2nd Sunday of Advent; Year 1, 2019/20

May we at today's Eucharistic celebration gain the grace to align our thought patterns to that of God and with transformed hearts and minds, fulfill God's minutest wish and will in our lives.

Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Isa 11,1-10; Psalm 71; Rom 15, 9-9; Matt 3, 1-12; 2nd Sunday of Advent; Year 1, 2019/20)

            The three readings lay more emphasis on the person and work of Christ than on his coming. Matthew presents Jesus as a judge, Paul, as a servant who welcomes all, Jews and pagans alike. lsaiah presents him in triple images as a descendant of David. He is the Messiah, the descendant of Jesse, father of David. As the stump of a tree that has developed over the years, the Messiah is linked to the ancient lineage of David; thus the continuity of God's design is guranteed. Springing up from the root of Jesse, indicates that the origin of the Messiah appears more humble than if it were directly connected to David, the glorious king. The shoot that comes from the roots and not from the trunk demonstrates that God often intervenes unexpectedly and disconcertingly. The Messiah is imbued with the Holy Spirit: On him rests the Spirit of the Lord. The Messiah receives the Spirit as the servant (Isaiah 42,1), and the prophet (Isaiah 61,1); he is filled with all his gifts that orient him towards God. Animated by the Spirit, he is connected to the long line of believers who have assumed a responsibility for the people. He will give proof of wisdom and intelligence like Solomon (1 Kings 3,9-12); he will have the spirit of counsel and strength proper to the leaders of the people, like Moses and David; he will be animated by the fear of the Lord like all those who, starting with the Patriarchs, lived in the faith. The work of the Messiah will include showing and reestablishing  justice. He will exercise justice according to God and his judgments will be true, since he is not influenced of anyone: he will show himself, particularly, benevolent towards the small and the poor; thus ending the reign of the wicked. He will also extend his kingdom to all the peoples. All men will be called to know the Lord.

By giving his final advice to the Christians of Rome, Paul presents the universal salvation as he did in all his letters. This passage is not a simple exhortation to mutual acceptance, but an invitation to imitate God's behaviour towards all men, to welcome and love like God. God is patient and Jesus the Messiah manifested this divine patience by welcoming to all. The Christian community must be open to all as its Master, and in this way, it becomes a sign of a humanity called to fraternity. God is faithful, merciful to all. To fulfil his promise, God first revealed himself to the Jews; but this loyalty does not limit his love for all men at all. In Jesus Christ and like him, the Church is a sign of God's mercy towards all; it is in the world, as a centre of universal love and remembers it in a very special way during these weeks of preparation for the feast of Christmas.

