by Fr. Jose “Joesum” Sumampong, Jr.
December 5, 2021
Second Sunday of Advent (Year C)
Baruch 5:l-9 /Psalm 126: 1-6
Philippians l:4-6,8-11 / Luke 3: l-6
ADVENT: THE TIME FOR RESTORATION
Word: A powerful effect can be created when we exploit the litany that opens today’s gospel. Imagine the feel of the royal proclamation, creating a sense of splendor and majesty as the list of imperial personages is mentioned. In the fifteenth year of the rule of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, Philip his brother tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas… (Lk 1:1-2).
These are not parenthetical phrases which ought to be subordinated in order to get to the heart of the announcement. Rather, they are the steps we ascend, one at a time, to get to the point from which we see the word of God was spoken to John son of Zechariah in the desert (Luke 1:2).
Now let us focus on John. Let us take note of the authority and power which his inclusion in the aforementioned list implies. We may assume his voice, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins… A voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” (Lk 3:3-4).
Luke describes John’s baptism as a baptism of repentance. His baptism called for a “metanoia,” a turning around of one’s life, a turning away from sin and toward the will of God. This is what was necessary to prepare for the coming of the kingdom in Jesus.
Luke quotes many passages from Isaiah. He thus includes the references to leveling the way and straightening the path, which today echoes the first reading from Baruch. This extended quotation also highlights the universal scope of the coming salvation, which “all mankind shall see.” Thus Luke signals a major theme of his gospel, the universality of salvation.
The image drawn with the words quoted from Isaiah is really a bit different from the vision of Baruch. It recalls the practice of preparing the way for a monarch traveling through the wilderness where there was no road. A crew of workers would precede him, making the way passable for his chariot. So the Baptist calls us to prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ.
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Order: Advent issues a great call for restoration. Each advent season we hear again John the Baptist’s lonely voice crying out: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.” Because of our sins, we have been broken and fragmented. The unity of the human family is continually under siege. The age in which we live is an age of violence. To repent means to recognize our brokenness and our consequent need of restoration. We need to be restored to the original state that God our creator wanted us to be.
The advent liturgy has its sobering reminder of the reality of sin and our need to be restored into the grace of God through penance and conversion.
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Realities: 1. One day, a farmer brought home a baby eagle from the woods and put it in the chicken pen to grow up. It learned to do everything chickens do.
One day, a naturalist came to visit and remarked to the farmer, “Hey! You’ve got an eagle in there with the chickens.”
“I know,” said the farmer, “but there’s nothing of an eagle left in him anymore. He might have gigantic wings, but he can’t fly three meters.”
“I don’t believe that,” said the naturalist. “He must have an eagle’s flying instinct hidden inside him. I’ll see if I can awaken it.”
So he lifted the eagle in his hand and tried to toss him off and force him to fly. But the eagle just looked down at the chickens on the ground and jumped back down to them.
The next day the naturalist took the eagle up on the roof of the house and tried to coax him to take off. But again he just flopped back into the chicken yard.
So then the naturalist made one last try. He took the eagle up to a high mountain just as the sun was beginning to rise. The eagle stretched its long wings and shook its feathers as if awakening from sleep. But he did not take off. So then the scientist pointed his head and eyes straight at the blinding sun. Something clicked inside the big bird. He took a big jump, stretched out his mighty wings and took off first circling and sailing without any effort on the unseen wind currents… Then up, up, and away he went – never to return.
He had needed a challenge. (Hermann Gilhaus, CHALLENGE NEEDED)
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2. A young boy made the following confession.
“A couple months ago I found a $10 note lying on the workshop floor. I picked it up, put it in my pocket, and spent it on a good meal that night.
“The next morning the boss asked around whether anyone had found a $10 note which had slipped out of his overalls pocket. I said nothing even though I liked the boss very much.
“But then I wanted to make up for what I had done. So I saved up the amount in the next weeks and shoved a $10 note under the boss’s locker and then accidentally “discovered” it there for him. He was so touched that he told me to keep the money as a reward for my honesty
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Direction: O Father, calm the turbulence of our passions, quiet the throbbing of our hopes, repress the waywardness of our wills, direct the motions of our affections, and sanctify the varieties of our lot. Be all in all to us. And may all things earthly, while we bend them to our growth in grace and to the work of blessing, dwell lightly in our hearts, so that we may readily, or even joyfully, give up whatever you ask. (Prayer to Attain Equanimity in Our Lives, Mary Carpenters <l807-1877> Philanthropist and Writer)
CONGRATULATIONS… DYRD ON HER 60th YEAR ANNIVERSARY … GOD BLESS …