“A shoot springs …”

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In today’s first reading from Isaiah 11:1-10 we hear that something very small springs from the soil. This soil is also known as “the stock of Jesse”. The “stock” is the original source of an ancestral line. For indigenous people this sounds familiar because, certainly in the Pacific, the term “tangata whenua” or “lewe ni vanua” means people of the land or people derived from the land. From these roots springs a “scion”, a small twig or one of noble birth. On this small offshoot will rest the Spirit of the Lord. This Spirit holds the noblest of virtues and ensures the fruition of the prophet’s vision which we heard about in the first reading last Sunday where Isaiah saw a time when people will convert their weapons of war into farming tools and their young people will no longer learn the arts of war but rather the principles of peace. This will be peace that includes all of creation, the lamb, the panther, tha calf and the lion. It will allow a young child to place her hand in a snake’s lair without fear of being harmed. Does this seem like a childish and impossible dream? Of course.

 

But then, in today’s gospel from Luke 10:21-24, we hear of how Jesus was filled with this Spirit, was one with this Spirit, and cried out in thanks to his Father and our Father, the Source of all creation, for the way God chose to reveal the secrets of the universe to mere children, children who do not fear putting their hands into the lair of vipers. There is an innocence or naivete which enables us to envisage what is seemingly impossible, to see what the great prophets and kings of the past longed to see but never saw it. Never loose sight of that vision which gives us enduring hope or the sounds of those songs that give praise for the joy that raises up our human spirits. Even the smallest of shoots can give rise to a real sense of hope for our earth and for creation and for humanity. “For unto us a child is born …”