NO CHRISTMAS WITHOUT RECONCILIATION AND PEACE
Honestly, we cannot prepare and celebrate Christmas without reconciliation and peace with God, others and ourselves. The beauty, meaning and celebration of the Advent season and Christmastide revolves around the symbolic representation and expression of the Advent Wreath.
First Sunday will see the message of hope through the readings. This Sunday, we have the theme of peace through repentance and reconciliation with God, others and oneself in loving preparation for Christ’s birth at Christmas.
The Sunday of Advent has the theme of peace through conversion, repentance, and renewal. We are encouraged to seek peace and reconciliation with God and our brothers and sisters at Christmas and beyond.
CHRISTIAN PEACE THROUGH RECONCILIATION
There is great change happening in the world, in every sphere of life: politics, economics, social and cultural, climatic and religious too. These changes come with tensions, uncertainties and sometimes a sense of insecurity. We are bound to adjust ourselves, our perspectives and our dreams while we hope and long for better days ahead.
The season of Advent is a season of Grace and in the spirit of the season, we are encouraged to take advantage of the season and its grace. It is a grace to invite us to reconciliation with God, with our brothers and with ourselves.
Reconciliation is the focus of the celebration of the second Sunday of Advent. It leads us to last peace with God, others and ourselves. However, reconciliation is both consolation and a challenge which is why we must be prepared!
OUR THEME
The readings of this second Sunday invite us to anticipate such Hope and Peace. A lovely dream and vision for all: humanity and creation.
Historically, the political and religious backgrounds of the biblical readings give us a better clue to the message of our celebration. The central message is peace in our hearts and lives.
This peace is attainable through repentance, reconciliation and renewal of our Christian life.
SCRIPTURAL READINGS: FIRST READING: ISAIAH 11:1-10
Isaiah´s vision explores God´s fidelity in time, through His Holy Spirit acting in us to bring about harmony, peace and reconciliation with nature and creation.
The first reading from prophet Isaiah 11:1-10 describes how God will reform the lives of His Chosen People by sending the Messiah who will establish peace and a glorious Kingdom of justice on earth.
SECOND READING: ROMANS 15:4-9,
In the second reading Rom 15:4-9, Paul is praying for the reformation of the Jewish Christians of Rome and instructing them to draw endurance and encouragement from the Old Testament books. At the same time, he also encourages them to live in harmony and peace with the Gentile Christians as they await the second coming of Jesus Christ.
St. Paul on the theme of Peace and harmony invites us to steadfastness and encouragement of one another and with God in Christ Jesus.
THE GOSPEL: MATTHEW 3:1-12
John the Baptist, in Matthew 3:1-12, invites us to the conversion of heart and to live justly on the side of truth as we await the birth of the Saviour. This is the only way to attain inner peace and global harmony.
John the Baptist urges the Jewish people to reform their lives to meet and accept the promised Messiah. He challenges them to repentance, conversion, and renewal.
JOHN THE BAPTIST
The second Sunday of advent urges us to reflect on the character and personality of John the Baptist. He is not just the forerunner of Jesus Christ. He is a model of a prophet who confronts issues with the truth without fear or favour of anyone.
1. He fearlessly denounced evil wherever he might find it.
2. He urgently summoned men to righteousness. John’s message was not a mere negative denunciation; it was a positive erecting of the moral standards of God. John came from God.
3. He came out of the desert. He came to men only after he had undergone years of lonely preparation by God.
4. John pointed beyond himself. The man was not only a light to illumine evil, a voice to rebuke sin, but he was also a signpost to God.
THE BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE
John the Baptist proclaims a baptism of repentance amid the political tumour and religious burdensome of his time. He invites us to seek the forgiveness of sin. It is the only way to personal renewal for the Advent of Christ coming.
It is through reconciliation that we can have everlasting peace and restoration. Therefore, the central message is to prepare a pathway of grace and righteousness.
THE LESSONS OF LIFE BIBLICAL TEXTS OF TODAY
1. We need to prepare for Christ’s coming by allowing him to be reborn daily in our lives.
2. Advent is the time for us to make this preparation by repenting of our sins and renewing our lives through prayer, penance, and sharing our blessings with others.
