December 8, 2013
Liturgical readings
Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72
Romans 15:4-9
Matthew 3:1-12
"I baptize you in water. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire."
John the Baptist prepared the way for Christ by baptizing the people Israel in the Jordan river. His message is a message also for our present age: to prepare for Christ's coming into our lives. John calls us to look deep into our work and life, and to act in a direction of repentance and amendment of life - that God's light may shine upon us. God's light will help us follow the right path, so that guided by His Spirit, we can unlearn bad habits and do what is right in the eyes of both God and man. In Christ Jesus, we will see the essential: God, His love for us and His commandments. This second Sunday of Advent is another opportunity to reflect well on John's message to prepare ourselves well to receive the Lord.
Three centuries after this baptizing of John the Baptist in the Jordan, St. Augustine of Hippo, a bishop and doctor of the Church, wrote in his Advent sermon that John's baptism was meant to prepare God's people for the Savior. That was John the Baptist's baptism. Now, it is Christ's baptism that we are called to celebrate. Christ's baptism, unlike John's baptism, is a baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire. In Christ's baptism we receive "a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, and a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord". In this baptism, we are called to share in the Church's mission to build God's Kingdom in the very circumstances of work and life.
This second Sunday of Advent's message on the theme of baptism helps us reflect on the meaning of our own baptism. The baptism we received gifted us with membership in the community of the Church. As members of the Church, it asks us to fulfill a task and a responsibility: to participate in Christ's mission in this present generation. We are commissioned to make our baptismal consecration bear good fruit in our lives, as well as in the lives of others. This can be done one day at a time, and Advent is the liturgical season that reminds us of this. Advent reroots all our work and life in the context of our initial commitment to Christ. In this rerooting, we can take time to pause and ask ourselves: "What have I done for Christ?" "What am I doing for Christ?" "What can I do for Christ?"
Verses from the Sunday readings:
The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him (Isaiah 11)
For he shall rescue the poor man when he cries out, and the afflicted when he has no one to help him (Psalm 72)
God the source of all patience and encouragement enables us to live in the spirit of Christ Jesus (Romans 15)
A herald's voice in the desert: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.' (Matthew 3)
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