Thursday, December 19, 2013

Chapter I: Advent - The O Antiphones: Shoot of Jesse

The Third of the Great O Antiphons
O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples;
before you kings will shut their mouths,
to you the nations will make their prayer:
Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.

The original Latin:
O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum,
super quem continebunt reges os suum,
quem Gentes deprecabuntur:
veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.
In this O Antiphon, we specifically focus on the promise that the Coming Messiah would be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the heir of Jesse (the father of King David). We find this prophecy fulfilled in the opening chapter of Matthew in which the Gospel writer traces Jesus' geneology back to David and Abraham (Matthew 1:1-17). Like all of the O Antiphons so far, the inspiration for this O Antiphon comes from Isaiah chapter 11.

A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse,
and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.
[...]
It will happen in that day 
that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, 
who stands as a banner of the peoples; 
and his resting place will be glorious. - Isaiah 11:1 & 10

St. Paul references these verses in his Letter to the Romans (15:12). And, of course, the Prophet Micah also promised that the Messiah would come forth from David's city of Bethlehem:
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    being small among the clans of Judah,
    out of you one will come out to me that is to be ruler in Israel;
    whose goings out are from of old, from ancient times. - Micah 5:2
And the Prophet Isaiah further promised that all nations would give homage and stand in silence before this King:
Yahweh says: “The labor of Egypt,
    and the merchandise of Ethiopia,
    and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you,
    and they shall be yours.
They will go after you.
    They shall come over in chains;
    and they will bow down to you.
They will make supplication to you:
    ‘Surely God is in you; and there is no one else.
    There is no other god. - Isaiah 45:14

...so he will cleanse many nations.
    Kings will shut their mouths at him:
    for they will see that which had not been told them;
    and they will understand that which they had not heard. - Isaiah 52:15
The glory of this O Antiphon has yet to be fulfilled. Not all the nations of the world have recognized His kingship. Indeed, in our time, few do. This O Antiphon reminds me of a song by the band Selah. It expresses the longing we feel during this Season in a way that is difficult so put into words:
One day eyes that are blind will see You clearly
One day all who deny will finally believe
One day hearts made of stone will break in pieces
One day chains once unbroken will fall down at Your feet
So we wait for that one day, come quickly

We wanna see Your glory
Every knee falls down before Thee
Every tongue offers You praise with every hand raised
Singing glory to You and unto You only
We'll sing glory to Your name

One day voices that lie will all be silenced
One day all that's divided will be whole again
One day death will retreat and wave it's white flag
One day love will defeat the strongest enemy
So we wait for that one day, come quickly

We wanna see Your glory
Every knee falls down before Thee
Every tongue offers You praise with every hand raised
Singing glory to You and unto You only
We'll sing glory to Your name

We know not today or the hour
Or the moments in between
But we know the end of the story
When we'll see

Your glory
Every knee falls down before Thee
Every tongue offers You praise with every hand raised
Singing glory to You and unto You only
We'll sing glory to Your name, oh one day

-Glory by Selah

So we continue to dream, to long for the coming of the Shoot of Jesse Who will demand the worship of all. This is an aspect of the glimpse of desire that is so delicious, when truly experienced. The memory of it quickly fades, but as I write and contemplate how glorious that Day will be, I experience that Joy that Professor Lewis spoke of. It's very appropriate that the O Antiphons, designed to give expression to the great longing we feel, begin the week following the Joy Candle.

The lyrics from O Come, O Come Emmanuel inspired by this O Antiphon:
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse's stem,
from ev'ry foe deliver them
that trust Thy mighty power to save,
and give them vict'ry o'er the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel! 

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