) means “Yah[weh] is Salvation.” And he lived this name well, insisting that Judah’s Kings and people trust only in God, make no alliances with foreign nations, and refuse to fear anyone but God.

He lived in the terrible period following the great severing of the northern kingdom of Israel (with its ten tribes) from the southern kingdom of Judah. In the period prior to Isaiah’s birth, the northern kingdom had known almost nothing but godless kings. Idolatry there had begun from the start, when the first king, Jeroboam, erected golden calves (of all things!) in two northern cities and strove to dissuade northern Jews from going south to Jerusalem (in Judah) to worship. Other ugly moments in the north featured King Ahab and the wicked Queen Jezebel, who advanced the worship of the Canaanite fertility god, Baal, and who persecuted Elijah and the few who sought to stay true to the faith of Abraham.

By the time Isaiah began his ministry (742 BC), the division was some 200 years old. Though living in Judah to the south, Isaiah both prophesied doom for the north and warned the kings of the south to rebuke wickedness and fears and to form no foreign alliances against the growing menaces to the north (Israel) and the east (Assyria). He warned of northern destruction here: In a single day the Lord will destroy both the head and the tail … The leaders of Israel are the head, and the lying prophets are the tail (Is 9:14-15). But his own Judah remained the focus of his concern and warnings.

Isaiah’s ministry in Judah and his mission spanned four Kings: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. It is likely that he was a cousin of King Uzziah, and this gave him both access and influence. His eloquence and influence also suggest that he had acquired a royal education. Little else is known of him personally.

Though the opening chapters of the Book of Isaiah describe the wickedness of the people of Judah and the need for their repentance and his ministry, Isaiah’s prophetic call seems to have begun in 742 BC, “the year King Uzziah died,” and is described in Chapter 6:

 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. ² Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” ⁴ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵ And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” ⁶ Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ And he touched my mouth, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven.” ⁸ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me” (Is 6:1–8).

 While God accepts his offer, He warns that Isaiah’s message will be resisted. Isaiah asks, sadly,

 “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without men, and the land is utterly desolate, ¹² and the Lord removes men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. ¹³ And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned (Is 6:11–13).

Sure enough, the first 39 chapters of Isaiah describe a fiercely stubborn resistance to Isaiah’s calls. However, the prophesied destruction of the south would not occur until 587 BC, long into the future, due in part to some limited success Isaiah had in working with King Hezekiah at a critical moment.

The winds of war were blowing. Assyria was expanding and the ominous clouds of its destructive conquest were moving westward. Israel to the north joined in a coalition to fight Assyria and tried to strong-arm Judah to join, threatening invasion and overthrow of King Ahaz if there was no agreement. Let’s just say that Ahaz was anxious, and all of Judah with him—threats to the north, threats to the east, and the Mediterranean to the west. There was no real escape.

God dispatches Isaiah to Ahaz with the following message:

Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands … [who have] devised evil against you, saying, ⁶ “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabe-el as king in the midst of it,” ⁷ thus says the Lord GOD: It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass (Is 7:4–7).

In other words, trust God. Make no alliances and do not give in to your fears! Stand your ground! God offers Ahaz a sign that a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, Immanuel (God is with us). But Ahaz cops a false piety attitude about not putting God to the test. Yet it is Ahaz who fails the test. Caving in, he sends tribute to Assyria and offers to become a vassal state.

In the end, this frees Assyria to concentrate on destroying Israel to the north. And while it can be argued that Israel’s wickedness brought her destruction, Ahaz helped seal the fate of fellow Jews in the north by his fearful and self-serving political calculations. The northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians in 721 BC. The survivors were carried off into exile. Farewell to the Ten Lost Tribes. Only Judah and the Levites in the south remained intact.

Though Judah was spared, the relief from threatening Assyria was to be temporary. Meanwhile, Ahaz’s Son, Hezekiah, became king (ruling from 715-687 BC). Here was a better king, more faithful, more trusting, and thus less fearful. He rid Judah of any elements of Canaanite religious practice and courageously broke free of the alliance with Assyria by 705 BC. He fortified Jerusalem (and his faith) for the backlash that was sure to come from Assyria.

