12/9 - 2nd Sunday of Advent

Dear Parish Family, 

This week and next, our Gospel readings invite us to consider John the Baptist and his relationship to Jesus. John the Baptist appears in the tradition of the great prophets, preaching repentance and reform to the people of Israel. To affirm this, Luke quotes at length from the prophet Isaiah. John baptizes for repentance and for forgiveness of sins, preparing the way for God's salvation.

Unlike Mathew and Mark, Luke elaborates on the infancy narrative to give us an insight into the connected lives of Jesus and John the Baptist. Beside the Gospel narrative, Luke also wrote a fascinating account of the Early Church in the book called the Acts of the Apostles. In these two works, Luke's sense of time and history emerges. He identifies three epochs of salvation history: the time before Christ, the time of Christ, and the time of the Church and the Holy Spirit. In today's Gospel reading, as elsewhere, John the Baptist is presented as the figure who bridges the time before Christ and prepares the way for Christ's own ministry.

In today's Gospel we also note Luke's attention to political and historical detail. Luke shows that salvation is for all people and situated in world events. Therefore, Luke lists the political and religious leaders at the time of John's appearance in the desert. Salvation is understood as God's breaking into this political and social history. God’s decisive action of sending His Son into the world is a historical fact.

John's preaching of the coming of the Lord is a key theme of the Advent season. As John's message prepared the way for Jesus, we too are called to prepare ourselves for Jesus' coming. We respond to John's message by repentance and reform of our lives. We are asked to make room for the grand entry of the Savior by a reordered life. ‘Repentance’ is the common translation for the Greek word metanoia, which means not just sorrow for past sins but a total and radical change of outlook in our relationship with God and other people. It calls for a radical and genuine renewal and conversion of heart. 

This metanoia or conversion in turn will bring about the forgiveness of sin. The word here for forgiveness is aphesis, a release, a letting go, a liberation from the chains of sin and evil. Forgiveness is seen as the dropping off of heavy baggage or burdens (like the space capsule dropping off its booster tanks and soaring off on its own into space). Forgiveness, too, involves a total reconciliation with our God and with all those whom we have hurt or with whom we have come in conflict. It is a healing, a making whole. 

Each year as the Advent season comes round and we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we need once more to hear the challenging call of John the Baptist to baptism, metanoia and forgiveness. Although our own Baptism was something which may have taken place a long time ago, as an infant or as an adult, what happened then has constantly to be renewed. We need to re-affirm our commitment to the Christian community, to the Body of Christ, through which we go to God and through which our God comes to us. We need to open ourselves to further conversion, to an ever deeper change of heart, to a deeper listening to what Jesus is asking of us, “Lord, what do you want me to do, to be?” And, finally, we need, because of our commitment to the Body of Christ, to find total reconciliation with God and with all those people who come into our lives. 

Fr. Tom Kunnel. C.O.