Today is Dec. 3, the Memorial of St. Francis Xavier, priest.
At today’s Mass, we read, “On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom” (Is 11:1).
Isaiah’s image of the shoot sprouting from the stump of Jesse speaks to God’s power to bring life from what seems barren. The royal line of David had been reduced to a “stump,” cut down by exile, sin and human frailty. Yet, from this humbled lineage, a bud blossoms — Jesus Christ, the savior. In Bethlehem, the promise of new life begins, rooted in God’s fidelity to His covenant.
Bethlehem’s Carmelite monastery
One of the special landmarks of Bethlehem is the Carmelite monastery dedicated to the Holy Child. It was founded by the Carmelite mystic Blessed Mariam Baouardy, who built the monastery where she did because it had been revealed to her in a vision that the site overlooked the house of Jesse, King David’s father. Modern archeology suggests that Blessed Mariam may indeed have located the most ancient part of the city of Bethlehem. (She also helped identify the Biblical city of Emmaus, thanks to another vision.)
Isaiah’s prophecy reminds us that God’s perspective often differs from ours. Remember that Jesse initially presented every son but David to Samuel to be anointed. Samuel was taught by the Lord, “Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him. God does not see as a mortal, who sees the appearance. The Lord looks into the heart” (1 Sam 16:7). David was the last, the one overlooked, the forgotten one. But he was the Lord’s chosen.
As David tended his flock in the fields outside Bethlehem before being anointed king, we too are invited to nurture the faith planted in our hearts, a stump that will always yield new growth, new life. This Advent, let us pray for the grace to see the “shoot from the stump of Jesse” in our own lives — the ways God is working, even in the hidden and humble places of our hearts. Bethlehem reminds us that the promises of God are steadfast and His power to renew is unmatched. May the “bud that blossoms” fill us with the joy of His coming and the hope of His eternal reign.
Let us pray,
Look with favor, Lord God, on our petitions, and in our trials grant us your compassionate help, that, consoled by the presence of your Son, whose coming we now await, we may be tainted no longer by the corruption of former ways. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.
