Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Wednesday of the Third Week in Advent

(Isaiah 45:6c-8.18.21c-25; Luke 7:18a-23)

Although there are other global icons today, forty years ago it was said that three things existed throughout the earth– Coca-Cola, Volkswagen, and the Chinese. The thrust of the second part of the book of the prophet Isaiah – which is conveniently called “Second Isaiah” – is that the same God exists throughout the world. The prophet himself, schooled in Babylonia, declares that other nations may have had idols but they are trinkets, not gods. He could say even more confidently than his ancestors: Yahweh alone is God!

Monotheism sends missionaries throughout the world so that all men and women might know the one God. It also makes us prepare with as much fervor as we can manage for the coming of this God among us as human.