Our advent candle today symbolises peace. Our journey through this season is firmly on its way, this Advent time of spiritual preparation. It reflects the peace that Mary and Joseph experienced as they travelled to Bethlehem for the birth of their child, the prince of peace, as we experience the peace of the journey to Christmas.
The first reading is one of the great prophesies foretelling of the coming of the Messiah. It speaks of the ‘spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him’. As we shall come to see in its own feast, Jesus’ baptism is to change baptism forever: it will become Trinitarian, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. John the Baptist tells us of this person to come who will ‘baptise with the Holy Spirit’. The language of Isaiah in this first reading is reminiscent of Matthew’s words in the Gospel: he pulls no punches against the ruthless and the wicked but he describes a peace that will come: wolf with lamb, leopard with the goat, the calf and the lion.
The second reading speaks directly of peace, ‘May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another.’ and a message of how our lives should emulate Christ’s. And it is appropriate that John the Baptist features in our Gospel as a herald of the coming of the Messiah, echoing Isaiah’s prophecy. I find difficulty when we hear in these days of international warfare, bloodshed and destruction not to be affected emotionally by it as I am sure it does us all, perhaps none more so for me that the conflict in Gaza. On the other hand, I watched Pope Leo’s visits to Turkey and Lebanon and was moved to tears as he arrived, met appropriate dignitaries of different religions and offered Mass for tens of thousands of Catholic Christians with religious representatives gathered together. It is such times as these that we are encouraged by the fact that there is hope for a lasting peace in any conflict. And while Isaiah foretells the coming of Christ, Paul in his letter opens it with, ‘Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction,’ this is the prophecy from the Old Testament and the act in the New.
In last week’s reading from near the end of Matthew’s Gospel, toward the end of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus implores us to ‘stay awake…be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’ This forewarns us that, while our human death is inevitable, we must be prepared for the pledge of eternal life that God gives us: be ready spiritually when God calls us in his plan to accept the gift of our salvation that Christ brought us. In addition to our own human deaths, this message points us to the end of time and the second coming of Christ. Today we look to an earlier time, to his first coming in our Christmas season.
Today’s Gospel reading toward the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, tells of the coming of the Son of Man in a different way, and the passage will continue, on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord in the New Year. This message points not just to the nativity and Christ’s incarnation of God, but beyond, to his life, death and resurrection. Today John the Baptist, like Jesus last week, also sends out a warning message, a message too of preparation but also of true repentance. For the Jews at this time their public demonstrations of repentance were to appease God, to get God on their side because of their indiscretions, almost to bargain with God, almost ‘I will live a holy life if you will grant forgiveness’. John’s reaction to the arrival of the Pharisees and Sadducees suggests to me that they had been thinking that they must go to John before retribution came their way. Theirs was a fear of God: their repentance didn’t involve an intention not to do the same again. We are graced because we know differently; our acts of repentance are to reconcile ourselves with an ever loving and forgiving God. John’s language to the Pharisees and the Sadducees is clear, forceful and unambiguous. But the message, like Jesus’ message last week, is relevant in the same way: ‘prepare…’
Some of the First Communion children will come to St Paul’s next year to receive the sacrament of their First Reconciliation. When we come for the sacrament of Reconciliation, or Confession as many of us still refer, we usually stick to a set formula, listing our faults and the times we have fallen out of friendship with God. And we receive absolution. But reconciliation is more about examining those times in our lives and asking ourselves where God was in our lives at that time, where were we in the life of God – were we conscious of his presence? We can reflect on that at any time.
When we spoke to the children who made their reconciliation in preparation for their First Communion, one of the boys said that he felt different, felt changed. Quite a spiritual observation for an eight-year old! But his words ring true, that in our repentance we wish to change our hearts.
All of the first readings in the Advent weeks are from Isaiah and present a vision of hope, peace, joy and love Our advent candle that will be lit shortly is the second purple one – representing Peace. Our reflection perhaps then should be that in our advent preparation we look forward, not only to the birth of Jesus, but further to our own rebirth and the place hope, peace, joy and love hold in our Christian lives and the peace Christ brings. We prepare to celebrate the coming of the Messiah into our lives as we seek to join him in his. We prepare to receive Jesus in the Eucharist as we offer ourselves in his living presence,