ADVENT, A TIME TO DREAM OF PEACE AND HARMONY.

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December 8 2019: Second Sunday of Advent - A



READINGS: Is 11:1-10; Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17; Rom 15:4-9; Mt 3:1-12 
An American proverb says, “Dreams are wishes your heart makes.” Another proverb adds, “It is no longer good enough to cry peace. We must act peace, live peace and live in peace.”
Christian life is not a life of barrenness. The goal of Christianity is fruitfulness. The coming of the Lord will remind us that we must be fruitful. This fecundity, however, will not be possible without at first, peace, hence the candle of peace that we light today; and then, and most importantly, an exercise on oneself, REPENTANCE. It is all about changing oneself and giving room to God’s grace to be at work in us and through us.
As human beings, we are sometime like trees planted in a soil. When the soil become poor or over-used, the plant can no longer be productive at its best capacities. In order to give it back its productivity, there is need of fertilizers and manures. Repentance is a spiritual fertilizer of the souls. It takes away from us the sterility provoked by sin, cleanses our souls and opens us unto new possibilities.
We are today, the second Sunday of Advent. The word of God focuses our meditation on the second attitude of the Advent pilgrimage, repentance. The first Sunday we were called to keep vigilance and be watchful. Today, we are exhorted to repent, be at peace with God, with ourselves and with others in order to meet the one whose coming we are preparing for. We are actually called to change our life, change our heart, change our direction. That is the message the Baptist echoes in the desert saying: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
From this message we read that preparation for the coming of the Lord is not a static and occasional fact done once and for all. In fact, it seems clear to us today. Although the Lord came two thousand years ago, he comes again and comes every day. Therefore, it is tirelessly real and imminent the call to conversion. Because Advent is a waiting time and a time of actualization.
The one whose coming we are preparing for, says the Prophet Isaiah, in the first reading, will come to judge. But he will judge differently from our human standards. “Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land's afflicted.” The Lord is coming to bring about justice into a world where that word sounds utopic or a mere platonic dream. His coming will also bring about unity, peace and perfect harmony. He will be invested with a special power. Because, “The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.”
We live in a world where reigns injustice, and all kind of inequity and discrimination. The powerful make their strength felt on the weak. There are many barriers that separate people from each other. Unfortunately, very often, we, disciples of Christ, are sources and instruments of some of these spirals of divisions. The coming of the Lord is to restore all things and bring peace and unity. For this peace and harmony to take root and bear fruit, we all have a role to play. Our contribution is in the necessity of changing our habits, our lives and our hearts. All that we have put as actions that have not brought unity, all the talks we have made that has led to confusion and war must be abandoned, forgotten and put away in the past. We need a sincere renewal of life and give chance to the newness.
As Christians, we are challenged to promote that newness, moving from the old man to a new being. Christ came to save us all. In order for us to enter into that salvation, we need a conversion of our visions and behaviors. “Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed us, for the glory of God.” We are exhorted, and Paul will insist, “to think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus…”
Our Advent journey can only lead us to fruitfulness if we take seriously the challenge to change and become instruments of harmony through uprightness. At the end, of this season, the dream of Isaiah should be effective in our families, communities, societies and countries that, “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.”
Though until now that sounds a platonic dream, it is all up to us to dream it together. Because a dream can only be true if many people dream it together and work for its fulfilment. There will not be peace in our countries and in the world if we do not dream of peace, speak of peace, breathe peace and work for peace with sincerity of heart.

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