Homily for the Second Sunday ofAdvent A, 4 December 2016
One of the popular symbols of this
season is the Christmas tree. There are some who already have one standing in a
prominent place at home. The year Louise and I became engaged one of the first
things we did was to buy a piece of property near Oak Openings, and one of the
first things we did on that property was to plant a row of Colorado Blue Spruce
along the right of way of the road. Tiny seedlings we planted. We tended them;
brought water from town to keep them safe from the hot dry weather of the
following summer. After we built our house and moved in with our family we
watched them grow a little taller each year careful not to mow them down until
they were large enough to escape that fate.
Fir trees seem to take a long time to
grow until at some point they seem to grow by leaps and bounds. We didn’t realize it, but the trees were now
at a more vulnerable stage, they were
at the height and shape where they made perfect Christmas trees. When I left
for work one dark frosty morning I didn’t notice the damage that had been done
in the night, but as I returned home later in the light of day I was shocked
and angry at what I saw. Two of the trees had been cut with only the bottom
tier of branches remaining.
We had planted these trees to grace
the land for years to come, and someone saw fit to cut them for a few days’
pleasure. We related this to a friend of ours who had a Christmas tree farm and
he told us to leave the remaining branches. He said the branches will begin to
grow upward. Amazingly they did, and in a few years you couldn’t tell what had
happened. In a few short years we had seen a cycle of planting, tending,
growth, destruction, hope and regrowth.
In scripture, the olive tree is often
used as a symbol of Israel. In the first reading we read of a stump of a tree
from which a shoot is growing. In particular this stump refers to the fallen
line of the kings of Israel and the shoot is the heir of David, the Messiah,
the Christ. Isaiah is encouraging the returning exiles to take hope in the
Messiah-king who will have all the favor of God and whose reign will be one of
justice and peace.
In the Gospel, John is crying out,
“Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy of
“one crying out in the desert.” People are flocking to John for his baptism of
repentance. They are anticipating the coming of the Messiah foretold by Isaiah.
“As herald of
Jesus and the reign of God, John the Baptizer explained by word and example
precisely how to prepare a welcome for Jesus. Those who came to hear him speak,
in the Judean desert near the Jordan, were told, “[Repent]!” (vs. 2). Reform or
repentance indicates that welcoming the reign of God requires a complete
conversion. In Hebrew, the word for conversion, shubh, implies that a
person has found himself/herself on a wrong path or going in a wrong direction
and has made a complete about-face or turnaround in order to return to God. In
Greek, the term for conversion is metanoia, which means an absolute
change of mind and will.” (Sanchez).
John’s
message was about justice, about social change. He challenged the people of
Israel to get down to the root causes of problems, to uproot unfruitful trees. The
changes that are called for in Advent are fundamental and far-reaching; they
are structural. In this new church year, we are challenged to work for a better
society, different from the one we now have.
The Christian
message relies on the conversion of people which will in turn bring about these
changes in society (Medellin Documents).
How do we repent? How do we prepare the way of the Lord? We do this when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the stranger and the unwanted child, care for the ill, and love our enemies.
How do we repent? How do we prepare the way of the Lord? We do this when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the stranger and the unwanted child, care for the ill, and love our enemies.
In the Lord’s Prayer we pray “thy
kingdom come.” Then the presider says the prayer which ends “as we wait in
joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.” We then receive the
Body and Blood of Christ. Jesus comes to us in the Blessed Sacrament, but it does
not the end here for we must go and announce the gospel of the Lord and glorify
him with our life.
Heavenly Father, fill our hearts with
your love so we can help make your kingdom come.
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