Voice To The Word!

(Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Advent Yr. A)

          Today is the second Sunday of Advent, the message of the readings seems to draw our attention to what should be the nature and style of our waiting and expectation. Advent is not a sterile and disengaged expectation, rather it is an active one, for we are called to prepare. In Advent we relive two kinds of waiting: waiting with Mary for the birth of Jesus, and waiting for Christ to come again in glory (his second coming). We wait for the birth of Jesus, the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger and the coming of Christ in glory, no longer wrapped in swaddling clothes, but clothed in light. But as we wait, the word of God today calls our attention to the need to prepare, to prepare not with our homes and shops adorned with bright and colourful lights, not by decorating our Christmas trees or by fretting with our shopping lists, but to change our hearts and to mend our habits. The liturgy of the Word today makes it possible for us to listen to two great Advent preachers: Isaiah and John the Baptist. Isaiah preached the coming of the Lord from afar. His preaching nourished the expectation of many generations: “Behold, a virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son”. John the Baptist was the one who announced the imminent coming of the Lord: “He who is coming…”. Indeed, we can figure out a link between these two precursors, in the prophecy of Isaiah which Mathew put in the mouth of John the Baptist: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”. And in the second reading, St. Paul cites Jesus Christ as an example, who gave himself both to the Jews and to pagans in order to create unity.

          The first reading from the prophecy of Isaiah (11:1-10) presents the coming of the Messiah in the image of a shoot that will spring out from the stump of Jesse, from the dynasty of David. And he further buttressed that on Him will rest a great divine richness: the Spirit of the Lord. He will possess the Spirit in six ways: of Wisdom, of understanding, of counsel, of might, of knowledge and of fear of the Lord (cf. Is. 11:2). He is to be endowed with the Spirit of Yahweh and with charismatic gifts. His kingdom is announced as a Kingdom of justice, for he will judge the poor with justice and will take equal decision for the oppressed. Who more than Christ took preferential option for the poor! His judgement is not based on appearance or on hearsay, but on righteousness. His, is a kingdom of peace. For therein, humanity experiences a cosmic and existential peace: the wolf shall be the guest of lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid etc. This pacific co-existence of ferocious animals and the weak ones without any victim, is a symbol of the reconciliation amongst men and the created order, inaugurated by Christ in the world. That is the prophecy of the new world led by a little Child, a world transformed by and through the Messiah. And as He transforms the world, He offers us transformation individually. Behold Christ came to inaugurate a new order and a new rapport between God and man, and amongst men, a rapport of brotherly help and reciprocal understanding.  Jesus is making something new, and as He does it, He wants us to leave the past (Cf. Is. 43:19; 2Cor. 5:17; Rev. 21:5, 7). In all, in the spirituality of Advent, this is a period of celebrating the realization of the divine promises, a time to prepare in order to celebrate the Messiah through whom and with whom all this was realized. Can you see the new things He has done?

          Similarly, the Gospel (Mt. 3:1-12) features John the Baptist a prominent figure in the Advent season. It evidences justice and harmony amongst men, which is as a result of conversion. And the word conversion was repeated three times in this gospel passage. Conversion here entails a profound and interior-spiritual change that overhauls and changes one’s way of living and thinking. John the Baptist was shouting: “repent for the kingdom of God is near”. The central figure of the gospel is John the Baptist. At his birth Zechariah the father of John the Baptist announced his mission in the Benedictus thus: “And you, little child, you shall be called Prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare a way for him, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the faithful love of our God in which the rising Sun has come from on high to visit us” (Lk. 1:76-78). And to those who were asking him: who are you? John was responding: “I am the voice of one crying in the desert” The whole life of John the Baptist was that of being the voice that announces to his contemporaries this wonderful message of salvation through the forgiveness of sins: “Look, there is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29). He presented Jesus in such a manner that the people will begin to desire and ache for his presence, “the one who comes after me is more powerful than I, and I am not fit to carry his sandals; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (v.11), in his words: “he has to increase and I have to decrease”. Indeed, it is true the voice remains silence after it must have echoed the Word. The friend of the Bridegroom retires at the appearance of the Bridegroom.

          John the Baptist realized the prophecy of Isaiah: “A voice of one that cries in the desert, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his path”. In reality Isaiah announces with these words the future liberation of the people of Israel from slavery in Babylon and the return from exile. Israel has undergone untold sufferings and injustice, but now the time has come when God was about to turn their situation around for good. It is in this context that John’s preaching came and stirred up hope and enthusiasm, and as such people wanted baptism to be administered to them in view of the New Kingdom. The preaching of John the Baptist and his invitation to conversion received two responses:

• The ordinary people who confessed their sins, repented and asked for baptism.

• And the Pharisees and Sadducees who were just coming for baptism.

What type of response is the Word of God going to receive from us this day? Are we ready to bear good fruits that befit repentance? Moreover, John the Baptist talks about two types of Baptism, his and that of Christ: ►The baptism of John is baptism of repentance (he baptizes only with water). ►While the baptism of Christ is a baptism of and for new life (He baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire).

