Second Sunday of Advent

Readings:

• Baruch 5:1-9.  The Glory breaks over the new Jerusalem and God’s people return to their homeland.
• Phil 1: 4-6, 8-11. Paul prays for the completion of God’s holiness and charity among these, his favorite converts.
• Luke 3:1-6. John the Baptist is introduced amidst the data of world history.

Thoughts for your consideration: By John Gonzalez

The readings for the second week of advent offer us a peaceful meditation on hope. All three readings are based on the theme that God’s ultimate restoration of our broken humanity will take place. In the first reading Baruch offers a joyful image for Israel’s restoration from the Babylonian exile. Israel’s hope for God’s glory to once again shine on Israel with mercy and justice will again take place. Baruch follows the prophetic tradition. The Prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah prepare Israel for eminent destruction and desolation because Israel has not followed God’s commands. But the Prophets also place all this within the greater context of God’s ultimate mercy, justice and compassion. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and Baruch, who is writing after the exile, is now consoling Israel that God’s glory will come again.

The second reading takes us to Paul’s later days when he is imprisoned and awaiting trial. Paul’s thoughts, as he writes this letter, are with the community he has left behind. As he fondly considers them he places himself and his cherished community within the ultimate hope that Christ will come again. The gospel reading by Luke sets the stage for the public ministry of John the Baptist. John’s preaching did not occur in an historical vacuum and Luke takes the effort to describe the political and theological setting that leads up to the appearance of John in the Jordan region. It has been 500 years since the Jewish people returned from exile and they are again facing another oppressive political reality. John the Baptist, who prepares the way for Christ, is introduced as part of the prophetic tradition who is now going to break upon the scene of this current historical reality.

Now, 2000 years after the events of John the Baptist, Jesus and Paul, we are again contemplating this peaceful meditation of hope in our time. Christmas has become a highly commercialized holiday. Even those of us like me and my family, who intentionally support the buy nothing alternative to what has become known as black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), still find ourselves caught up in the frenzy of commercially preparing for the Christmas season. We owe it to ourselves as people of faith to take some time to contemplate our hope. Like our predecessors of the first century AD or the fifth century BC we too are living in uncertain times. Advent and Christmas offer us a great opportunity that surpasses any material hope we may have. It offer us the opportunity to center ourselves in these troubled times in the faith filled hope that God’s glory will break in again in our lives and that somehow the economic, emotional, and even physical sufferings of the moment can find meaning in a holistic future that we can build based on the experience of our suffering. In his second encyclical Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that:

His Kingdom is not an imaginary hereafter, situated in a future that will never arrive; His kingdom is present wherever he is loved and wherever his love reaches us. His love alone gives us the possibility of soberly persevering day by day, without ceasing to be spurred on by hope, in a world which by its very nature is imperfect. His love is at the same time our guarantee of the existence of what we only vaguely sense and which nevertheless, in our deepest self, we await: a life that is “truly” life.    

Contemplation is a valuable gift. If we take the time to contemplate and be reflective then we are taking the time actually consider what “truly” life is. Reflection and contemplation are gifts that can not only help us individually but also as a social community. Soon the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross will have a conference on “Free Enterprise, Poverty, and the Financial Crisis.” In promoting this conference the director of the Acton Institute, Samuel Gregg, observes that “there is plenty of talk about global poverty and yet it is striking how much of the conversation is very unreflective.” Mr. Gregg goes on to say, “Another problem is that a great deal of development economics is underpinned by deeply materialistic ideologies and deformed anthropologies of man. But we know that diminished poverty is only partly an economic and material question. It has moral, spiritual, legal, cultural, and institutional dimensions.”

During the second week of Advent let us take the time to reflect on God’s ultimate restoration for us and our society based on the hope that God loves us all and that we in turn can offer that same love and dignity to each other.

One Response to “Second Sunday of Advent”

1. Philip Paxton says:

   December 3, 2009 at 12:34 pm

   John,

   Thank you for your reflection. I am intrigued by the upcoming conference. I will be looking forward to hearing more about it.