Sure enough, in 701 BC, Assyria came to collect back-due tribute and to assert who was boss. Jerusalem was surrounded with troops, and her fate seemed sealed. But Isaiah summoned Hezekiah and Judah to courage:

 ³³ “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city, or shoot an arrow here, or come before it with a shield, or cast up a siege mound against it. ³⁴ By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, says the Lord. ³⁵ For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.” ³⁶ And the angel of the Lord went forth, and slew a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies (Is 37:33–36).

The Assyrian survivors left and returned by the way they came. Their king, Sennacherib returned home and was killed by his own sons.

A fear rebuked brought Judah victory. Now perhaps people would listen to Isaiah and trust God rather than foreign alliances! Well, not so fast. Hezekiah, who had been ill but miraculously recovered, started to get awfully friendly with the Babylonians, then emerging as a power to the east. Faith and trust are surely difficult things, especially for a king.

Since it looked like another alliance was forming with a pagan state, Isaiah warned,

⁵ “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: ⁶ Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the Lord. ⁷ And some of your own sons, who are born to you, shall be taken away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” ⁸ Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my days” (Is 39:5–8).

Hezekiah’s selfish response reminds me of an old saying of my father’s: “People disappoint.” Alliances and dalliances with foreign lands and a corresponding lack of trust in God would continue to plague Judah despite miracles against Assyria.

We know little of Isaiah’s final demise. According to an extra-biblical tradition (and hinted at in Hebrews 11:37), he died by being sawed in half by Hezekiah’s unfaithful son Manasseh. Isaiah was dead but, if the tradition is true, Manasseh answered to God.

Lessons from Isaiah –

1. Despite often disappointing results, Isaiah never gave up. God told him to prophesy and so he did. Isaiah lived what he preached. He feared God, not man. He never thought twice about going up to kings and declaring to their faces, “Thus saith the Lord!” He was willing to rebuke and encourage people regardless of their standing.
2. In the end, Isaiah’s message is remarkably clear: Do not fear! Clearly, fear leads all of us to a lot of foolish decisions, and it is through fear that the devil holds us in bondage (Heb 2:15). The solution to fear is trust in God. And even if we were to get killed, we would still win, for the martyr’s crown would await us. Do not fear!
3. Why were foreign alliances so troubling to Isaiah? First of all, they manifested a lack of trust in the Lord: “Can God save us? Maybe, but in case He doesn’t come through, let’s make sure we have a plan B.” Hmm … not much faith there! But second, and related, the secular states of today were unknown at that time. People and nations were deeply religious. Alliances with foreign lands meant marriages to foreign queens as well as adopting the false religions of those nations and queens. Can someone say, “Jezebel?” Or how about Solomon and his 1000 wives and all their foreign gods?  It was his folly that led to a divided Jewish nation and that introduced the wicked practices of the Baals and other Canaanite atrocities. Thus, these alliances manifested a lack of trust in God and introduced, inevitably, the adultery of “sleeping with” other gods.
4. For us, an admonition is in order as well. As a Church, we ought to be wary of too many entanglements or “partnerships” with our increasingly hostile secular government. Many strings come attached to the federal and state monies we accept to serve the poor, give tuition assistance, etc. Many compromises are increasingly demanded of us. Sadly, certain sectors of the Church, especially certain universities, are caving in to the power and slavery of money and are compromising on same-sex unions and providing contraception (and even abortifacients) to employees through health care plans. Large blocks of federal money are currently administered by Catholic charity organizations, etc. These entanglements increasingly demand compromises of us, and it is only going to get worse. Beware! We need to shift back to using our own monies to care for the poor and to be willing to say no to money that demands compromises we cannot make. Serving the poor is important, but we cannot let even that become an idol. And frankly, if we are using mostly government money, can we really say that WE are serving the poor? Are we not, rather, administering a government program? A certain Pope we all know recently warned that the Church is not an NGO.
5. Individual Catholics would also do well to be more leery about political alliances. Too often, we allow political views to trump our faith. Catholics need to be Catholics first, and be willing to denounce sin and evil no matter who perpetrates it or promotes it.
6. Alliances are often dangerous things. Too easily do we slip into adultery with the world. Beware! Compromise is ugly, and adultery is a disgraceful betrayal of the Lord, whom we should fear and love.
7. Do not be afraid!

