This morning’s Gospel reading is Matthew 3:1–12:
John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: A voice of one crying out in the desert, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.
When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Our responsorial psalm today promises: Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever.
What is justice? What is peace? Can they be reconciled, and can they exist without each other?
Today's readings bring those questions into sharp focus as we celebrate the second Sunday of Advent. They also remind us of what we anticipate in this season, symbolically and literally. The symbolic nature of Advent is easily grasped; we are preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus more than two thousand years after the Nativity. We await the celebrations in our families and in our communities, not just in the sense of faith but also in bringing us together in personal ways.
Reconciliation is the point of Advent, and of our entire faith journey, a point that we can miss if we stick to the symbolic or even just strict historical interpretations of our readings today. These passages are meant for us, in our time, as well as the time they took place. And they are meant literally.
Consider the words of Isaiah in our first reading, and the time in which he wrote them. Isaiah's ministry as a great prophet took place during the period just before the fall of the Northern Kingdom. The Lord's people were divided, frequently warring with each other and disputing the leadership and even the proper place of sacrifice. Enmity had poisoned Israel, and the wrath of the Lord would fall on both kingdoms eventually. The Israelites knew neither peace nor justice.
But why? The Israelites had strayed from the commands of the Lord. He had rescued them from Egypt to build a nation of priests and prophets that would welcome the nations of the world to learn His Word. In this way, the Lord set a path of both peace and justice, where the nations would govern themselves within His laws. Instead, the Israelites wanted a worldly and material kingdom, and then fought each other to control it, dividing themselves and fatally weakening both kingdoms by abandoning the Lord's shelter and guidance.
Our first reading from Isaiah 11 reminds us of what the Lord wanted us to have – a world of both justice and peace, not just with each other but with the entirety of His creation:
Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair. There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD, as water covers the sea.
This is a poetic depiction of peace and justice, fully reconciled, within the original design of the Lord's creation. However, Isaiah starts this prophecy with the promise of a savior who will deliver it, a sign that the Lord knew all along that His people would fail, in arrogance, greed, and rebellion. It would take a Messiah, one anointed by the Lord, to reconcile all things to His justice and peace.
Isaiah offers two interesting points in this prophecy, however. First, he declares that "a bud shall blossom" from "the root of Jesse" (the House of David) to produce this Messiah, rather than the Lord imposing Himself directly on the world. He adds later in the idyllic portrait of justice and peace reconciled that "a little child [will] guide them." At the same time, Isaiah prophesies that this "bud" and "child" will deliver justice on behalf of the poor and at the expense of the "ruthless" and "wicked," while reordering Creation to its original design of love and communion. These powers are divine, not human, and far beyond the traditional expectations of the Messiah, both then as well as now.
It promises that the Divine will come to the world as a child from the House of David, fully human and fully divine, to reconcile all things to the Lord. Today's Gospel reading brings us the prophecy of John the Baptist, who warns that the time has come to prepare for His coming, echoing Isaiah. The wicked and the ruthless have time to repent, John the Baptist warns, but that time will run out – soon.
This means precisely the same thing for us today. Not symbolically, not historically, but literally and personally, now. The Lord loves us so much that He sent His only Son to sacrifice Himself to save us all from that judgment. And yet, wickedness and ruthlessness still seem to prevail in this world. We have spread this Good News to unite the nations in His Word, and still we reject it and choose sin, injustice, and conflict. Advent reminds us that, just as John the Baptist warned the Judeans and others at the Jordan, the time for repentance is now, literally, so that we may reconcile ourselves fully to the Lord and take part in His salvation in the perfected Creation to come.
It is in that perfected Creation that justice shall flourish and the fullness of peace will prevail – when we fully embrace the Christ and enter into His time, rather than cling desperately to ours.
Previous reflections on these readings:
- Cramming for the wrong test: Sunday reflection (2022)
- Mountains and molehills: Sunday reflection (2019)
- Sunday reflection: Matthew 3:1–12 (2016)
The front page image is "Saint John the Baptist Preaching to the Masses in the Wilderness" by Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564-1638). Specific date unknown. Acquired by a private collector, whereabouts uncertain. Via Wikimedia Commons.
“Sunday Reflection” is a regular feature that looks at the specific readings used in today’s Mass in Catholic parishes around the world. The reflection represents only my own point of view, intended to help prepare myself for the Lord’s day and perhaps spark a meaningful discussion. Previous Sunday Reflections can be found here.
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