3. Let us accept the challenge of the German mystic Angelus Silesius “Christ could be born a thousand times in Bethlehem – but all in vain until He is born in me.” He means that Jesus must be reborn in our hearts, during this season of Advent and every day of our lives, bringing us love, kindness, mercy, forgiveness and the spirit of humble service.
4. We need to accept John’s call for a change of life. John the Baptist, the stern and uncompromising preacher, challenges our superficial attempts at change, demanding that we take a deeper look.
5. Obeying the commandments is a good start, but we must also examine our relationships with others. We must mend ruptures and soothe frictions, face family responsibilities, work honestly, and treat our employers and employees justly.
6. Start where you are, John says. Our domestic and social lives must be put in order. John’s voice is sober and runs counter to the intoxicating voices around us today.
7. He calls for rectitude and social consciousness. We must abandon our selfish thirst for consumption and, instead, be filled with the expectation of Jesus’ coming.
8. Therefore, following John’s advice, let us celebrate the memory of this first advent, prepare for Jesus’ new advent in our lives, and wait for his second advent at the end of the world.
9. We need to wait prayerfully for the second advent of Jesus. John’s answer as to how the Jews should wait for the Messiah was that they should wait for the Lord with repentant hearts and reformed lives.
10. We can start by praying from the heart. Let us remember that the Holy Mass is the most powerful of prayers because it transforms us into Eucharistic people, providing the living presence of Jesus in our hearts and his divine life in our souls.
11. Conversion is through Jesus whom we encounter, mainly, through the Holy Scripture and the Sacraments. The Word and the Sacraments are the principal means God uses to give life to men’s souls.
12. Daily reconciliation with God, as we ask and receive His pardon for our daily sins and make our monthly (or more frequent) sacramental confession, makes us strong and enables us to receive more grace in the Eucharist.
13. Let us read the Bible, pray the Rosary daily, and fast once a week all year round, rather than just during Advent and Lent.
14. After all, we sin all year round, so let us fast also all year round by controlling our senses. We could take some time before Mass to adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and we should practice forgiving those who offend us.
15. Finally, let us share our love with others as selfless and humble service. “Do small things but with great love,” advise St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa).
16. Are we, too, called to be precursors — to preach, to cry out like John the Baptist, “Repent! Reform your lives! The kingdom of God is at hand!”? Yes!
17. We are all called to preach that Gospel, but not necessarily all of us with words. Before we are ready to preach conversion and penance to others, we have to be converted and do penance.
18. Before he preached to others at the Jordan River, John himself “lived” in silence in the desert for several years. He prepared the ways of the Lord in himself first.
19. He made straight the path of the Lord to his heart first; only then did he exhort others to do the same. St. Luke says of Jesus, “The child grew and became strong, filled with Wisdom; and the favour of God was with upon him” (Lk 2:40).
20. And what John did was what Jesus himself did after his baptism by John. Being driven by the Spirit into the desert, he spent 40 days there being prepared, empowered and instructed by the Spirit before he began his public ministry.
21. We, too, before we begin to preach to others, need to live what we are about to preach. Above all, we must be converted before we speak to others about the necessity for conversion.
FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS
How conscious are you of your spiritual preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas?
Do you see the Advent season as an opportunity for repentance, reconciliation and renewal to augment God’s grace, mercy and peace in your life?
Are you at peace with yourself? With others? Are you at peace with God?
Lord Jesus Christ, peace is something that has eluded us and the world living in. Many people live in depression and they do not know inner peace because their lives are untruthful. They try to maintain an external appearance of calmness and tranquillity but their inner life is in a deep internal conflict.
These manifest in terms of their bitterness, critical and abusive words as well as the disgruntled action that take. Let us pray today that Christ who is the Prince of peace would ordain peace on earth, especially in our hearts.
Equally, on our part may we avail ourselves be instruments of peace on earth. May we through help take advantage of the season of grace, mercy, and salvation to convert, repent and renew our lives at your birth.
OUR PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, there is tremendous energy in these readings centred on conversion, justice, truth, hope, harmony and peace. Make us instruments of peace and harmony within us, around us and with you in Christ Jesus, so that justice shall flourish in our life and there will be the fullness of peace. Amen
