O Root of Jesse

"His wife was barren and had borne no children." (Jg 13:3)
"But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years."(Lk 1:7)

Barrenness is a particularly difficult burden to bear, and in the ancient world it was often seen as a punishment for sin.  Both the wife of Zorah, the father of Samson, and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist were barren, and we can only imagine the pain they felt.  No doubt both women were familiar with the words of Jeremiah who tells us that Rachel wept inconsolably because she was barren.  For Jewish women not to have children meant they had no identity, no value, and no blessing from God.  Zorah's wife in today's passage from Judges isn't even named. How great then the joy of both women when, in their old age, God blesses them with children whose role in salvation history will forever help believers to appreciate the greatness of God who blesses us when we least expect it.

In these last days of Advent, the same is true of us.  Our roles in the ongoing story of God's love for the world, while sometimes muddy and confusing, are radically important to God.  God wants to speak through us, to announce good news, not only through the strengths and gifts we each have, but through our willingness to endure weakness and suffering for the sake of building God's reign.

In today's O antiphon, used at Mass and in the Divine Office, we hear God announce that from the root of Jesse, an apparently dead and useless twig, will spring a Savior before whom Kings will keep silence and through whom gentiles will know God.  We are God's people, the liturgy shouts, despite our sin and failure to live the Good News each day.  God will send us a gift in the form of a child to remind us that his Covenantal love will endure and blossom anew for all the world.

Though we may think of ourselves as barren and bereft of hope, God's vision for all the peoples of the earth will endure, grow and be fertile.  The gift of the Christ child is almost too much for us to bear in our darkness, and we can only thank God that its power is not dependent on us who so often see only our own weakness and the fragility of failure of others.  God will strip away our barrenness even when we are not ready because God is ready to change the world forever.

Today ask God to "fertilize" your heart, which so often seems barren, with the the hope only God can give.