Today's Message: 2nd Sunday of Advent A

Isaiah 11: 1-10; Romans 15: 4-9; Matthew 3: 1-12 

Advent continues.  Christmas carols are heard all over. Elaborate decorations pop up on homes in our neighborhoods and in stores.  At the same time, Christmas brings some anxiety perhaps we don’t have enough money for our upcoming bills…relationships in our families or loved ones may be strained.  The joy of the season, isn’t exactly joy for us.  And I’m wondering what am I doing this Advent?   To be succinct: how am I preparing my heart for the feast of the coming of the Lord?  Am I taking time to see this season differently, through God’s eyes?  When I look at the world through God’s eyes I see a world where everyone is loved…where everyone is special.  Do I give everyone this opportunity or do I give up on people?  Am I aware of God’s total unconditional gift of love?  Am I convinced that this means I am responsible for loving all people, those in my life and all in the world, myself included?  The Word Among Us shares an interesting insight this month:  “No matter how yo feel, one thing is sure’ you can grow closer to God this Advent.  Whether or not you are able to give gifts or celebrate with family, God has gifts of hope, renewal and joy to give you; He wants to help you celebrate with Him.”  We look to today’s readings for help in this.

Isaish in the previous chapter of today’s reading ended with these words:  “…the forest thickets are felled with the axe and Lebanon in its splendor falls.”  The invasion of King Sennacherib of Assyria has been pushed back, Isaiah uses the image of the high forest trees cut down with sharp axes.  Now Isaiah begins today’s chapter with the image of a new shoot sprouting from the stump of a fallen tree.  This isn’t an ordinary ‘shoot,' this comes from the family of Jesse who was the father of David.  David was to be the ideal king, but many kings in David’s line failed horribly in carrying out the Lord’s plan. The ‘true king’  must display all the characteristics of one filled with God’s gifts…the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  This is the first time these gifts are mentioned in scriptures.   The gifts Isaiah shares are:  “…a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord.”   These are translated to us as:  Wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord,  (respect expresses more accurate this gift).  I learned theses preparing for Confirmation.  Did I understand these…no not really; I memorized them so I could ‘pass the test.’ How open have I been in receiving these gifts and in nurturing them in my life? Isaiah meant these to describe how the ideal king serves the Lord by placing God’s agenda first.  Isaiah provides a vision of what God’s world is all about:  a hope for a glowing future for each person.  How am I helping to provide God’s vision of peace and love for people in my life?  Am I concerned with what I want to do?  Am I concerned with the people who come into my life each day?  Do I place people in categories and judge them accordingly?  Or do I see that each person in my life may be placed directly there by God at that moment so that interaction with me could help them see themselves as loved by God?  Do I ask God’s help in this?  Do I take time at the end of the day to review the day and see where I have seen God and followed a particular instruction He gave me to be aware of other’s need?  Or was my day about me and my agenda?

Paul is explaining how the study of Israel reveals God’s promise for creation. All God’s creation show God’s love.  God chose a nation to be exemplifiers of this love.  These promises were first fulfilled in ancient time and now more completely in Jesus.  God showed His love and His mercy in Jesus and gives each person and each nation the strength to work together toward a completion of God’s plan.  We can ask:  what are my dreams for the world today?  Do my dreams coincide with God’s total unconditional love?  Do I dare to hope in God’s promise?  Or do I have a negative attitude and am not convinced of God’s command of love and my role in carrying it out?

 In the Gospel, John the Baptist comes on the scene preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”   The word repent is from metanoia which more accurately denotes a change of mind and direction.  This is a wake-up call for me to check to see how I am living Jesus’ call to love.  John immediately looked at the crowd coming to listen to him and he zeroed on the Pharisees and Sadducees and sees in their lives self-service, not a caring attitude for the people.  This negatively leads the people away from realizing that they are loved by God.  Whereas this confirms the attitude in the religious leaders that they are always right, they do not sin, they have no concept of their unfaithfulness.  Jesus in His ministry consistently  referred to them as self-righteous, not even admitting that they are sinners.  John the Baptist continues by adamantly preaching that God is sending One who will see, not one’s birth station in life, but into ones heart.  

John appears as a Jewish preacher proclaiming this message of repentance.  His urging to repent means I have to change my mind construct.  This is easy to say but John is suggesting strongly a radical change in my life.  That’s why the people were coming; they wanted to know more and how they could do this?  How can I do this?  Salvation, John tells each one of us, comes from good living and not by belonging to the right group, even if that is the priestly caste.  It is interesting how anxious and excited the people of Israel were, “Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him.”  These people were coming from long distances, longing for the coming of the Messiah and the promises the Messiah would bring.  John was baptizing the people in “large numbers” they were so intent on his message.  Clifford Hennings OFM in his commentary states:  “If they are to welcome the kingdom, they must first turn away from sin.  They must have a change of heart, opting aside wickedness in order to prepare a way to the Lord.”  So where am I at?  Do I see Advent as a time to reform my life or a time of writing my Christmas cards and shopping, enjoying time with people?  I look at myself: I’ve been Baptized, Confirmed and received Priestly ordination but is their obstinacy in my life to God’s ways?  Advent really is a time of courage in God’s faith for the future.  I am a part of this future as is everyone.  I was not created to be a bystander but an active participant, that’s why I was created with the gifts God deemed necessary for my mission, His mission. 

 I reflect on these words from Living the Word:

• “We hope that our faith will bear fruit in those who arise from our roots.  What do each of those roots look like — past, present, future?
• As God sees into our hearts what is one thing that we should chop off or prune in order to bear stronger fruit?”
• How am I called to repentance in my world?  How willing am I to forgive?
• How can my life prepare the way for Jesus?

Sacred Space 2020 states:

    “The Chosen People lived in expectation.  They were waiting for the day when God’s envoy or agent would appear on earth and set the affairs of the world to rights—vindicating those ‘just ones’ who had remained faithful to the Lord and to His message conveyed by the prophets.  This final Messiah would represent the Lord in person.  It would be the Coming of the Lord, the Day of the Lord, the End Time.  The people were to purify themselves in readiness.  One kind of purification was the cleansing by water:  baptism.  During these days of Advent, I can live in expectation of the Christ child’s coming and meditate on my own baptism.

    John the Baptist warns that a deeper purification is to come, at the hands of the ‘one…coming after me’:  purification by fire.  We remember what had been said long before—that no human can look on the face of God and live: ‘you cannot see my face; for no one shall see Me and live’ (Exodus 33:20)  The brightness and holiness of God could burn up any impurity in sight.  People are to put their lives in order while there is still time and not simply rely on the promise to Abraham or on fidelity to any man-made set of laws.  In our own lives we can never know when, in the plan of God, huge changes may be in the offing.”