This is the first article in our "Spiritual Renewal in Advent" series. Look for the other articles on each Sunday of the Advent Season. 

Rend the Heavens and Come Down, Lord!

Dear Friend, 

If you’re paying attention to all that is happening in our world today, you may often feel like the Prophet Isaiah who asked God to tear the heavens apart and come rescue us. The poetic language is as beautiful as it is passionate: 

“Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you” (First Reading, Isaiah 63: 19).

It is the cry of a desperate man.

In ancient times, men tore their garments when they were grieving over something, and here, Isaiah is grieving over the wretched state of humanity, steeped in sin from the start. He’s not asking “pretty please” of God—He’s begging:

Come, Lord! Only you can help us!

But Isaiah’s cry isn’t just a lament about how terrible the world has become. That’s true in itself, but there’s more to it from the standpoint of faith. Isaiah’s cry also expresses a fundamental truth: we cannot save ourselves. We need a savior!

So it’s not just: Come, because only you can fix these problems. Rather, it’s Come, Lord, because only you can save our souls!

That is the attitude of Advent and the reason why we read Isaiah on the very first Sunday. Advent is a time of reckoning and petitioning. Everything in this season is geared to reminding us of the humble truth that we cannot possibly be free of the world, the flesh, and the devil without the grace of God. 

But Isaiah’s cry of the heart is full of hope. In fact, it is eventually fulfilled in Advent, or more precisely, at the end of Advent. God does actually “rend the heavens” and descend from His lofty throne to enter the human theater and rescue us. He answers that prophetic cry of the heart. 

Then He goes even further. He takes on human nature itself to save us. This is something never before conceived by the mind of man or angel. All religions believe in “gods” of one sort or another, but Christianity is the only religion that teaches that the infinite God actually became man (Emmanuel). 

Our God came down to be with us and to save us. And He continues to come down to all those who cry from their hearts to Him:

Come, Lord Jesus! Rend the heavens and come. Truly, only you can save us!

So, as we start the season of Advent, let’s make a pact with ourselves and our Church. Let’s humbly and deeply admit that if it weren’t for His grace, we would be slaves to sin and would end up in the kingdom of darkness for all eternity because the devil is much stronger than we are. Let’s just frankly admit that we cannot save ourselves.

Then, with Isaiah, we pray. 

Let us first of all pray for our families. The culture is dead-set against us. It is a time of warfare on marriage and family like never before in the history of man. But God is the author of these institutions, and He will not be deaf to our prayers. 

Then let us pray for our country. It is literally coming apart at the seams, and this is the deliberate work of the awful people who are in leadership over us. Time will tell how all this political-cultural wreckage plays out, but we need to pray. We have no option, as St. Paul says, but to “pray for kings and all those in authority” (1 Tim 2:2). 

Finally, and above all, let us pray for our Church. If society is breaking down, it is because the Church is weak in its spiritual mission. There are many reasons for that which we have spoken about in our messages, but we must not forget that the Church is a divine institution, guided by the Holy Spirit through history. God will hear our prayers for the restoration of the Church.

Above all, we pray that Christ will come and rescue His Bride so that, through His Church, the souls of every human being will be saved.

Only you can save us, Lord! Come Lord Jesus!

Yours gratefully in Christ,

Thomas J. McKenna

Founder and President

Catholic Action for Faith and Family

https://www.catholicaction.org/

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