As the journey of Advent continues, as we prepare to celebrate the Nativity of Jesus, John the Baptist’s call to conversion sounds out and resonates throughout our faith community and hopefully the community at large. It is an urgent invitation to open our hearts and minds to welcome the Son of God who comes among us to show us, in the fullness of truth, how to attain eternal life with him.
The Father, as described in the gospel of Matthew does not judge anyone, but has entrusted the power of judgement to the Son, because he is the Son of Man. And it is today, in the present, that we decide our eternal destiny. It is with our everyday concrete behavior in this life that will determine our eternal fate.
At the end of our lives on earth we will be evaluated on the basis of our likeness to the Baby born in the poor grotto of Bethlehem because He is the measure God has given humanity. In other words; are we like Jesus? Have we really heard the word made incarnate in Him? Are we waiting for his birth doing nothing in this time of anticipation?
Waiting, an inevitable and even necessary aspect of human life is not something that most of us relish. We wait in lines: in order to purchase groceries, to be served at restaurants, to be attended to in a bank, at stop
2. signs and signals, at the theater to see a play or movie. We also wait for our gardens to grow, for babies to be born, for wounds to heal, for bread to rise. I think you get my drift?
In fact, it has been said that in a lifetime of 70 years, we spend 3 years of life waiting. For us, however, it is not inconceivable to think of the entire span of a human life as a period of waiting-waiting for God who comes. In our waiting for all those human elements, groceries, the Bank, the theater, the garden, the rising bread, a baby to be born, we do make preparations.
We get ready for the activity for it to happen. The check book is balanced, the credit card is paid off, Oh that’s a good one, before we withdraw or use for Christmas shopping, we plan our time of arrival and the route we will take to get to the theater, we plan what we will plant in the garden and when to harvest, we knead the bread before rising, we get the baby room ready for when the little one comes.
We bring the right amount of bags to hold the groceries purchased, sure we do! You see, we do plan even for the most mundane things of this human life. It should be the same for our future eternal life. We should be preparing right now and not waiting till the end for it might be too late!!!!
In the first reading from Isaiah, the prophet gives voice to the eager hopes of his people who confidently awaited the Messiah and all that his reign would bring. In the gospel from Matthew, John the Baptizer proclaims that the waiting and messianic longings of his people are to be answered in the person and mission of Jesus.
3. But preparations need to be made, made through repentance and faith. Believers are to prepare a welcome for Him in their lives. Paul, in writing to the Romans in our second reading reminds his readers that those who wait together for the many comings of our God should overlook their differences and sustain one another in mutual support and acceptance.
We pray for this all the time which is good and is reaping goodness and love. And where else to see this is to look at our own parish. Take a look at how many activities we have had during this past year of Mercy. We have to thank the parish staff, those who took on the challenge of leadership of the activities, but most important we have to thank you, the parishioners who by your active participation took ideas and made them into programs.
Yes, we as a faith community are preparing and in doing so are continuing by not forgetting the meaning of the Year of Mercy but are using it as a building stone for future ideas and programs. By our actions as seen throughout the last year, we are not only waiting but in our waiting are preparing for the coming of Him who will bring us to our eternal reward in heaven.
While we may never learn to enjoy the pragmatic waiting which is a part of our everyday activities, we are reminded in today’s liturgy savor the joyful waiting which is Advent. He comes: He shall not disappoint. Repentance, Faith, and Communal harmony are all the welcome He desires.
John the Baptist is offering a challenge to each one of us. Reform your lives, have attain conversion of heart. This is the only way to welcome the reign of God. To those in John’s day, he offered the baptism of
4 repentance explaining that his was only a preparation announcing the coming of “One” more powerful than himself. John proclaimed that the coming baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire would be one of purification, judgment, and new life!
Today, and all during the Advent season, we are called to hear and to respond anew to John’s cry: “Reform your lives! The reign of God is at hand”. It is a waiting that creates action. Let us not wait in limbo. Live as Jesus taught us. Live as if this is our heaven. Then, we will know where we will end up at the end of our lives on earth. Receive Jesus often in the Eucharist and let him change your lives and to give you strength to wait in great joy for his second coming.
I would like to leave you today with this prayer recited by then Pope John Paul II now St. John Paul II on 16 June, 2002, the day he canonized Padre Pio which gives us the way for waiting:
“Teach us, we pray, humility of heart, so that we may be counted among the little ones of the Gospel to whom the Father promised to reveal the mysteries of His Kingdom.
Help us to pray without ceasing, certain that God knows what we need even before we ask Him.
Obtain for us the eyes of faith that will help us recognize in the poor and suffering, the very face of Jesus.
Sustain us in the hour of trouble and trial and, if we fall, let us experience the joy of the sacrament of forgiveness.
Grant us your tender devotion to Mary, mother of Jesus and our Mother.
Accompany us on our earthly pilgrimage toward the blessed Homeland, where we too, hope to arrive to contemplate forever the Glory of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN!”