Second Sunday of Advent

“A Shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse,

and from his roots a Bud shall blossom.”  -- Isaiah 11:1

“The Eucharist is source

and pledge of blessedness and glory,

not for the soul alone,

but for the body also. 

In the frail and perishable body

that divine Host,

which is the immortal body of Christ,

implants a principle of resurrection,

a seed of immortality,

which one day must germinate.”

Pope Leo XIII

The Church prepares us for Christ's Christmas coming by using the Biblical image of a felled tree and the remaining stump. However, this is not the image of a Christmas tree; the toppled tree symbolizes destruction and the stump symbolizes total destruction. John the Baptizer threatened: "Every tree that is not fruitful will be cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matthew 3:10). Isaiah prophesied: "Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, lops off the boughs with terrible violence; the tall of stature are felled, and the lofty ones brought low; the forest thickets are felled with the axe" (Isaiah 10:33-34). Then Isaiah immediately added that a Shoot, a Bud, would blossom from the stump.

No matter if whole branches of our lives have been sawed off through divorce, abuse, rejection, failure, or injustice — no matter if we have been chain-sawed and there is nothing left of our lives but a stump and sawdust — there's still hope. The Hope is a Shoot, a Bud, upon Whom the Spirit of the Lord rests (Isaiah 11:2). The budding Hope is the One more powerful than John the Baptizer and the One Who baptizes "in the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matthew 3:11).

If the words of Ash Wednesday have come true and you have returned to dust, even sawdust, don't despair. For every stump, there's the Bud, Jesus. 
(Reflection :  John Hughes)