Interestingly, Mathew and the early Christian community see in John the Baptist the one who realized those words of Isaiah. John is the voice that invites all to prepare for the coming of Christ, in order to welcome his gift of liberation and redemption. He is the Precursor of the Messiah. Mathew presented him as a man that lives in the desert, in solitude, he practiced an austere life. Therefore, he in primis, prepared himself for the coming of the Savior, in the following ways:  ● In silence, in prayer and in the meditation of God’s word.  ●In the exercise of mortification and a more rigorous penitence. By so doing, he prepared himself as the precursor. Indeed, every Advent requires a precursor, a herald that prepares the hearts of people, that redirects the attention of the people, such that the One expected, is desired and accepted, and his coming will not pass-by unobserved. Jesus still need precursors, those who announce his coming and presence in the world, those who make His presence felt between his historical coming and future coming. And in the Gospel passage, John the Baptist helps us to understand how we can be precursors of the Savior, he says: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand”. But modern day precursors have to announce not just that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, instead that “the Kingdom of heaven is already in our midst”.

          In the same vein, even today, we need precursors, those who will continue to call the attention of all to the preparation for the continuous coming of Christ in our hearts and in our lives, through their words and actions. For us priests and religious we have more motives to become voices like John the Baptist, because our vocation, our consecration and our ordination call us to dedicate our lives completely for the service of the Lord. We are to become “Otimkpu Jesus”. And by extension, we are all called as Christians to be at the fore front in the preparation for the Savior’s coming. No doubt, to be precursors entails becoming agents of preparation for His coming, therefore ready and willing to remove all obstacles that can impede His coming into our lives and societies: iniquities, ignorance, prejudice and indifference.

          Furthermore, as John cries in the wilderness, the basic question we should be propelled to ask is this: “what shall we do?” (This emanates from the spirituality of Advent). And this question is exemplified in the Acts of the Apostles (2:37; Lk. 3:12, 14). This question presupposes a quest for transformation and conversion. We have to emulate John the Baptist who prepared for the coming of the Messiah in both words and deed. That is what we have to do. We need to join our voices together to that of John the Baptist shouting: “repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. In fact as Jesus would say: “His kingdom is already in your midst” (Lk. 17:20-21). Here, “entos” is the Greek word for “in your midst”, and it can be translated within you. And the phrase “within you” is a better translation, with respect to the context. Joining our voices together with that of John the Baptist, we have to tell our generation that there is Someone in our midst, that we do not know (cf. Jn. 1:26), One that is in search of us. But in order to take cognizance of His presence we need to repent, to change our mentality.

          In the second reading (Rm. 15:4-9) St. Paul prays that by the encouragement of the Scriptures we may be strengthened in hope. For during the Advent there is an emphasis on the Old Testament as the book of promise and hope. Furthermore,  he was worried about the tension that existed between Christians (the weak and the strong), and as such, he recommended charity to all. For this, he admonished Christians “to think in harmony with one another”, “to welcome one another, as Christ welcomed you”. Elsewhere, he invites us to have for each other the same sentiments that where in Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:5), sentiments of love, mercy and pardon. He enjoins us to welcome each other irrespective of our limitations and defects. St. Paul talks here in a more concrete terms “welcome each other”. Indeed, the spirituality of Advent calls each one of us to make a space, to have a place for each other in our hearts.

          In all, the coming of Christ should be for us a life changing and transforming event. Basically the Good News of Christ is a Good News of reconciliation of men and God and amongst men themselves, made possible by the sacrifice of Christ. This season therefore, we are obliged to take this Good News to all, bearing in mind that words alone cannot suffice. As a matter of fact, one of the fascinating duties of the disciples of Christ ought to be: giving to the world the knowledge or better the certainty of salvation. As disciples of Christ called therefore to be precursors, should we go around shouting repent? We can respond in the affirmative thus, that all are called to preach the words of salvation, but not all with words. And again, before going about preaching and shouting repent, the Christian in question must ensure that he has been converted, because before John came out to preach, he lived in silence in the desert, “He lived in the desert until the day he appeared openly to Israel” (Lk. 1:80). Therefore, before assuming the role and the state of a preacher and precursor, we need to ensure that we have passed through the stage of conversion. At the heart of advent is an invitation to be better Christians. At the same time, John the Baptist gives us a warning thus: “Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire”. Therefore, like John the Baptist, we need to leave our deserts in order to announce Christ!

          We may ask ourselves: as Christians where are the fruits of justice and love, of reciprocal respect and mutual understanding? In the Gospel, John the Baptist tells the Pharisees openly and also to us, that it is not a mere physical descendant from Abraham that will save, but a spiritual reborn or rebirth, followed by good works. Therefore, to us it is not enough that we have been baptized as members of the Church, we need to produce good fruits of harmony, peace, love and justice. At the heart of the Spirituality of Advent, therefore, is a clarion call for a serious existential revision (what I may call Revision of life) and for spiritual re-start.  May the Lord bless our efforts! Happy Sunday brethren and friends! 

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)