“Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.” These words in scripture make you want to rejoice with the Lord, too. What an awesome image this is of Jesus! Rejoicing in the Spirit. His happiness seems to be spilling over to the point, he can’t contain it. He sounds absolutely delighted in how his Father works. He was witnessing His Father at work first hand and Jesus just couldn’t contain his joy at how marvelous God’s revelation was. Can you imagine him laughing? This is the most awesome image of Christ to hold onto. Today is not the day to think of his suffering. Today, is a most excellent day to feel Christ’s joy.
Jesus’ first response to joy, was to pray. He immediately prayed to his Father. Is this the way we respond to joyful news too? We usually tell the good news to half the known world, but do we tell it to God, our Father? He should be the first place we run to in prayer, just like his most holy Son did.
Don’t you just love how Jesus addresses his Father? “Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.” The word “gracious” gives us some insight as to the nature of God. One of the definitions of gracious is, generosity of spirit. God is generous with His gift of the Holy Spirit. He shares a little bit of the essence of who He is, through His gift of the Spirit.
Jesus recognized, acknowledged and thanked His Father for his revelations of things unknown, to the simple and childlike. In turn, Christ wanted his disciples to be aware of just how special it was that they were in his presence. He said many prophets and kings desired to see what they saw, but did not. It’s pretty awesome that it wasn’t anyone well known or famous that Jesus chose to reveal himself to. Jesus also chose simple, average, everyday people to proclaim his kingdom to the world. Jesus thinks just like his Father. They are definitely one Spirit, just like today’s gospel indicates. It sounds like even Jesus was a little amazed at how close the bond was between him and his Father. Everything that separated them was superficial.
The first reading for mass today from the book of Isaiah, tells about “a shoot that shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.” This is the verse that the Jesse Tree Christmas tradition originated from. The Jesse Tree is an Advent tradition that represents the prophecy of Isaiah 11: 1-2:
“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots: and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord.”
The Jesse Tree tells the story of the people and major events in the Old Testament leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ, who was the sprout from Jesse. The Jesse Tree is like Jesus’ family tree. The ornaments have symbols on them that portray each major story in the Old Testament until the birth of baby Jesus at Christmas. It is a perfect way, to “Keep Christ in Christmas” during the advent season. If you are interested in learning how to construct a Jesse Tree with your family, you can click here, for a more thorough explanation of the Jesse Tree’s history and how to make one.
But, the first reading for mass has a lot of other imagery that is just beautiful too. It doesn’t start out that way. The first part is about Christ’s justice, but it is reassuring because it says that Jesus will not judge by appearance, nor by hearsay. That’s pretty awesome, that other people’s opinion of us, will not matter to Jesus when it comes time for our judgement.
All of those who pass through judgement and go to heaven though, will be all the peaceful animals in the first reading. The rich imagery is beautiful: “the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid. The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.” (The little child of course is Jesus who guides our lives.)
The prophet Isaiah goes on to predict that, “The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.” Baby Jesus and his parents did escape to Egypt where the cobras live and he did lay his sweet head in a manger. This prophecy came true. The prophecy of peace will come true for us in heaven too, when everything that divides us is finally laid to rest, by Jesus himself.
Have a beautiful, peace filled day today. The readings for mass show us that peace, love and joy are gifts of the Spirit that are possible for all of us to experience this advent season, and to share with our family and friends as well, as long as we keep Christ at the center of our lives.
