Advent 2nd Sun A

Second Sunday of Advent
1st Reading: IS 11:1-10
Responsorial Psalm: PS 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17
2nd Reading: ROM 15:4-9
Alleluia, alleluia.
Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: MT 3:1-12

“Maranatha; Veni; Jesu!” This is not an incantation or a spell from Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings, or The Game of Thrones, or any other of a thousand knock-offs, imitators. It does not defeat dragons or turn people into newts. It is far more powerful than that, far more powerful. It comes from a world that is far more exciting, far more terrifying, far richer, far more abundant, far more satisfying. Far more supernatural than any of these fictional worlds, because it does not belong to a fictional world, but to a real world, our world of time and space. It is far more real, more transforming, more significant. It comes from the Kingdom: the Kingdom of Heaven. The real kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. It is from the world of the early Christians, and it means something very simple: “Come Lord. Come, o Lord. Come, Lord Jesus.”

Monastery Bell  - Which rings during the day to invite the monks and the community for prayers and the Holy Mass

But why come? Why this coming, this advent? This world is not what it should be. Where is justice? Where is righteousness? Where is peace and happiness and plenty in our world? Nowhere. At least, only partially and for a brief period of time. Even for the best of us, the most exemplary of us, the luckiest of us – and who is always lucky or successful? It is only a partial and temporary reality, not permanent, not final. What seems to rule this world is power; raw, naked power. Despite all the fancy clothes and finery, etc. we say it is power. We see an epic example of this in the great book of Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, and the Melian Dialogue, in the great war between Athens and Sparta. The Melians say (they will not pay tribute): we do not want to do this, we’re not going to do this, with justice and morality and the gods on our side. What more do we need with justice, morality and the gods? Forget about the gods. Forget about justice and morality: “Might makes right.” The weak give in to the strong. The city resists the siege and is violently conquered. All the adult males are killed and all of the children sold into slavery. Might makes right. It has been summed up very beautifully, very simply, in a line from the movie Cloud Atlas. But it also comes from an ancient Chinese proverb: “The weak are meat and the strong do eat.”  …But in the gospel we hear something very different. A new power has arisen, a more powerful power. The power of the Spirit. For generations the Jews had to await the Messiah, the savior who will come in the power of the Spirit and usher in God‘s rule on earth, to bring a kingdom of righteousness, a kingdom of justice. A paradisiacal world where all the wild animals, the violent and destructive, are at peace: peace, final peace, justice and plenty, our final destiny. This person is the Messiah, the Christ, which means the anointed: he will usher in this kingdom… And the Baptist that we see in today’s gospel is the Precursor. This bizarre, dramatic, ascetic, severe character, is to increase conversion, asceticism, prayer, fasting, fidelity to God, to usher in this righteousness, this kingdom of heaven, this world in which the Messiah is the key figure…

View of Cross Hill from the Indoors of the Monastery (Novitiate)

We believe the Messiah has come. The Christ has come, and his name is Jesus. Jesus, who is the Christ. He has begotten a kingdom in power.  He was anointed in the power of the Spirit to make all these things happen. … And when he returns for a second time, a final time, he will complete it. It has begun, but it is not finished. It is not totally here. It has begun in us who receive the gift of baptism, the grace and the spirit of baptism, and grow in that spirit, that power of the Holy Spirit, with a life of prayer, repentance, asceticism, virtue holiness, and righteousness. We are the thousand points of light that transform and transfigure this world that our Lord will bring to conclusion and consummation, the more we are given to a life of virtue and holiness. The more we repent our sins and turn to God and are filled with His power. And in this power, we find our happiness, we find our peace. That is more impressive, more exciting, more real, more rich, more abundant than Harry Potter or The Game of Thrones. Far more, because it is real. It is a real world that we are part of, if we truly do good, if we imitate the figures of our Lord and the saints, and those who follow Him, like the Baptist who prepares his way. Each of us prepares a way for the Lord to transform our lives to that life of virtue.

A view from Abbey Grounds, of Bay and the Sun

Let me tell you a story from the desert fathers. These were early monks who went off into the desert in imitation of John the Baptist to find the kingdom most intensely, most completely. One day, Abba Lot went to Abba Joseph and he said to Abbot Joseph (“Abba” means “Father,” out of respect and veneration): “Abba Joseph, as far as I can, I say my little office. I fast a little, I pray, and I meditate. As far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?” The old man, Abba Joseph, stood up and raised his hands to the heavens, and said, “If you will, you can become all flame.” When he raised his hands to the heavens, his ten fingers became as ten torches a fire. “If you will, you can become all flame.” If we will, we can become all flame, through the power of the Holy Spirit: the energy, the joy, the power: power that makes us as what we were meant to be, that brings us happiness. That makes us more present to this world and transfigures this world. If we will we can become all flame. Come, O Jesus. Come, and do not delay.