The holy season of Advent brings us wonderful readings from the prophet Isaiah who lived some 700 years before Christ was born.

A short biography that came with my icon of Isaiah says that he prophesied about the Virgin Mary, St. John the Baptist, and about the Incarnation and Passion of Jesus, which, it says, “all came about in their proper time.”

Pondering the idea of “proper time,” it appears that many of the readings are meant for all times, applying to us as well as his first listeners.

Isaiah’s messages can be straightforward calls to conversion, sometimes with strong warnings about how important it is to change now. “Observe what is right, do what is just; for my salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed.”

But most of the Advent readings find Isaiah giving lots of encouragement, with sentences such as: “They that hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles’ wings; They will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint.”

Quoting God, he says, “Turn to me and be safe, all you ends of the earth, for I am God; there is no other!”

Other proclamations may have us longing for a future time, and then we may not give thought to their usefulness today.

As we listen to Isaiah’s good news about a peaceable kingdom, it can be tempting to regard the prophesy as only having meaning in times that are not our own. For example, who wouldn’t want to live right now on the “holy mountain” described by Isaiah as a time and place where “the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb ... the cow and the bear shall be neighbors ...” and there will be “no harm or ruin ... for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord, as water covers the sea.”

That must be a description that applies only to after-the-end times, yes?

But then I think of my cat and the bunnies that would hop up and down right in front of him until he agreed to chase them, coming back to hop right under his nose whenever he’d come to a stop. And I recall the animal buddies that have been videoed, including a hippo who holds open his mouth filled with grain so his friend, an ostrich, can eat that grain. Cat and horse, deer and dog pals give us friendly little glimpses today of the peaceable kingdom to come.

Like the biblical parables that apply to people nowadays as well as to those of Jesus’ time, perhaps we can figure that while some of Isaiah’s messages are to be fulfilled in a great way in future, more cosmic, times, they can be meant also for us now in smaller, more personal ways.

One phrase caught my eye in the first reading from Isaiah read at Mass on Dec. 2: “Thus says the Lord God: But a very little while, and Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard ...” The prophesy continues to describe many other good happenings including the disappearance of a tyrant, assistance for the just and learning for “those who err in spirit.”

That “very little while” got me speculating about a more current, but still right, time for such things.
Even though an entire country is not likely to become filled with nourishment for the world anytime soon, our own hearts can become more generous and lifegiving. The “big fish” who make their tyrannical presence felt in small “ponds” can lose their positions and be booted out and away from those people of prayer whom they had oppressed. Now and forever, God assists His people in myriad ways that are often unseen by others — and He is the best of all teachers whenever we go astray.

So, let’s not dismiss Isaiah when he prophesies about wonders to come in the future. Hints of those glories to come can happen to us, today.

According to the little icon biography, Isaiah’s name in Hebrew means, “God is salvation.” God saves us — in all generations.

His timing in every age, even today, is indeed proper.