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05 dic 2021
05/12/2021 – 2nd Sunday of Advent - C

05/12/2021 – 2nd Sunday of Advent - C

Reading 1 BAR 5,1-9 Psalm 125/126 Reading 2 PHIL 1,4-6.8-11 Gospel LK 3,1-6

The page from the prophet Baruch, Jeremiah’s secretary, is a great invitation to hope and trust. It is given to the people in a moment of great suffering, if not of desperation. Since the people has received a promise from God though, it cannot become sad: it must wait for that promise to be fulfilled and prepare itself. “Wrapped in the cloak of justice from God, bear on your head the mitre that displays the glory of the eternal name…”.

This is how you should wait for: wrapped in the cloak of justice, what else could it possibly mean but to live all our life looking for God’s will?

And bear on your head the mitre that displays the glory of the eternal name is about becoming, with all ourselves, a sign of the presence of God, carrying around in our life the likeness of Him. When our saviour arrives, He wants to be expected, because only if we are waiting for Him we will be ready to welcome Him and let Him save us. In order to help us in the wait, here we have the Precursor. In order to rekindle the expectation of the people, here is John. He is sent by God to talk where the poor and the oppressed people are suffering: they know that only Him can change their situation. Around them there are too many powerful people, who are too confident in themselves and their weapons, ready to rule, incapable of service. Luke is giving us their names; sadly, among them are highlighted also the names of religious Leaders, who have the same behaviour of the leaders who ignore God. Seven names, from the emperor to the governor, to lesser kings, to the heads of the temple, who were covering the position of chief operators of the central bank, since in the temple the rich were depositing their gold and money.

John avoids the places in which powerful people could influence the listening to the word he had received from God. He is staying in deserted places, where men are alone with themselves, or better, with God. Here the Father’s Word is strong, because it is the only thing that you can hear in the heart. The poor need conversion too, they are limited and damaged by sin too, by their selfishness which fosters sadness. They too will receive true and deep joy only from the Word which prepares them to meet the one who is coming, a Word helping them to distance themselves from the evil which makes them slaves of the earth and of men’s passions.

During this season of Advent we too can look for that desert in which God can talk, in which someone will be able to make known to our ears His Word. Will we be able to find times, even longer times, in which the only voice is God’s? Maybe it will be necessary to leave home, go to a church or a place in which silence is prepared and maintained. The word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert”. There, where nobody else is distracting us, we will be enriched with wisdom, judgement, ligh in order to be able to keep the reins of our life pointing towards the direction of true peace and true life. In this way we will be too carriers of hope, joy and trust in this world still oppressed and suffering for the presence of sin, which rules everywhere.

For this healthy and holy work we can benefit from the apostle’s prayer. He is promising his Christians to make an effort to pray for them, so they may see His will and may be enriched with wisdom to live a life that is different because of the charity it displays.