by Mary Buckalew

Continued from the May Issue.

PART TWO

Isaias also prophesied the kingship of the Messias ruling over His Church: His empire shall be multiplied, and there shall be no end of peace: he shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom; to establish it and strengthen it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth and for ever: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Is. 9:7ff.) In an utterance quoted by St. Paul in a sermon recorded by St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, Isaias, as had King David, foretold that the Kingdom of the New Covenant, the Church, would welcome the Gentiles: And he said: "It is a small thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to convert the dregs of Israel. Behold, I have given thee to be the light of the Gentiles, that thou mayst be my salvation even to the farthest part of the earth." (Is. 49:6.) Elsewhere the holy prophet observed regarding the conversion of the Gentiles that "they to whom it was not told of him, have seen: and they that heard not, have beheld." (Is. 52:15.) He also prophesied the universal authority with which the Messias would clothe His Church: "...every tongue that resisteth thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn" (Is 54:17).

In a prophecy which St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans applied to the apostles, Isaias also foretold the travels of the Messias's emissaries: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, and that preachest peace: of him that showeth forth good, that preacheth salvation, that saith to Sion: Thy God shall reign! (Is 52:7.) Again Isaias prophesied concerning the extensive journeys of Christ's missionaries: ". . . and I will send of them that shall be saved, to the Gentiles into the sea, into Africa, and Lydia . . . into Italy and Greece, to the islands afar off, to them that have not heard of me, and have not seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory to the Gentiles." (Is 66:19ff.)

In a prophecy which Our Lord Himself quoted, Isaias foretold the graces which would emanate from the Sacraments of His Church: You shall draw waters with joy out of the saviour's fountains. (Is. 12:3; John 7:38.) He seems also to have prophetically described Holy Communion as sweetest nourishment for His faithful alone: ALL YOU THAT THIRST, come to the waters: and you that have no money make haste, buy and eat: come ye, buy wine and milk without money, and without any price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which doth not satisfy you? Hearken diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and your soul shall be delighted in fatness. (Is. 55:1ff.)

THE LORD HATH SWORN by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength: Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thy enemies: and the sons of the strangers shall not drink thy wine, for which thou has laboured. For they that gather it, shall eat it, and shall praise the Lord: and they that bring it together, shall drink it in my holy courts. (Is. 62:8ff.)

As had Isaias, his contemporary, the holy prophet Micheas foretold the visibility and universality of the Church: And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared in the top of mountains, and high above the hills: and people shall flow into it. And many nations shall come in haste, and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob: and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth out of Sion, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem. (Mi. 4:1ff.)

THE PROPHET EZECHIEL during the 6th century B. C. foretold the Sacrament of Baptism: "I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness, and I will cleanse you from all your idols." (Ez. 36:25.) Perhaps he also prophecied the Church's perpetual consolation, the Blessed Sacrament present in her tabernacles, when he declared that the name of the holy city was to be "The Lord is there." (Ez. 48:35.)

Prompted by God, the prophet Joel, whose century is unknown, foretold that the Kingdom of Christ would be a source of divine grace: It shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk: and waters shall flow through all the rivers of Juda: and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns. (Jo 3:18.)

The prophet Malachias during the 5th century B. C. was by divine dispensation granted the singular privilege of prophesying the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Church's ineffable and most precious treasure: For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts. (Mal 1:11.)

Consumed with holy yearning to probe the secrets of God, the prophet Daniel in the 6th century B. C. was vouchsafed a mystic vision in which he was shown that this heavenly Kingdom, the Holy Roman Catholic Church, would in the power of Christ extend to the ends of the earth and endure until the end of time:

I BEHELD therefore in the vision of the night, and lo, one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and he came even to the Ancient of Days: and they presented him before him. And he gave him power, and glory and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes and tongues shall serve him: his power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away: and his kingdom shall not be destroyed. (Dan. 7:13ff.)

During that same century the holy Osee, in a prophecy quoted by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, foretold the admission of the Gentiles into Christ's Church: "And I will say to that which was not my people: Thou art my people: and they shall say: Thou art my God." (Osee 2:24.)

Taught by the Spirit of God, Jeremias in the 6th century B. C. foretold that the Kingdom of the Messias would be the result of a New Covenant and not a continuation of the Old:

BEHOLD THE DAYS shall come, saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda: Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt: the covenant which they made void, and I had dominion over them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord: I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jer. 31:31.)

The holy prophet also foretold that objects and practices considered sacred under the Old Covenant would be forgotten under the New: "And when you shall be multiplied, and increase in the land in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more: The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come upon the heart, neither shall they remember it, neither shall it be visited, neither shall that be done any more." (Jer. 3:16.)

AS HAD OTHERS before him, Jeremias prophecied the admission into the Church:

LORD, my might, and my strength, and my refuge in the day of tribulation: to thee the Gentiles have come from the ends of the earth, and shall say: Surely our fathers have possessed lies, a vanity which hath not profited them. Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? Therefore behold I will this once cause them to know, and I will show them my hand and my powers:and they shall know that my name is the Lord. (Jer. 16:19ff.)

He stressed the catholicity of the Savior's Kingdom: "At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord: and all the nations shall be gathered together to it, in the name of the Lord to Jerusalem, and they shall not walk after the perversity of their most wicked heart." (Jer. 3:17.)

THE  HOLY  JEREMIAS prophecied the reign of Christ, and under the figure of sacrifices of the Old Law, the priesthood: For thus saith the Lord: There shall not be cut off from David a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel. Neither shall there be cut off from the priests and Levites a man before my face to offer holocausts, and to burn sacrifices, and to kill victims continually. (Jer. 33:17ff.)

Again he prophecied concerning the priests of Christ's holy Kingdom: "I will give you pastors according to my own heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine." (Jer 3:15.) He also prophecied the Sacred Humanity of Christ the King: "...their leader shall be of themselves: and their prince shall come forth from the midst of them: and I will bring him near, and he shall come to me: for who is this that setteth his heart to approach me, saith the Lord?" (Jer. 30:21.)

Dr. Buckalew is Assistant Professor of English at North Texas State University in Denton, Texas. Her next series will be Scriptural Prophecies for Advent.