Second Sunday of Advent
December 6, 2015
Listen to this homily (.mp3
file)
Advent always seems short to me. I’m sure it doesn’t seem short to kids
excited for Christmas, but it does to me. Too short, really, for accomplishing
the important work of Advent. And what is the work of Advent? A look at
today’s scriptures, with special attention to John the Baptist, is a good place
to find out. John the Baptist is the great Advent preacher, the great Advent
prophet. To underline the Baptist’s importance, St. Luke introduces him
with what one commentator calls “a chronological drum roll.” He presents him
right alongside the great powers of the day, civil and religious, including the
Roman Emperor, Tiberius Caesar; the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate; Herod the
Tetrarch; and the high priests of the Jewish faith, Annas and Caiphas. It
strikes me that John the Baptist, humble man that he was, would have been quite
surprised to find himself in that company, but there he is!
Once he makes his appearance, we see
John traveling throughout the whole region of the Jordan valley preaching to the
people: preaching repentance, challenging people to be converted, to change
their lives. Something new is afoot, John tells them: God is about to move
among them in new and powerful ways, and to drive his point home, he quotes the
prophet Isaiah, giving contemporary urgency to ancient prophecy: “Prepare the
way of the Lord,” he says, “Make straight his paths!”
In those few words, John gives us the
work of Advent – presents us with the perfect Advent ‘program’: we are to
prepare the way of the Lord. And how are we to do that? By
repenting, he tells us -- being converted, changing, turning our lives around.
Now I ask you: who of us couldn’t profit by that? Isn’t conversion something we
all need?
Conversion can cover a lot of
different bases. For some of us, conversion might simply mean reordering our
priorities by putting Sunday Eucharist, Sunday Mass, at the center of our week.
That’s not so easily done, I know, given all the things that compete for our
attention on the weekends. And it’s not so easily done if the habit has
been lost or the commitment compromised over time, but it’s doable with God’s
grace, a willing heart, and some resolve. What it would be like, I sometimes ask
myself, if we had a “Twelfth Man” passion for Sunday Mass! So there’s one
possible conversion, for starters.
And there are others we might
consider, too. For instance, we need conversion if our work has become a
greater focus than our family; or if our relationships are more about ourselves
than about the other; or if our personal comfort blinds us to the needs of the
poor; or if we are so caught up with our own issues that we ignore the great and
pressing issues facing the human family: issues like climate change, racial and
economic injustice, the plight of refugees, the epidemic of gun violence, the
casual disregard for the value of human life. You get the idea. Conversion can
have many faces and can take many paths.
And true conversion cuts across the
entire landscape of our lives. In the imagery of today’s scriptures, it involves
the hard work of leveling mountains and filling in valleys, making winding roads
straight and rough ways smooth. Hard work, for sure, but worthwhile work
because, in the end, conversion leads to freedom and liberation. And it leads to
joy - the kind of joy that the Prophet Baruch described so poetically in today’s
first reading: standing upon the heights, changing the robes of mourning and
misery for the glorious cloak of justice. So no matter how hard the work of
conversion, it’s worth it because of the transformation it brings, the
liberation, the joy!
And, my friends, this conversion is a
very personal thing but it comes to life in the community we call the Church.
Our journey of faith, our path to conversion, is not a solitary walk. We are in
this together, and whenever we gather in community to celebrate the sacraments
as we have today, that’s when conversion gets its jumpstart. St. Paul has a
wonderful expression for describing this that we heard in the reading from
Philippians. He calls it “partnership for the gospel.” I like that. The
gospel, the good news, is preached and lived in a partnership that involves us
all: the whole Church - not just the religious professionals like me but all the
baptized - all of us working together and walking together in this imperfect but
holy partnership that is the Church!
Dear friends, are you ready to re-up
your partnership for the gospel? Are you ready to commit to conversion?
Advent is the perfect time for this and this Advent is especially so because it
marks the beginning of the Jubilee Year of Mercy. In setting aside this special
year, Pope Francis has spoken repeatedly about what he calls “a revolution of
tenderness.” Isn’t that a great expression? A revolution of tenderness. It’s the
kind of revolution that could change not only us, but the world!
And it all starts here. It starts
here. For the Eucharist is revolutionary: in the Eucharist are the seeds for
overcoming hatred, violence, racism, injustice, and the selfish exploitation of
God’s creation. That’s because the Eucharist can change minds and hearts in a
way nothing else can. It all starts here. In the Eucharist. ‘Say but the word
and we will be healed. Say but the word and our world will be healed!’
Father Michael G. Ryan
