Readings of the day: Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17; Romans 15:4-9; Matthew 3:1-12
Advent is a time of joyful and hopeful waiting for the return of Our Lord Jesus Christ in
glory, even as we prepare to celebrate his first coming in human form two
thousand years ago. Every time we profess together our belief in “the life of
the world to come,” when we pray the Creed, I think of this profession of faith
as a little Advent.
We believe “in
the life of the world to come.” We believe that Christ the Messiah will return
again at the end of time as he promised. But what kind of Messiah do we believe
will return at the end of time? Perhaps, if we think and pray over this
question, we might find that our answer to what kind of Messiah we are
expecting has changed over time. But that our active waiting for the Messiah is
changing us is most significant, as
it was most significant for people we hear about in today’s readings.
Some aspects of
how we understand the day of the Messiah’s return may not change much, or may
not have changed much since Biblical times. We still believe and pray that the
Messiah will bring fullness of justice and peace that is beyond our imagination
in our current world. We pray as the psalmist did that “justice shall flourish
in his time, and fullness of peace forever.”
We believe, as
Isaiah did, that the Messiah will be endowed with God’s own spirit: “A spirit
of wisdom and understanding; a spirit of counsel and strength; a spirit of
knowledge and fear of the LORD.” The Messiah will not judge by outward
“appearances” or by “hearsay,” but with justice for all. This all-inclusive
justice, though, will especially alleviate the suffering of the poor and the
afflicted. Our hope for this kind of Messiah shines through our stained glass
windows here at Christ the King Church, which are inscribed with Isaiah’s words
that we have just heard.
We hope and
believe in this kind of Messiah without much change in our belief over time.
And yet in some respects what we believe and expect in our Messiah does change
with time. Just last year, our community’s and our nation’s joyful preparation
for Christmas was shattered by the tragedies of Sandy Hook Elementary School in
Newtown, Connecticut, and then the ambush killing of firefighters right here in
Webster, New York. What kind of Messiah will it take to put an end to such
violence? Will the day of the Lord be upon us anytime soon? Will such violence,
death, tragedy, and suffering worsen before the Messiah returns, or can there
somehow be a gradual alleviation of these human experiences before the final
day of the Lord?
Changes in how
we conceive of the return of our Messiah are appropriate, as are our questions
of how and when our Messiah’s return might actually take place. And yet, in
light of today’s readings from the Word of God, we are being called to change to meet our Messiah, however and
whenever our Messiah’s return occurs.
Our question,
then, is not primarily when the Messiah will return or what the return of the
Messiah may look like. Our question is primarily this: How are we being called
to change, and how are we being changed already through our awaiting of the
Messiah’s return?
John the Baptist
speaks of the urgency of this call to change: “Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand.” The kingdom of heaven is not a far-off reality, but is here
now. The “voice crying out in the desert, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make
straight his paths’”‒ the voice of John the Baptist and of the prophet
Isaiah before him‒ is now our voice. God’s grace and invitation to repent
is now ours. The gifts of God’s spirit that Isaiah says will be associated with
the coming Messiah are now ours. We are being changed by this divine gift into
a people of “wisdom and understanding… counsel and strength… knowledge and fear
of the LORD.”
How do we show,
then, that we are a people of these gifts of the Holy Spirit; a people invited
to change; a people already being changed by God’s grace?
When we think of
change or repentance, many of us often think first of the sacrament of reconciliation.
Celebration of this sacrament is an excellent first step in answering this
vocation to change and to give thanks that we are a people being changed,
especially if you have not encountered God in reconciliation in some time.
But there is
more to showing that we are being changed than the initial encounter with God
in reconciliation and the other sacraments. Our calling to change entails
bringing this change to the world. In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul
proposes practical ways in which we can bring this change to the world; ways in
which we can show that we are a people of change; a people of God’s grace.
St. Paul prays that
“the God of endurance and encouragement” might “grant [us] to think in harmony
with one another in keeping with Christ Jesus.” Then he urges us, “Welcome one
another, as Christ welcomed you.” When we think and act in harmony as
Christians; when we build one another up as one community; one parish; when we
endure in faith, come trial or prosperity; when we encourage those in special
need of our encouragement and kindness to keep up or to return to their faith;
when we welcome one another warmly, especially those who are marginalized in
our Church and in our world, we act as Christ acted. We act as the people of God’s grace; the
people being changed by the Advent of God’s kingdom; the people endowed with
the gifts of the Holy Spirit; the people not only passively but actively anticipating
the return of the Messiah and “the life of the world to come.”
While our
concept of the return of the Messiah may change over time, since we cannot
conceive with certainty of how or when this will take place, that we are
invited to change‒ to repent‒ that we are being changed by
our Advent waiting for the Messiah is most significant. To God’s glory and for
our salvation, this change that God is already working in us and will complete
at the end of time is drawing us toward “the life of the world to come.”