Saint Isaiah, pray for us!

Most of you have seen the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which airs so frequently at this time of year. More on that in a moment. But for now, the word “wonderful” is most commonly understood to mean “really great.” But the word “wonderful” actually means “filled with wonder.”

Who among us can understand the incredible mystery of his own life? And not merely considered in itself, but also how it interacts with the lives of others and the events of this world? Why are we here now? Why do we meet and know the people we do? How does our life affect that of others, not just in the obvious ways but also the hidden ways unknown to us?

Imagine that one day you stayed late at work rather than taking your usual commuter bus. Your open seat caused two people to meet, who later married and had three children, one of whom will grow up to discover the cure for cancer. This is something you will never know, but God does. Maybe another day you drove a little slower than the driver in back of you wished, but your slower pace meant that your irritated tailgater was not in an intersection at just the moment he would have been killed in a horrible accident had he kept up his pace. I know you may think these are trivial examples, but consider the mystery of each moment and all the “alternate universes” that would result if even a small change took place in our actions!

Our lives are mysteriously intertwined. We have almost no idea how even the littlest things we do cause enormous ripples and chain reactions that affect dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people from moment to moment. What if I never wrote this post and you never read it but instead were reading something else right now (whether good or bad)? The possibilities are almost endless as to what might have happened had I not written and you not read.

God has us here in this place at this time for a reason. We have some very particular purposes in His plan and He alone knows them all. Try for a moment to appreciate your dignity in this regard. You play a critical part in a cascade of events that ripple from your life and your place in God’s plan. No one can take that place and your role is crucial to millions of subsequent transactions in God’s wonderful vision.  Psalm 139 has this to say:

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue  you know it completely, O LORD.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,  too lofty for me to attain. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful. All my days  were written in your book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139, selected verses).

 The movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” is an extended meditation on this topic. If,  somehow, you have managed to miss seeing it at some point in your life, then you know what you must do! The protagonist of the movie, George Bailey, seeks to end his life, even going so far as to wish he had never been born. But an angel from Heaven takes him through the strange and sad “alternate universe” that would have resulted had he never been born. It is a world of terrifying loss for many, and George comes to discover the dignity and necessity of his life within God’s plan.

In God’s vision, no one can be said to be unnecessary or of limited importance. We have absolutely no way of knowing that. And given the intricacies of human interaction and the ripple effects thereof, we are pretty foolish if we think we have little importance. Rather, it seems we are quite essential.

Consider, too, an excerpt from an article I wrote a couple of years ago on the probability of us existing at all:

To say that we are contingent beings is a vast understatement. To say that someone or something is contingent is to say that the existence of same is not inevitable, but can only come about based on any number of previous things being true in a chain of being or causality. Hence, I would not exist if my parents had not existed and met. Further, they would not exist if their parents had not existed and met. And the chain goes back through generations. Thus, my existence here today depends upon a vast number of “meetings” going just right.

Consider some of the contingencies and requirements for your existence, as set forth by Ali Binazir. Some of the numbers are based on hunches, but if anything, they are on the conservative side. I am only reporting a small portion of his musings here. You can read his full article here: What are the Chances of You Being Born? and see how he comes up with these numbers.

So here are some of the probabilities of the events required for you to be born:

