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Third Sunday of Advent, Year A, December 12, 2010
Lectionary index # 7

Twenty-second digests for the congregation: Arrange with your liturgy committee to have these brief historical introductions read to the assembly before you do each reading.

Who should announce these before the first and second readings, and before the gospel acclamation? They're not Scripture, nor homiletic, so they shouldn't be delivered from the ambo. They're a modest teaching. So let the presider say them from the chair. Let the lector turn toward the presider and listen.
Print this page, cut it at the blue lines, and give the introduction paragraphs to the person who will speak them.

Third Sunday of Advent, Year A, December 12, 2010
Before the first reading:

To despairing exiles, Isaiah speaks a hopeful vision: The desert blocking their way home will be transformed into blooming meadows. People too weak to travel will be strengthened. An absent God will reappear gloriously.
After the psalm, before the second reading:

The letter of James contains some elements reflective of very early Christian controversies, and some elements suggesting later composition. This passage still implies that the audience expected Jesus to return in glory soon. The author gives examples of patient waiting.
Before the gospel acclamation:

This passage aims to settle some early Christian questions about the role of Jesus versus the role of John the Baptist.
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On a new website, read a new essay about these readings for a community responding to the Word as a community.

First reading, Isaiah 35:1-6, 10 [Jerusalem Bible translation]

Our Liturgical Context: Today's gospel, Matthew 11:2-11, considers another aspect of the mission of John the Baptizer. John sends his own disciples to Jesus, asking "Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?" Jesus' response is to list his own works: healings, raising of the dead, preaching good news to the poor. Our first reading has a catalog of similar good works, promised and not yet fulfilled.

The Historical Situation: The context of Isaiah's prophecy is very different. As we observed last week, covering an earlier chapter from the same section of Isaiah, the prophet wanted to stir up hope among his people, hope that God would soon intervene dramatically to change their world and their fortunes. The Israelites were languishing in exile. A barren desert lay between their home and the land of their captivity. So Isaiah prophesies several ways that God will relieve all this:

Your Proclamation: Now you are prepared to play the prophet in proclaiming this. The beginning of the reading appeals to things these people know and accept (Lebanon, Carmel, Sharon, flowers, song). The rest challenges them to accept things they don't yet believe in: that God can do the unprecedented and unexpected. You should differentiate these sections in your tone of voice. To the implicit question "Why should we be strong and fear not?" you reply emphatically, "Here is your God, who comes with vindication." That's the turning point.

If it will help, think of a situation where you've given or heard a great pep talk addressed to dispirited people. That's what Isaiah was doing.

Second Reading, James 5:7-10 [Jerusalem Bible translation]

The Historical Background: The origins of this letter and the situations that prompted its author are controversial. A good description of the various possibilities is in the "Introduction to The Letters to All Christians" in The New Jerusalem Bible (Garden City, New York, USA: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1985, and other publishers in many languages, but not to be found online yet.) Another introduction is here. What puzzles this writer about today's passage is this: the letter of James is so innocent of the theological controversies that occupied Saint Paul, one is led to think that James is a very late letter, just like Sirach and the Book of Wisdom are late entries in the Hebrew canon. (That James is a late book is also apparent from the fact that many Christian communities were late in accepting it as part of the inspired canon; see any introduction to the letter.) But the expectation of Jesus' imminent return did not last very long in the early Church. Even within Saint Paul's lifetime, that expectation waned, and the Apostle's later letters, like the gospels, reflect the conviction that Christians are going to be struggling on earth indefinitely, and need to find ways to be faithful that are not limited to readiness for an early judgment day.

So what is James doing here, invoking a doctrine that must already have been antique? Perhaps it is just a literary device, like any mature writer uses with a mature audience, an allusion to something the mature will certainly remember, even if it's not the most important thing on their minds any more.

But let this not obscure James' timeless point, that frustrated and especially persecuted Christians need to be patient, whether Jesus is coming soon to vindicate them or not. The prophets to whom he points as examples persevered, whether or not they saw in their lifetimes the fulfillment of their hopes.

Your Proclamation: You may try to prepare for proclaiming this by meditating on the promise of Jesus' return in glory. If that doesn't help you identify a bit with the author James, try praying about your need for patience. Many things frustrate us all in our personal, professional, family and community lives. You'll be reading the Word to people with their own tribulations and unmet expectations. Speak to them sympathetically.

Several other commentaries on these passages. All are thoughtful, all quite readable, from the scholarly to the popular.
Links may be incomplete more than a few weeks before the "due date."
Lutheran pastor and college teacher Dan Nelson's notes for a study group Archived weekly column of Father Francis X. Cleary, S.J. (Log in using 0026437 and 63137.) (A 2001 column on the first reading.) The Text This Week; links to homilies, art works, movies and other resources on the week's scripture themes
Father Roger Karban of Belleville, Illinois, USA, writes a newspaper column about every Sunday's readings. Here are his essays for today's passages, from: courtesy of The Evangelist, official publication of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, New York, or of The Belleville Messenger, of the Diocese of Belleville.

Read all of Father Karban's recent columns here, at the site of FOSIL, the Faithful of Southern Illinois.

A great variety of resources about celebrating the Sunday and understanding the readings, from the Center for Liturgy at Saint Louis University.
Most welcome here are Reginald Fuller's commentaries.

The Lectionary selections in the frame at the left, if any, are there for your convenience. The publishers of the page in that frame have no connection, except for membership in the one Body of Christ, with the publisher of this page. Likewise the publishers of the pages on the links above.
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Last modified: December 2, 2010