2nd Sunday of Advent A
Readings: Isaiah 11:1‑10 Romans 15:4‑9 Matthew 3:1‑12
On the second Sunday of Advent the Church presents John the Baptist as Jesus' precursor, who "prepares the way of the Lord" by demanding that those who come to him reform their lives because “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” We Christians still long for the fullness of God's reign of justice through Jesus the Messiah, and so we continue to pray in hope the refrain of this Sunday's responsorial psalm: "Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever" (Ps 72:7).
The opening reading is Isaiah's messianic vision of a future Davidic king who will be endowed with God's spirit and rule the land of Judah with justice. In contrast to the cowardly and self-serving king Ahab of Isaiah’s time (see Isaiah 7‑8), this "shoot . . . from the stump of Jesse" will have the divine gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, and fear of the Lord. Endowed with these virtues, he will both "judge the poor with justice" and "strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth." As a result of his just rule, even the predatory violence in the animal world will be transformed into peaceful harmony. “Then the wolf shall be the 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. . . .” When the knowledge of the Lord fills the earth "as water covers the sea," the rule of this just king will be "as a signal for the nations" so that they too will "seek out his glorious dwelling."
Paul's prayer in the second reading is that the Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians in the Roman community "will think in harmony with one another." Although they have come to Christianity from very different religious traditions, Paul encourages them: "Welcome one another . . . as Christ welcomed you for the glory of God." Christ came to save and unify both groups. He "became the minister of the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, to confirm the promises to the patriarchs," and his death on the cross is the source of "mercy" for the Gentiles. Christ's self-emptying love is to be the model for their treatment of one another.
Matthew's account of the ministry of John the Baptist presents him as the precursor of the Messiah who is beginning to gather a reformed people of God by calling all to repentance. First of all, Matthew carefully links John to figures from the Jewish Scriptures. He is "a voice of one crying out in the desert" spoken of in the Book of Isaiah. His camel's hair garment and wilderness diet recall the prophet Elijah who was expected to come at the end time to prepare God's people for the arrival of the kingdom (see 2 Kgs 1:8; Mal 3:1; 4:23‑24). John's fiery preaching challenges the Pharisees and Sadducees to produce true fruits of reform. Merely participating in his baptism or claiming to be descendants of Abraham will not suffice. John warns that “every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown in the fire.” His expectations for the Messiah are even more frightening. In contrast to his water baptism of repentance, “the mightier” one who will follow will baptize “with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Like a harvester with “his winnowing fan in his hand,” he will “gather his grain into the barn, but the chaff he will burn in unquenchable fire.”
As we consider what might be the proper fruits of repentance, we can do no better than the verses of this Sunday's responsorial psalm which pray that the future king will help bring about God's justice. We, like the king, are called to "save the poor when they cry/ and the needy who are helpless" and to "have pity on the weak/ and save the lives of the poor" (Ps 72:12‑13).
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