1. Probability of boy meeting girl: 1 in 20,000.
2. Now let’s say the chances of them actually talking to one another is one in 10.
3. And the chances of that turning into another meeting is about one in 10 also.
4. And the chances of that turning into a long-term relationship is also one in 10.
5. And the chances of that lasting long enough to result in offspring is one in 2.
6. So the probability of your parents’ chance meeting resulting in marriage and children is about 1 in 2000.
7. The combined probability is now already around 1 in 40 million.
8. Now things start to get interesting.  Why?  Because we’re about to deal with eggs and sperm, which come in large numbers. Each sperm and each egg is genetically unique because of the process of meiosis; you are the result of the fusion of one particular egg with one particular sperm.  On average, a fertile woman has about 100,000 viable eggs.  A man will produce about 12 trillion sperm over the course of his reproductive lifetime.
9. Let’s say a third of those sperm (4 trillion) are relevant to our calculation, since the sperm created after your mom hits menopause don’t count. So the probability of that one sperm with half your name on it hitting that one egg with the other half of your name on it is 1/(100,000)(4 trillion)= 1/(10⁵)(4×10¹²)= 1 in 4 x 10¹⁷, or one in 400 quadrillion.
10. But because the existence of you here now on planet earth presupposes another supremely unlikely and utterly undeniable chain of events.  Namely, that every one of your ancestors lived to reproductive age we must also go further presuming 150,000 generations going back to man’s origin.
11. Well then, that would be one in 2^150,000 , which is about 1 in 10^45,000– a number so staggeringly large that my head hurts just writing it down.
12. But let’s think about this some more.  Remember the sperm-meeting-egg argument for the creation of you, since each gamete is unique?
13. Well, the right sperm also had to meet the right egg to create your grandparents.  Otherwise they’d be different people, and so would their children, who would then have had children who were similar to you but not quite you.
14. This is also true of your grandparents’ parents, and their grandparents, and so on back to the beginning of human time.  If even once the wrong sperm met the wrong egg, you would not be sitting here noodling online reading fascinating articles like this one.  It would be your cousin Jethro, and you never really liked him anyway.
15. That means that in every step of your lineage, the probability of the right sperm meeting the right egg such that the exact right ancestor would be created that would end up creating you is one in 1200 trillion, which we’ll round down to 1000 trillion, or one quadrillion.
16. So now we must account for that for 150,000 generations by raising 400 quadrillion to the 150,000^thpower: That’s a ten followed by 2,640,000 zeroes, which would fill 11 volumes of a 250-page book with zeroes.
17. For the sake of completeness: (10^2,640,000)(10^45,000)(2000)(20,000) = 4x 10^2,685,007 ≈ 10^2,685,000
18. Probability of your existing at all: 1 in 10^2,685,000

Now there are some assumptions above that you may quibble with. I would certainly add in (sadly) some probabilities related to being aborted or miscarried. But even a simpler analysis yields astonishing numbers.

Not only are you and I contingent, we are very improbable! Yet here we are! Mirabile visu! (wondrous to behold).

Theologically, of course, we are no mere accident or happenstance. God has always known us, intended us, loved us, and planned for us.

The photo above is of yours truly. Sorry for the informality of the T-Shirt, but I was playing with my camera last year on a trip to Mexico and captured this photo of me in a thousand different and possibly alternate realities.

Enjoy this summary of the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” and remember that “wonderful” means “filled with wonder (and awe).”

In moral decline, both personal and cultural, the problem is that not only do we desire what is evil, we also stop desiring that which is good and holy. At the heart of desiring what is evil (or what is good, but to excess), are pride, greed, lust, and gluttony. Sloth and envy are more involved in no longer desiring what is good.

Sloth is a kind or sorrow or aversion to the good things God offers to us, involving everything from the life of prayer to virtues such as moderation, chastity, generosity, and forgiveness. Envy is sorrow or anger at the goodness or excellence that others manifest, because I take it to lessen my own standing. Thus the soul or culture that is in moral decline no longer desires what is good and even detests it.

No matter how you look at it, moral decline is an ugly business. Consider the following example of a cultural trend in which what is good (having children) is no longer desired by an increasing number in our culture. There was a column in the New York Post recently entitled More Women Choosing Dogs Over Motherhood. The article begins,

America’s next generation of youngsters should be called “Generation Rex.” If you’re wondering why playgrounds around the city are so quiet and dog runs are packed, a new report has an answer: More and more US women are forgoing motherhood and getting their maternal kicks by owning handbag-size canines … Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that a big drop in the number of babies born to women ages 15 to 29 corresponds with a huge increase in the number of tiny pooches owned by young US women … “I’d rather have a dog over a kid,” declared Sara Foster, 30, a Chelsea equities trader who says her French bulldog, Maddie, brings her more joy than a child. “It’s just less work and, honestly, I have more time to go out. You … don’t have to get a babysitter.” [1]

Well, you get the point. The article goes pretty much downhill from there.

