Matt 3:1-12
Dear Friends. Advent is an invitation to ponder the Christian perspective on time. Time, for the Christian, is not the relentless and isolated moving of the the hands on the clock. It is not the mindless and purposeless waiting for Godot. The Christ event has made time pregnant with the endless possibility of new life. Time is the messenger of God calling us into a gracious future where a new day will prevail.
In Advent, we see the mystery of time intimately connected to the past, present and future in the Christ event. The past recalls in the Incarnation of the Word. The present is the encounter with God’s grace leading us to walk with Jesus. The future is the final completion of Christ’s victory in his Second Coming, the final fulfillment of both our personal destiny and human history.
To understand this mystery of time, we look back to the events of our saving past. Today, it is Isaiah who presents the beautiful passage of hope that foreshadows the coming of Christ. These seemingly impossible relationships will only be possible by the divine intervention of the Messianic presence in Christ both at Bethlehem and at the conclusion of our historic venture
“Justice shall be the band around his waist,
And faithfulness a belt upon his hips.
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” (Is 11:5-9).
The Gospel today draws us to John the Baptist. It is a call to prepare for Christ as the total mystery of the Word made flesh, not a nostalgic return to the beauty of Bethlehem. We need to recall the entire Jesus event. This includes his challenging message and the saving events of the death and resurrection. In longing for Jesus, we understand John’ message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 3:20). This demands that we change our lives as we prepare for the coming of the Lord.
These changes will happen as part of personal and communal conversion. Along with our personal and communal transformation, we recognize that we are responding to the imitative of God’s call. This Advent season reminds us of the overwhelming mercy that is revealed in the coming of Jesus into our life and into our history.
The waiting of Advent is not like the drudgery of getting stuck in traffic nor is it the seemingly endless line in the market. Nor is it the anxiety-driven time waiting for the results of a test or other life-changing news from a doctor. Advent waiting is a joyful anticipation of new life. This new life demands a creative openness that leads to repentance and conversion. It means we welcome the God who continually comes and knocks at the door of the human heart. Advent leads us to develop a spirituality of watchfulness that opens to the appreciation of the giftedness of today and hope for tomorrow. We prepare for all of this Advent waiting with the special prayer of the season, Come, Lord Jesus!
