The Liturgy of the Word for the Sundays of Advent in Year A are an invitation to participate in the hope of the prophet Isaiah, writes John Deehan.

In Advent, we live between memory and hope. ‘Advent’s intention’, wrote Pope Benedict, ‘is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it brings hope.’1 That hope is enshrined in the language of Christ’s Second Coming to fulfil his mission. The theme of the Second Coming is ever present throughout this liturgical season, even if for most of our congregations their thoughts will be on preparing for Christmas family celebrations.

When the risen Christ walked with the two disciples, by then his former disciples, on the road to Emmaus, he first listened to their story, one of grief and disappointment (Lk 24.25–27). Only then did he bring them back to their Scriptures, specifically the prophets, reminding them of how everything in the Scriptures led to the mysterious event in which they had played a part. In the light of their new understanding, their bitter memories of Jesus’ crucifixion were healed as they discovered the presence of the risen Lord.

During the Sundays of Advent, the Liturgy of the Word invites us to remember the hope of the prophet Isaiah. Like the two disciples going to Emmaus, we may bring our own stories and recent memories, memories of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and its consequences for our living costs, but also memories of the Church which may have been stimulated by the recent Synodal Pathway. When the early Christians sought a deeper understanding of the Mystery of Christ, it was to Isaiah that they turned. Isaiah became the most quoted book in the New Testament, apart from the Psalms.