One hopes that when these women get a little older they will think differently. However, even among the married, more (as many as 20%) are choosing the childless route. Last summer there was a Time Magazine cover story about “The Childfree Life” and the web edition of the article was subtitled “The American birthrate is at a record low. What happens when having it all means not having children?” The article begins,

[At] 50, Angela Scott [who is married 24 years and intentionally childless, says she] is more than fine: she’s fulfilled. And she’s not alone. The birthrate in the U.S. is the lowest in recorded American history. From 2007 to 2011, the fertility rate declined 9%. A 2010 Pew Research report showed that childlessness has risen across all racial and ethnic groups, adding up to about 1 in 5 American women who end their childbearing years maternity-free, compared with 1 in 10 in the 1970s … [2]

We have discussed here before the demographic harm caused by low birthrates. But if you want to read a thoughtful article from a Catholic demographer, see the CARA Blog Post. Among his observations, author Mark Gray writes,

The effects of fertility decline are not just limited to the state budget and care for seniors. A future of fewer people year-over-year will also be one of perpetual economic stagnation or recession for all. Currently it costs a middle class family $245,340 to raise a single child to the age of 18 in the United States. If a couple has two kids that’s close to half a million dollars they inject into the economy. A skeptic might say they would have just spent that money on something else if they had no children. Perhaps but as most parents know having a child can “encourage” you seek out more income out of necessity (e.g., dads, on average, make more than non-dads and the combined incomes of a mom and dad outpace a couple with no children). As I write Japan is again in a recession. Downturns and anemic growth have become the normal way of life there for decades and will be so for the foreseeable future until they begin to grow demographically again (innovations and exports have been insufficient).

For the purposes of this post, I would like to return to the opening point: moral decline consists not only in desiring what is wrong, but also in no longer desiring what is good. Here are a few additional reflections on the problem of no longer desiring what is good (in this case, new life and children).

I. Children are a very great blessing. This is not only the biblical tradition, but also the instinctive assumption of Western culture (and arguably every healthy culture). Until about 1950, children were sought in number, valued, and appreciated. Even in the 1960s it was common to speak of pregnancy and birth as “the blessed event.” By current standards, family sizes were large. In my youth of the 1960s, it was common for families to have four or five children. And many of my older parishioners (those in their 70s and up) came from families of twelve or more. This was not only normal, it was considered good.

Parents and extended families shared in the raising of children, not because they had to, but because they wanted to. Getting married and having children was a central goal in life, a supreme blessing.

The Scriptures well attest that fertility was sought after. Children were considered a blessing and barrenness was one of the worst of curses.

1. Genesis 1:27-28 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.
2. Exodus 23:25-26 Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.
3. Deuteronomy 7:12-14 If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb … You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor will any of your livestock be without young.
4. Psalm 127:3-5 Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court.
5. Psalm 128:1-4 Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Yes, this will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord.

II. Only recently has having children come to be considered burdensome. And even more than burdensome, many people outright fear having “too many” children. I often see young couples, especially the woman, visibly cringe when I suggest that they consider having more than two children.

There are many cultural reasons we have arrived at this place, among them feminism, dual incomes, women wanting careers, modern economic realities, the move to urban vs. rural settings, the rise of the consumerist mentality, the expectation of a lavish standard of living, and the advent of retirement plans (children used to be your social security, since they cared for you in your old age). Much of this has resulted in a contraceptive mentality and an almost irrational fear of having children.

But the point here is that this is all rather new. Most of us who are fifty or older remember a time when this thinking was not the norm.

III. Whatever the “cultural and sociological roots,” all this has led us to a sinful rejection of one of God’s greatest blessings: children (life). And make no mistake, this sinful rejection of the good of children is itself the result of sin. Our sin, our desire for what is evil, has now led us collectively to no longer desire what is good, in this case children.

How has this come to pass? Morally speaking, lust has led to a darkened intellect and to disordered desires wherein we not only desire that which is evil, but also fail to desire that which is good. Our collectively sinful, promiscuous, and disgraceful attitudes toward marriage and sexuality have collectively darkened our intellects and led to a voracious appetite for sex (lust) as well as a fear of what we know to be the intrinsic fruit of sex: children.

