ME
NU

OMELIE / Omelie EN

04 dic 2022
04/12/2022 – 2nd Sunday in Advent - year A

04/12/2022 – 2nd Sunday in Advent - year A

Reading 1 IS 11,1-10 Psalm 71 Reading 2 ROM 15,4-9 Gospel MT 3,1-12

John the Baptist’s words are clarified and complimented by the Prophet Isaiah’s, who today we hear in one of his pages among the most beautiful and fullest of hope. He is anticipating the One who will live of the Lord’s Spirit and who will bring that Spirit on earth so it may be fertilised and renewed by it.

We will look at him to learn, to find advice, to have an example of life. His judgements are firm and clear, so we will learn from him how to evaluate good and evil. His word is positive, and gives assurance to those who treasure it. When he will be listened to and obeyed, then every man’s dreams will also come true, the dreams of peace, of communion, of sharing.

The prophet is saying the same by using very strong images: wild animals will not frighten anybody anymore, they will find accord among each other: the pairing of wolf and lamb, cow and bear, snake and toddler, leopard and kid will not be anymore synonym for danger and unfriendliness, fear and death. When the one who is announced will be with us, then things will change. Now the violent, the arrogant, the scoundrel and the fraudsters upset and cause men to be on their guard, to doubt, to be suspicious, to cultivate anxiety and tension, but when He will be here, the Lord, then all these situations will change. Then, in the hearts full of enmity will enter a will of peace and ability to find common ground, and this will be an opportunity for joy and consolation for everyone.

The prophecy is true, and therefore we need to prepare ourselves to welcome the coming of the one who brings the Lord’s Spirit! John the Baptist is starting the preparations.

He dresses like a prophet and eats just what is essential to attract men’s attention; he goes into the desert to meet the people who cross it during their travels, so his words and his strong reminders might reach many places and many cities even very far away. His efforts, taken up to obey God, is repaid: big crowds arrive to receive his message and accomplish the conversion of the heart. This happens through the confession of the sins: we cannot welcome the one sent by God and continue to justify our selfishness and our disobedience. Our mind and our heart need to be free, and our body itself needs to be redied through abstinence and temperance. The one who is coming will ask us to carry the cross: we will have to be ready even to suffer.

To those who come to him only for curiosity, without the will to change their behaviours and without recognising their unfaithfulness to the covenant with God, John shouts firmly: “You brood of vipers”!

They who thinks they are ok, that they do not need God’s Messanger, to be able to judge others putting themselves in His place, these are dangerous people, people to guard ourselves against, because we cannot trust them as we would not trust poisonous snakes.

We will not look for these behaviours in others, we will just need to make sure we do not cultivate and grow them in us. We will try to learn from the Lord Jesus, by keeping in us His feelings, which are benevolent, faithful, merciful and a praise to God.

This is what the apostle Paul is all about when he writes the Romans: he urges us too to treasure the Scriptures, which are given to us as a great gift from God. Trough them we can get to know Him, through them we grow in wisdom and judgement and we become steadfast in faith by receiving consolation. Through the studying of the Scriptures we are feeding our hope, without which the whole life is losing its meaning, it’s attractiveness, and the will is weakened. We love the scriptures, looking for them with perseverance!

Thanks to them we will receive the light and the strength to «think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus» and to welcome one another in a way to be the glory of the only God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We will be ready for when He will come in glory: He will recognise us as His. But we do not have to wait for some unknown time: this year’s Christmas is already a sign and a sacrament of His return. Let’s us begin right away to obey John and cultivate the new feelings which we do not receive from the familiarity with this world, but only by the union with our Saviour.