Dear Friend,

Reflection by Jeffrey Morrow, Ph.D.

Isaiah 25:6-10

We have only recently begun the great season of preparation, Advent. It is a season in which we are preparing for the coming of our Lord. The readings for this season underscore how God prepared for Jesus’ coming throughout salvation history. This is particularly true of our readings from the Old Testament during this season. In the first reading for the Mass for today from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, we have a beautiful picture of what the Christ will bring when He comes. We hear that the Lord “will provide for all peoples, a feast of rich food and choice wines.” Moreover, the Lord “will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces.”

These verses from Isaiah point forward to Jesus’ redeeming death and resurrection, but also the Sacraments He will institute, and especially the most precious gift of the Eucharist, that marvelous “feast of rich food and choice wine.” But there is more. This prophetic text also points forward to the first coming of our Lord at that very first Christmas, when, “On that day it will be said: ‘Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the Lord for whom we looked.’”

As we begin Advent, let us listen attentively to the Scriptures the Church puts before us. In that way, we can find ourselves joining our elder brothers in the faith who, before that first Christmas day, waited longingly for the coming of Christ.  

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Jeffrey L. Morrow, Ph.D., is Professor of Theology at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology. A Jewish convert to Catholicism, husband, and father of seven, he is co-author with Jeff Cavins and others of A Catholic Guide to the Old Testament (Ascension Press, 2023).