Can it be true? Can the wolf live with the lamb, and the calf and the lion cub feed together? Can the cow and the bear make friends and the infant play over the cobra’s hole? Surely not. Our personal experience of the world, and our world-weariness in the face of the news and events that surround us, lead us to think that this can never happen.
But Isaiah, in the first reading of this Sunday’s Mass (Isaiah 11:1-10), presents us with a picture of the unity of all creation, for “on him the Spirit of the Lord rests”. This Spirit of “wisdom and insight, of counsel and power, of knowledge and fear of the Lord” are gifts of the Holy Spirit, equipping us with an inner awareness of God’s life in the relationship of the Holy Trinity.
We can be so overwhelmed by the material realities of our world that we fail to be aware of the spirit of God that gives life to the material realities that surround us. But God will not “judge us by appearances, he gives no judgment by hearsay. He judges with integrity and with equity.” The consequence of living in the Spirit of God is that unity that Christ prayed for, where the whole of creation comes to life when the spirit and the flesh become one.
The temptation to turn the beauty of God’s creation into an idol to be worshipped, from the Golden Calf to the latest new gadget or “must-have” item, is powerful and destructive. “For all men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing Him who is, and from studying the works did not discern the Creator. Now if out of joy in their beauty they thought them gods, let them know how far more excellent is the Lord is than these; for the original source of beauty created them” (Wisdom 13:1-4).
We experience a profound emptiness in all material things if we do not see their true beauty and meaning through the eyes of God, who created them. This is the unity Christ prayed for, that we might, like Him, see all things reflecting the beauty of God, rather than our own limited vision.
This unity is found in Christ, where the lion and lamb, the cow and the bear, the north and the south, find in the Spirit of God a unity in their differences.
This is not a unity that says that all are the same, but a unity that is truly universal, where in our differences we all may come together in Christ. As Isaiah writes: “They do no hurt, nor harm, on all my holy mountains, for the country is filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters swell the sea.”
St Paul reminds us that “everything that was written long ago in the Scripture was meant to teach us something about hope … how people who did not give up were helped by God … so that united in mind and voice we may give glory to the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” We are called to “treat each other in the same friendly way as Christ treated you” (Romans 15:7). This is how we give glory to God, by being fully open to the Spirit that brings life to all things. For as St Irenaeus said: “The glory of God is man fully alive.”
St John the Baptist calls us to repent, for the Kingdom of God is close at hand. This closeness is the presence of the Holy Spirit and when we accept these gifts, our lives are reshaped, so that God is unified in our lives. “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and rekindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit and they shall be created and they shall renew the face of the earth.”
As we approach Christmas, which for so many is simply a celebration of the material things of this world and which can reinforce a profound loneliness and isolation, let us pray that we may fill our hearts with the fire of God’s love, and by our love and service renew the face of the earth through the working of the Spirit of God in our lives.
Mgr John Armitage is rector of the National Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham
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