In our darkened minds, we have separated what God has joined. Sex is meant to be joyfully and seriously tied to marriage and having children. In the contraceptive revolution we severed those ties, declaring that there was no necessary connection between having sex and having children. Yes, we separated what God intended to be joined: sex, marriage, and family.

So, we have sown the wind and now we reap the whirlwind … of pornography, sexually transmitted disease, teenage pregnancy, single motherhood, rampant divorce, abortion, the profound confusion that is the celebration of homosexual acts, and every bizarre “gender-bender” ideology our collectively darkened culture can devise.

Meanwhile, the very fruit to which sex is meant to be joyfully joined is increasingly seen as an outcome more dreadful than anything just mentioned. It is an outcome so horrible that many women are willing to ingest a kind of pesticide that dramatically alters the endocrine system, kills the spark of life in them, and attacks the normal and healthy function of their bodies. It is a result so frightening that men are willing to be gelded.  And this leads us back to where we started: many women and couples would rather raise dogs than children.

The perversity of this outcome is difficult to overstate. Somehow I am reminded of Morticia Addams, the matriarch of TV’s Addam’s Family, who used to cut the roses off her rose bushes because she hated the beautiful blooms and preferred the thorns and half-dead look of barren rose bushes. (Thus, see above.)

And speaking of Morticia leads me to my last point.

IV. The Culture of Death – Low birthrates and childless couples are yet another outcome of what has fittingly been called the “culture of death.” In effect, this phrase, used frequently by both St. John Paul and Pope Benedict, describes a culture in which the death (or non-existence) of human beings is proposed as a “solution” to problems. The celebration of contraception as a “virtue” surely points to this mentality.

The myth of overpopulation has caused a lot of fears. Further, concerns about inadequate resources have also proven to be unfounded. The improper and/or inadequate distribution of resources (usually due to war and corruption) is problematic. But the death (or non-existence) of human beings is not the solution and in fact leads to other economic difficulties.

In the end, the “culture of death” is the result of sinfully selfish desires and fears. Jesus, while speaking of horrors to come in His own time, surely knew of our times as well and His words in this Lucan passage are prophetic of the current culture of death:

Luke 23:28-31 A large number of people followed him (on the way to Golgotha), including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then “ ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” ’ For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

Yes, such are our times, when a great number cry out, “Blessed are the wombs that do not bear and the breasts that do not nurse!” And the “green wood” of Jesus’ innocence has surely given way to the “dry wood” that is the modern lack of appreciation for the beauty of life, marriage, and sexuality.

These are good times for dogs, not so good for babies. Morticia (a name that means death) would be pleased.

The Gospel today surely announces a critical Advent theme: Watch! And while I want to comment primarily on the reading from Isaiah, the Gospel admonition certainly deserves some attention as well.

For it is too often the case that many today hold the unbiblical notion that most, if not all, are going to Heaven. But for many weeks now we have been reading parables in the gospels wherein the Lord Jesus warns us that some (perhaps many and possibly even most) are not heading for Heaven. There are wise and foolish virgins, industrious and lazy servants, sheep and goats; and today there are those who keep watch and those who do not.

And though many today like to brush aside the teachings on judgment or the teachings that some are lost, to those who do so and to all of us, Jesus says, Watch! In other words, watch out; be serious, sober, and prepared for death and judgment. Realize that your choices are leading somewhere.

Some have tried to tame and domesticate Jesus, but it is not the fake, reinvented Jesus that they will meet; it is the real Jesus, the Jesus who warns repeatedly of the reality of judgment and the strong possibility of Hell. At the beginning of Advent we do well to heed Jesus’ admonition and realize our need to be saved.

And that leads to the first reading from Isaiah, which rather thoroughly sets forth our need for a savior. Isaiah distinguishes five ailments which beset us, and from which we need rescue. We are drifting, demanding, depraved, disaffected, and depressed. But in the end, Isaiah reminds us of our dignity. Let’s look at each in turn.

1. Drifting – The text says, Why [O Lord] do you let us wander from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage.

