O Root of Jesse, you stand as a sign for the peoples; before you kings shall keep silence and to you all nations shall have recourse. Come, save us, and do not delay.
This antiphon adapts the prophecy of Isaiah about the Suffering Servant of the LORD: Isaiah 52:13, 15; 53:2: “See, my servant shall prosper…So shall he startle many nations, because of him kings shall stand speechless. …He grew up like a sapling before him, like a shoot”.
Isaiah prophesied a restoration of David’s throne – a new branch budding out of the old root. Christ Our God is the root of Jesse in a two-fold sense: in his humanity he is the descendant of King David, who was the youngest son of Jesse, and he inherited the royal throne. This king was a man after God’s own heart and in his Psalms he prays for he universal reign of the LORD to begin. He wants the goodness and mercy of our God to rule over every human heart. The angel foretold to Mary, “The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. He will rule over the house of Jacob forever and his reign will be without end” (Luke 1:32-33).
Our monastic hearts more and more urgently cry out for God’s reign to extend over all humanity: “Come, save us, and do not delay”. No one else can extend the reign of God! Indeed, how good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell as one. Indeed, it is in the mystery of monastic fellowship that the mystery of human unity is glimpsed. Our lives and our communities provide a sign of hope for all mankind. In our world of insult before you are insulted, in a world of pre-emptive strikes, we so seldom even dream of the promise of our Advent Prayer: “Maranatha!”
(Quoted and adapted from Jeanne Kun)
Isaiah 11:1
“And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.”
This wonder we behold with eyes of faith we gaze upon the Nativity. Everywhere we look in every room of this monastery we behold the flower rising up out of the ancestor of the Lord Jesus. What exactly do we behold? Do we see just another foreign nativity scene? Do we have the eyes of wonder, the eyes of a child, to see what prophets and kings longed to see but saw not? Do we hear the cries of the baby Christ, the infant God, who chooses to limit himself to our words and our pre-linguistic cries for help? Indeed, the Lord Jesus is helpless; he is dependent upon the Virgin Mother and her Husband Joseph. They give him what every human being needs in order to love himself, the unconditional love of parents for a baby, of adults for a helpless child. The Eternal Origin of Love receives human love so that he might love himself and all of us who cannot survive or grow up in stability and peace without the steady and regular experience of unconditional love. This is the love we so feebly strive to share with each other in our pursuit of perfect charity according to a monastic manner of life. In Christ we are strengthened to love as the Lord Jesus has loved us. He cannot love us more, and he will not love us less. He loves us without hesitation and without regret. Such is the blazing love we are called to have for one another in our monastic community.
Isaiah 11:10 gazes into the future glory of God’s plan:
“In that day the root of Jesse, who standeth for an ensign of the people, him the Gentiles shall beseech, and his sepulcher shall be glorious.”
We are to become the ensign of the people. Indeed our life of charity in the monastery is a bright sign of what human community can be for everyone who is grafted to the root of Jesse. The Holy Rule commands us to receive every guest as Christ. Everyone who comes to our monastery for retreat and as a volunteer is to be treated as Christ. We are to make them feel so at home that they discover the mystery of the Lord dwelling here among us and deep within their hearts. This is the reason people keep coming here for retreat, and this is the reason they will keep coming back to participate in our mission and ministry as a monastery.
Micah 5:1 adds his voice to our Advent reflection when he writes:
“Now shalt thou be laid waste, O daughter of the robber: they have laid siege against us, with a rod shall they strike the cheek of the judge of Israel.” Indeed our preparation for the Lord’s coming is a preparation for his suffering, death, and resurrection. The Judge of Israel is stuck again and again; he suffers the pain of rejection and execution. This suffering he offers as a perfect sacrifice of praise. As Saint John proclaims, no one takes his life from him. Indeed, Christ our true judge and savior offers his suffering and death for us. In the paschal mystery we learn how to unite our suffering to the sacrifice of the cross of Christ. This holocaust offers a pleasing aroma before the throne of Glory.
Romans 15:8-13 offers us Saint Paul’s Advent reflection:
“For I say that Christ Jesus was minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. But that the Gentiles are to glorify God for his mercy, as it is written: Therefore will I confess to thee, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and will sing to thy name. And again he saith: Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. And again: Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and magnify him, all ye people. And again Isaiah saith: There shall be a root of Jesse; and he that shall rise up to rule the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles shall hope. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing; that you may abound in hope, and in the power of the Holy Ghost.” Such is our prayer for this Advent Season. We are filled with hope and joy and peace in believing. Now, we abound with the spirit of this season and live in the power of the Holy Spirit.
O Radix
All of us sprung from one deep-hidden seed,
Rose from a root invisible to all.
We knew the virtues once of every weed,
But, severed from the roots of ritual,
We surf the surface of a wide-screen world
And find no virtue in the virtual.
We shrivel on the edges of a wood
Whose heart we once inhabited in love,
Now we have need of you, forgotten Root
The stock and stem of every living thing
Whom once we worshiped in the sacred grove,
For now is winter, now is withering
Unless we let you root us deep within,
Under the ground of being, graft us in.
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