The ancient people of Israel were emboldened by prophecies of a better world to come. These prophecies come largely from the time of captivity, when they lived as exiles in Assyria and Babylon, between the 8th and 6th centuries BC.
The promises were expressed in ideas they could understand: the blind would be able to see and the lame would be able to walk. Poetically speaking, this was fulfilled when they were able to see once again their homeland, and walk freely in their own fields and neighbourhoods, able to grow their own crops and live in prosperity.
When Jesus came, he quoted the prophecies and then fulfilled them literally: he gave sight to the blind, healed the lame and even raised the dead to life again, before rising from the dead himself.
For the people of the exile and the people of Jesus’ day, these prophecies were fulfilled. They are also fulfilled in our own lives. How many of us visit the optician and receive better sight? How many of us wear hearing aids or have had the opportunity of a joint replacement, enabling us to hear and to walk efficiently?
Only one thing remains from those ancient times – the promise of a people living in peace. It is put poetically in the Old Testament where we are told that the lion and lamb will live in peace and the small child will have no fear of the cobra (or any snake or poisonous animal). That promise is yet to be fulfilled all over the world. But if the other promises have been fulfilled then why not the promise of peace? People will wish each other peace and goodwill this Christmas, but peace is not just for Christmas, or for Shildon or for the UK; it is a gift that needs to be shared all over the world. Other prophecies have come true; one day this prophecy will be fulfilled, if the world really wants it.
Fr Anthony Cornforth
Ferryhill & Chilton's local community newspaper.
Shildon & District's local community newspaper.