It is a common human tendency to wander or drift. It is a rarer thing for people to reject God all of a sudden, especially if they were raised with some faith. Rather, what usually happens is that we just drift away, wander off course. It is like the captain or pilot of a boat who stops paying close attention. Soon enough the boat is farther and farther off course. At first things are not noticed, but the cumulative effect is that the boat is now headed in the wrong direction. He did not suddenly turn the helm and shift 180 degrees, he just stopped paying attention and drifted … and then drifted some more.

And so it is with some of us who may wonder how we got so far off course. I talk with many people who have left the Church and so many of them cannot point to an incident or moment when they walked out of Church and said, “I’ll never come back here.” It is usually just that they drifted away, fell away from the practice of the faith. They missed a Sunday here or there and, little by little, missing Mass became the norm. Maybe they moved to a new city and never got around to finding a parish. They just got disconnected and drifted.

The funny thing about drifting is that the farther off course you get, the harder it is to get back. It just seems increasingly monumental to make the changes necessary to get back on track. Thus Isaiah speaks of the heart of a drifter becoming hardened. Our bad habits become “hard” to break, and as God seems more and more distant to us, we lose our holy fear and reverence for Him.

It is interesting how, in taking up our voice, Isaiah, “blames” God for it all. Somehow it is “His fault” for letting us wander, because He let us do it.

It is true that God has made us free and that He is very serious about respecting our freedom. How else could we love God, if we were not free? Compelled love is not love at all.

But what Isaiah is really getting at is that some of us are so far afield, so lost, that only God can find us and save us. And so we must depend on God being like a shepherd who seeks his lost sheep.

Thus, here is the first way that Isaiah sets forth our need for a Savior. And so, in Advent, reflecting this way, the Church cries out, “Come, Emmanuel! Come, Lord Jesus! Seek and find us for many of us are drifting.”

2. Demanding – The text says, Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you, while you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for, such as they had not heard of from of old. No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you doing such deeds for those who wait for him.

There is a human tendency to demand signs and wonders. Our flesh demands to see. And when we do not see in a physical way, we are dismissive, even scoffing.

This inclination has reached a peak in our modern times, when so many reject faith because it does not meet the demands of empirical science and a materialistic age. If something is not physical and measurable by some human instrument, many reject its very existence. Never mind that many things that are very real (e.g., justice, fear) cannot be measured on a scale. What most moderns are really about doing is more specific: rejecting God and the demands of faith. “Since we cannot see Him with our eyes, He is not there and thus we may do as we please.”

Isaiah gives voice to the human demand to see on our own terms. We first demand signs and wonders; then we will believe. It is almost as though we are saying to God, “Force me to believe in you,” or “Make everything so certain that I don’t really have to walk by faith.”

Many of us look back to the miracles of the Scriptures and think, “If I saw that, I would believe.” But faith is not so simple. For many who did see miracles (e.g., the Hebrew people in the desert), they saw but still gave way to doubt. Many who saw Jesus work miracles fled at the first sign of trouble or when He said something that displeased them.

Our flesh demands to see. But, in the end, even after seeing it usually refuses to believe.

Further, God does not usually do the “biggie-wow” things to overwhelm us. Satan does overwhelm us. But God is a quiet and persistent lover, who works in us respectfully and delicately—if we let him. It is Satan who roars at us with temptation, fear, and sheer volume, so that we are distracted and confused. God more often is that still, small voice speaking from the depth of our heart.

Thus the Lord, speaking through Isaiah, warns us of this second ailment: the demand for signs and wonders. Our rebellious flesh pouts and draws back in resentful rebellion.

Thus we need a Savior to give us new hearts and minds, attuned to the small, still voice of God in a strident world. And so in Advent, reflecting thus, the Church cries out, “Come, Emmanuel. Come, Lord Jesus! Calm our souls and let us find you in the small, daily things.”

3. Depraved – The text says, Would that you might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of you in our ways! Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful; all of us have become like unclean people.

