Matthew 3: 1-12
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120725.cfm
O people of Sion, behold, the Lord
will come to save the nations,
and the Lord will make the glory of his voice heard
in the joy of your heart.
(Entance Antiphon - 2nd Sunday of Advent)
Alfred Nobel (1833–1896) was a Swedish chemist, engineer, and inventor, most famous for the invention of dynamite. He amassed a vast fortune from his 355 patents, many of which were for explosives and armaments. In 1888, his brother Ludvig died, but a French newspaper mistakenly published Alfred's obituary under the headline, "The Merchant of Death is Dead." The obituary described him as a man who had become rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before.
Reading his own obituary was a harrowing experience
for Nobel. It forced him to confront how he would be remembered. The
realization that his legacy would be one of destruction and death was deeply
troubling. This moment of crisis became a turning point. He resolved to change
the narrative of his life. In his final will, he left most of his fortune to
establish the Nobel Prizes, including the Nobel Peace Prize, to honor those who
have "conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." This was a
deliberate and dramatic shift from his past focus, a true act of repentance and
a commitment to a better future for humanity. The obvious lesson is that it is
never too late to change – to turn around and begin a new direction.
On this second Sunday of Advent there is a mighty
figure who stands head and shoulders over others. His voice cries out in the desert: “Repent
. . . Prepare the way of the Lord!” John the Baptist appeared literally out
of nowhere. He preaches with fire and
fury in the line of the prophets of old. His preaching is not comfortable –
“Repent” is his first word. Yet, it had
been hundreds of years since the Jewish people had seen or heard a prophet of
God among them. So, John’s appearance
caught the attention of the crowd and the religious leaders of the time. He
preaches along the Jordan River, crying out to various groups of people such as
the Pharisees and Sadducees, gathered along the river shore. He confronts their
hypocrisy in no uncertain terms and demands they repent of their two-faced behaviour.
Even though his message has a negative tone at first, we know that deep down we
have fallen short and need to “repent” or turn our lives in a new direction.
John’s reputation, despite his unconventional and
strange appearance in camel’s hair and his yummy food choice of locusts and
honey (yuck!) was deeply charismatic. In
the tradition of the Old Testament prophets, his message cuts to the truth: “Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
His warning to the Jewish elite makes one squirm. He labels them a: brood of vipers
(children of snakes!) who presumed to be above reproach due to their birth
right as children of Abraham. What or who is this kingdom of which John
speaks? It is Christ himself. The Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah is
imminent so be ready and prepared!
Obviously, John was far from politically correct and used the images of a “coming wrath” and the tree that does not bear good fruit “will be cut down and thrown into the fire” not to frighten people as much as to wake them up! We may become settled and enamoured by our complacency and a false sense of security and self-righteousness, when God slaps us on the cheek for our own good.
John knew his time was limited and he had a mission
and a message to deliver. Did he know it was specifically Jesus he was
preaching of? From his reaction at
Jesus’ baptism, maybe not until he appeared before John who then was struck
with the truth.
God is at work, and we had better be ready or loose
the whole point of his coming. We too can be easily seduced by the world around
us and become complacent about our faith.
“What is the least I need to do to fulfil my obligations as a Catholic?”
That might not be the best position to find ourselves in.
Our first reading from Isaiah the prophet, written about
600 years before the coming of Christ, speaks to spiritual emptiness with a
word of hope. “On that day, a short shall sprout from the stump of Jesse and
from his roots a bud shall blossom.” What may seem small and nearly lifeless will,
through the intercession of God, bring about greatness. This savior will be verified by the nations,
peace will prevail, natural enemies will reconcile and even the Gentiles will
come to acknowledge this “signal” for the nations. It is, then, John the Baptist, who appeals to
our deepest hunger for wholeness and peace, to prepare the way for that person
who is imminent. It is John who we can put our faith in that what he proclaimed,
was indeed to take place.
So, in the wilderness John preached. His words and his message have gone forth
from that moment down through the ages, to our present day. The wilderness of
our day may not be a geographical location but more a pervasive attitude of
indifference towards God. One
commentator once said that the danger today is not so much hostility towards
religion as it is simply indifference and the fact that many live as if there
is no God, rarely if ever bringing the truth of his presence to mind or
heart. The casual attitude towards sin
and evil today should be enough to wake us up and consider the ultimate
consequences of a life detached from our Creator: an emptiness or an
incompleteness to life, a sense that everyone is on a different moral track,
nothing seems to be absolute but rather up for grabs, etc. As St. Augustine
famously realized: “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is
restless until it finds its rest in thee” (Book I: Confessions)
John’s words are filled with both hope and warning. Don’t miss the chance because his presence among us will be very brief. Pay attention! Jesus is the one who will bring baptism in “the Holy Spirit and in fire” and bring about mighty change in the history of humankind. Not by means of violence and fear but by the power of God’s mercy, love, forgiveness and reconciliation. In order that we too might be ready to receive him; we must identify what may be keeping us from making his path straight for we can be an integral part of personal conversion and repentance.
We encounter him in the Holy Eucharist, in the power
of his sacred Word, in the faith we share, in the mercy he extends to us
despite the sin we find in ourselves, in the face of those who come our way to
serve selflessly in his name. Pope Benedict XVI once said that our Catholic
tradition is not so much street corner evangelization or house to house
visiting but rather to create a community of attraction that those who visit
find the Church attractive enough to take a look, to come home, to bring about
a change of heart and life. We must begin with ourselves first and find the
desert in our own lives that needs to hear that voice.
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