O Antiphons: O Lord
We are in a series of articles
meditating on our Lord’s coming by using the lovely Advent tradition of calling
upon the Lord Jesus Christ with one of his messianic titles. This week we call
upon him as “O Lord” (Adoni), also translated, “O Leader.” This “O Antiphon”
(as they are called) is rendered in today’s English as:
O Sacred Lord of ancient Israel, who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush,
who gave him the Holy Law on Sinai mountain:
come, stretch out your mighty hand to set us free.
The lectionary for Mass modifies it to
read: “O Leader of the House of Israel, giver of the Law to Moses on Sinai:
come to rescue us with your mighty power!”
As we mentioned last week, each of
these antiphons (verses) relate to a prophecy from the prophet Isaiah. Second
only to the book of Psalms, Isaiah has had more influence on both Jewish and
Christian belief and practice than any other book of Scripture; and, again
second only to the Psalms, is the most quoted Old Testament book in the New
Testament. His prophetic words are fundamental to an understanding of the
Gospel such that St. Jerome (c. 340-420) said that Isaiah “should be called an
evangelist rather than a prophet, because he describes all the mysteries of
Christ and the church so clearly that one would think he is composing a history
of what has already happened rather than prophesying what is to come.”
The latter chapters of Isaiah (56-66) refer to Moses in speaking of both retribution as well as a future restoration. In other words, there will be a sifting: the faithful to the Lord will experience salvation, the new Jerusalem, new heavens, new earth; but the rest who have rejected God will experience judgment. Chapter 63 prefigures Christ’s work of redemption, defeat of the devil, and salvation and mercy, and in this context in which the prophet speaks of Moses.
The Moses of old thus prefigures the
Messiah to come, as Moses himself had prophesied (Deut 18:15). Isaiah
expresses it as a longing for salvation: “O that you would tear the heavens and come
down, that the mountains might quake at your presence [as at Mt. Sinai (Ex
19:18) when the Lord came down (Ex 19:20) and the Law was given (Ex 20)] – as
when fire kindles brushwood [the burning bush, Ex 3:2; or “you send forth your fury,
it consumes them like stubble,” Ex 15:7] ... you came down, the mountains
quaked at your presence” (Is 64:1-3).
Isaiah also says (33:22), “the Lord is
our judge, the Lord is our ruler, the Lord is our king; he will save us,” as
the antiphon pleads. The antiphon used at Mass (“O Leader of the House of
Israel”) refers to this verse as well as pointing to the prophecy of Micah that
from Bethlehem “shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel”
(5:2).
Like Isaiah, we want to ask again this
coming Advent for God to stretch out his majestic arm, work new wonders, put
his Holy Spirit in our midst, and come to save us.
O sacred Lord of ancient Israel, Christ Jesus: come to us!