The word depraved comes from the Latin pravitas, meaning crooked or deformed. It means to be lacking what we ought to have. Hence, the Lord, through Isaiah, describes our deformed state in the following ways. We are

A. Unthinking – The text says that we are “unmindful” of God. Indeed our minds are very weak and we can go for long periods so turned in on ourselves that we barely, if ever, think of God. Our thoughts are wholly focused on things that are passing, and almost wholly forgetful of God and Heaven, which remain forever. It is so easy for our senseless minds to be darkened. Our culture too has “kicked God to the curb” and thus there are even fewer reminders of Him than in previous generations. We desperately need God to save us and to give us new minds. Come, Lord Jesus!

B. Unhappy – The text says of God, you are angry. But, we need to remember that the “wrath of God” is more in us than in God. God’s anger is His passion to set things right. But God is not moody or prone to egotistical rage. More often than not, it is we who project our own unhappiness and anger on God. The “Wrath of God” is our experience of the total incompatibility of our sinful state before the holiness of God. God does not lose His temper or fly into a rage; He does not lose His serenity. It is we who are unhappy, angry, egotistical, scornful, etc. We need God to give us new hearts. Come, Lord Jesus!

C. Undistinguished – The text says, we are sinful; all of us have become like unclean people. We are called to be holy, that is, “set apart” and distinguished from the sinful world around us. But too often we are indistinguishable. We do not shine forth like lights in the darkness; we seem little different than the pagan world around us. We divorce, fornicate, fail to forgive, support contraception and abortion, fail the poor, etc., in numbers akin to secular people, who do not know God. We do not seem joyful, serene, or alive. We look just like “everybody else.” Our main goal seems to be to “fit in.” Save us, O Lord, from our mediocrity and fear. Come, Lord Jesus!

4. Disaffected – The text says, There is none who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to cling to you; for you have hidden your face from us and have delivered us up to our guilt.

In other words we, collectively speaking, have no passion for God. We get all worked up about politics, sports, the lottery, TV shows, etc. But when it comes to God, many can barely rouse themselves enough to pray, go to Church, or read Scripture. We find time for everything else, but God can wait.

Here, too, Isaiah gives voice to the human tendency to blame God. He says (i.e., we say) God has hidden his face. But God has not moved. If you can’t see God, guess who turned away? If you’re not as close to God as you used to be, guess who moved?

Our hearts and our priorities are messed up. We need a savior to give us new hearts, greater love, and better priorities and desires. Come, Lord Jesus!

5. Depressed – The text says, All our good deeds are like polluted rags; we have all withered like leaves, and our guilt carries us away like the wind.

One of the definitions of depression is anger turned inward. And while Isaiah has given voice to our tendency to direct anger and blame at God, here he gives voice to our other tendency: to turn on ourselves.

Thus, our good deeds are described as being like polluted rags. It may be true that they are less than they could be, but calling them polluted rags also expresses our own frustration with our seemingly hopeless situation: our addiction to sin and injustice.

Ultimately, the devil wants us to diminish what little good we can find in ourselves and to lock us into a depressed and angry state. If there is no good in us at all, then why bother?

There is such a thing as unhealthy guilt (cf 2 Cor 7:10-11) and a self-loathing that is not of God, but from the devil, our accuser. It may well be this that Isaiah articulates here. And from such depressed self-loathing (masquerading as piety) we need a savior. Come, Lord Jesus!

And so the cry has gone up: Come, Lord Jesus. Save us, Savior of the world! We need a savior and Advent is a time to meditate on that need.

Isaiah ends on a final note and key of the song shifts from D Minor to D Major. And that final note is our

6. Dignity – The text says, Yet, O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay and you the potter: we are all the work of your hands.

Yes, we are a mess, but a loveable mess. And God has so loved us that He sent His Son, who is not ashamed to call us His brethren.

We are not forsaken, and in Advent we call upon a Father who loves us. And our cry, Come, Lord Jesus is heard and heeded by the Father, who loves us and is fashioning us into His very image. God is able and He will fix us and fashion us well. Help is on the way!

Here’s a magnificent Advent hymn that expresses so beautifully the longing of the Church for her savior to come. The second verse says,

Zion hears the watchmen shouting,
Her hearts leaps up with joy undoubting!
She stands and waits with eager eyes.
See! Her Love from heaven descending,
Adorned with grace and truth unending.
Her light burns clear her star doth rise!

Now come our precious Crown,
Lord Jesus, God’s own Son
Hosanna!