In the gospel, John the Baptist is presented as a prophet. He leads a hard, austere life. He lives in the desert. The desert is the place of trial and glory. The Sinai desert, in the Exodus, was the place where the people, influenced by Egyptian paganism, were put to the test. Before entering the promised land, this purification of an entire generation was necessary. This is the first symbolic meaning of the desert of Judah in which the Baptist preaches. God, through the voice of his prophet, calls his people to lead them to conversion of heart and to make the renewal of the covenant possible. I will draw her to me, I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart (Hosea 2,16). The desert is the place where God manifests his presence and glory. During the Exodus, he was present to his people (in the column of fire, through the guidance of angels, in the theophanies of Sinai, in the tents of meeting). The message of John the Baptist is prominently his appeal to conversion/repentance/ metanoia. Repent! It an urgent appeal and one should not be left behind. The kingdom of God is near. The axe is already at the root of the tree. John harshly rebukes the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and insists that true conversion should bear fruit. This conversion is signalled by a baptism of water, with the confession of sins and true reversal of the heart. John  also announces the coming of Christ and his works: He who comes after me is more powerful than me… he will also baptise, but in the Holy Spirit and fire. These two terms seem to designate two different realities: the Spirit and the gift that brings the believer into the new life, characteristic of Christian baptism; the fire announces the decisive judgment that Jesus exercises at the moment of his second coming, when he separates the wheat, which he collects, from the chaff that burns. This message of John the Baptist remains current. Those who want to welcome Christ must prepare his way. It is necessary to return, regularly, to the Gospel to penetrate it more deeply; the time of Advent offers us the opportunity.
            What would we consider as the challenges of this Advent season. One of them is to ask ourselves what are we supposed to do during these weeks of Advent to welcome the appeal of John the Baptist to conversion/repentance/metanoia He first denounces the complacency of the Pharisees and Sadducees who believed themselves to be members of the people of God and closed themselves in their sufficiency. John whips them violently. He also attacks their attachment to the past. Jesus Himself challenged these representatives of a fossilised tradition that is without life, while he the Lord wants people  alive, wants them to live, to revive. He knows that though the trunk may be dead, but the roots from which a vital shoot can come out remain (1st reading) and that even stones can become children of Abraham. John the Baptist indicates the way of conversion/repentance. According to him, the first step is to submit to Baptism. Many conversions are not accomplished because one remains hesitant, undecided and lacks the basic faith necessary for conversion. John also indicates that the outcome of effective conversion is to bear fruit of conversion. Jesus severely condemns those who say and do nothing. Conversion cannot be limited to an intellectual level; it must reach the heart to make a life change. It means, in fact, for us to open ourselves to the action of the Holy Spirit who can fill us with his gifts. Conversion manifests itself particularly in welcoming others. We are naturally selfish. We must be as welcoming as the Lord himself (2nd reading) who will judge the poor with justice and make fair decisions for the oppressed of the country (1st reading). We have to be like him, welcoming all, especially the simple and completely unnoticed ones.

The indications of repentance and conversion in the readings challenge us to add some more flesh to the concept. The term repentance (which is the translation of the Greek metanoia), means change of mind (meta – change; noia – mind). Thus, to repent means to completely change one’s mind about something. When a person repents, he must first admit that he was thinking wrongly and then he must change his whole way of thinking so that he begins to think rightly. In this sense, therefore, to repent means to think as God thinks and to see things just as God sees things. It is only in this way that such a change of mind will bring about a change of life. For if a man thinks right then he will live right. One who repents begins then to think as Christ would think and act as Christ would. Such a person would have undergone a radical transformation. Sometimes, we use the term repentance as synonymous, and even substitutive of the term conversion. Indeed, they are closely connected, such that the latter is a necessary consequence of the former. Whereas repentance involves a change of mind, conversion entails a change of direction. To be converted, means therefore, to turn, turn around, change direction. Literally, it means making a turn-around and facing a different direction. In conversion, therefore, there is a double movement: turning from, and turning unto. This means that when a person changes his direction, he must turn away from the way he was going unto a new direction. It entails, first and foremost, entering into prayer intimacy with Christ. It also involves giving up sins, mortal and venial, imperfections and loving and serving God and our neighbours perfectly. It is not, therefore, a question of change of behaviour. Because one can change his bad behaviour without experiencing conversion. True conversion would entail, therefore, leaving off one’s old ways of sin and entering into intimacy with the indwelling Trinity, such that the motivating principle of one’s thought and action becomes the impulse of the Holy Trinity. When, therefore, we talk about repentance, we mean in the first place, the change of our mindset so that we begin to think and act as Christ would. It also entails a turn around, change of direction, turn from the wrong way unto the right direction which is God’s way. That is why we cannot talk about repentance without talking about conversion because one complements the other. These two terms are therefore used almost interchangeably. To get converted means to experience transformation. It entails a fundamental change of the human will to move from bad to good, from good to better, and from better to best. Put in another way, conversion means a change from vice to virtue: from deceit and lying to honesty and truth, gluttony to temperance, vanity to humility, lust to love, avarice to generosity, discrimination to oneness in Christ, syncretism to true worship of God etc. It is only when we experience true conversion/repentance that we can really be preparing for the coming of the Messiah at Christmas, the end of our lives and, of the world. May we at the Eucharistic celebration of today gain the grace to align our thought pattern to that of God and with transformed heart and mind fulfil God’s minutest wish and will in our lives. + John I. Okoye

(graphics  by chukwubike)