Seventh Day In The Octave of Christmas – 2017

The Future Glory of the Survivors in Zion

December 31, 2017

2 “On that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel. Whoever is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem,” ~ Isaiah 4:2-3 (NRSVACE) 

Ant.  Christ is born for us; come, let us adore him.

Isaiah in many ways had an unmistakable and colorful code to his writings. He stands alone in how his vivid portrait of the future would come about. In fact, many scholars take into account the effort it took to write with such boldness and yet poetically layout Gods divine plan shown him through dreams.  Isaiah’s prophecies are the very fabric of that links the Old Testament, old world views, to that of the New Testament; leading us straight to Jesus Christ and the New Covenant with mankind. The colorful language Isaiah used here, ‘the branch of the Lord,’ is a bold reference to that which Jehovah made grow. Giving authorship of the creation of everything including the plan of salvation to God alone. But in breaking this down even further we see a word in this short section of scripture, ‘branch’ which is referenced throughout the Old Testament, beginning with Isaiah 11:1 where the word, ‘shoot’, is used in reference to The Root of Jesse. It is linked to Jeremiah 23:5 in reference to the word, ‘Branch’ talking about King David. Again in Jeremiah 33:15 the word, ‘Branch’ is used. In Zechariah 3:8 the word, ‘Branch’, in reference to things to come as laid out directly to Josuah, the high priest. Finally, the word ‘Branch’ is used to reference the coronation of the Branch in Zachariah 6:12. Here, then, if we thus interpret the words, ‘Branch and Shoot’,  we have the first distinct prophecy in Isaiah of a personal Messiah! My brothers and sisters, Isaiah (750-695 BC), Jeremiah (628-588 BC), and Zachariah (520-510 BC) all three connect the dots using the same code of speech over time. Jesus Christ is the “Branch of Jehovah,” and within the coming of Jesus, we can look back to the Octave of Christmas which in the Roman Catholic Liturgical Calendar is the countdown to The Eighth Octave of Christmas, Mary, Mother of God where we celebrate this very prophecy come to fruition.

On That Day!

“The Lord has made known, alleluia, alleluia! On that day a marvelous exchange had taken place, God man’s creator has become man, born of a virgin!” ~ Solemnity Evening Prayer, The Liturgy of the Hours, pg.172-173.

This is one of the mysteries of Christ’s life that is celebrated because this is when we as human beings became shareholders in eternity; this is the divinity of Christ who so humbled himself for us so that we have the hope of salvation through Him! In many ways, as we celebrate this event we are also celebrating Christ’s return or the Second Advent. It is this that John so poetically wrote, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” ~ John 3:16and who also wrote about meeting Christ in Heaven, 12 “Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest.” ~ Revelation 1:12-13 (NRSVACE). We celebrate because the promise of salvation is now, it is upon us! We have not only been saved by Christ’s birth, life, death, and resurrection but are also recipients of His mercy, forgiveness, love, and His devotion! The point is that Jesus desired to become our brother by being born of the Virgin Mary, to enter into a sinful world, to teach us how to love one another as brothers, and who willingly died for our sins. So, I say to you my brothers and sisters, rejoice and pray, love each other as Christ has loved you, celebrate this day of freedom and salvation, and remember that it all was done by God’s desire to save the human race from ourselves! 

Celebration of a New Year

On this note, as I write this last blog of 2017 I wanted to mention all the people from around the world who made this year so special for me by becoming subscribers. With that said, Happy New Year everyone, and thank you for reading and commenting and voting. The stats show we need only 39 more views to make December the highest ranking of all the month of 2017. So, I humbly ask for you to share this blog with as many people with the utmost urgency as possible at such a late hour!

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Amen, Alleluia!

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