First reading: Is. 11: 1-10
“But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from
his roots a bud shall blossom. The
spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of
understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and
of fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord. Not by appearances shall he judge, nor by
hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide
aright for the land’s afflicted. He
shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his
lips he shall slay the wicked. Justice
shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips. Then the wolf shall be a 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. The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,
together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and
the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.
There shall be no more harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the
earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord, as water covers the sea. On that day, the root of Jesse, set up as a
signal for the nations, the Gentiles shall seek out, for his dwelling shall be
glorious.”
Second reading: Rom. 15: 4-9
“For whatever was written previously was written for our
instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement of the scriptures we
might have hope. May the God of
endurance and encouragement grant you to think in harmony with one another, in
keeping with Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one voice glorify
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of
God. For I say that Christ became a
minister of the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, to confirm the promises
to the patriarchs, but so that the Gentiles might glorify God for his
mercy. As it is written: Therefore, I
will praise you among the Gentiles and sing praises to your name.”
Gospel reading: Mt. 3: 1-12
“In those days John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the
desert of Judea [and] saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at
hand!’ It was of him that the prophet
Isaiah had spoken when he said: ‘A voice of one crying out in the desert,
prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.’ John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and
had a leather belt around his waist. His
food was locust and wild honey. At that
time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going
out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they
acknowledged their sins.
When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to
his baptism, he said to them, ‘you brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming
wrath? Produce good fruit as evidence of
you repentance. And do not presume to
say to yourselves, ‘we have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God can raise up children to
Abraham from these stones. Even now the
ax lies at the root of the trees.
Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and
thrown into the fire. I am baptizing you
with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than
I. I am not worthy to carry his
sandals. He will baptize you will the
holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan
is in his hand. He will clear his
threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn
with unquenchable fire.”
Introductory theme summary:
There is a double theme in today’s readings. The primary theme points to the anticipated
coming of the Messiah, with the secondary theme pointing to the environment
surrounding his coming. The first
reading describes the Messiah’s attributes and the environment that will result
from his coming, with the second reading pointing to the environment
immediately following his having come; and the Gospel reading highlights his
actual “Coming.”
Reflection:
Most notably, in the first reading we have a description of
an idyllic society that results directly from the coming of the Messiah. However, a literal or even metaphorical
understanding of that description indicates that, though the Messiah has come,
this society has yet to come. We should
note that the description of that society, in most examples, puts what are
naturally hostile members of the animal kingdom together in a strikingly
peaceful association with one another.
In the second reading we have Paul urging how necessary it
is for the Jews and the Gentiles to accept one another in order to form a
unification of all people in Christ as God’s people. From this we can begin to identify a
metaphorical understanding for the first reading’s description as pointing to
the hostility between Gentile and Jew; or rather, differences between people
that we would characterize today as prejudices.
When putting these two readings together for a better
understanding of the idyllic society we all wait in joyful hope for, it can
safely be asserted that WE have a part
to play in that eventuality. We must
fully embrace the Christian principal of loving thy neighbor for that to occur,
and do so with utter and total completeness.
This is a tremendous challenge for all of us in this self-seeking society
of ours that still sins, in many cases with total abandon, and as well commits
injustices against the weak with barely a thought.
What must WE do to
change the course of our society?
Let’s examine the Gospel reading to see if it yields an
answer to this question for us. In the
Gospel we have John the Baptist’s call “Repent, for the Kingdom is at hand.” The Gospel reading is solely concerned with
the absolute necessity for us to repent our sins. According to John’s perspective there is a
direct correlation between the coming of the Kingdom and OUR repentance of sin. Now
clearly, those who are reading this are not likely to represent those
impenitent just mentioned above. So, the
question for us now becomes: how can we who accept the need to repent our sins,
and injustices, influence those who do not, to do so in order to change the
course of our society?
Truly, this is the toughest problem our society now faces. Every ill behavior our society faces is in
its own essence – SIN. Unfortunately, as
soon as anyone instructs another on their sins and the need to repent them that
person who dares to express such a concern is perceived as self-righteous and reasonably
critical. These concerns are heard as
judgments rather than as genuine concern for another person’s eternal well-being. No one seems humble enough to accept
instruction from another concerning their own sins. Do they not understand, “A wise son loves
correction, but the senseless one heeds no rebuke” (Prv. 13:1)?
Conversely, it truly is every individual’s personal
responsibility to listen to his or her own conscience. This, it would seem, renders everyone who
does not have the legitimate authority to instruct another on matters concerning
sin, speechless, thus reserving that responsibility to all parents and religious
leaders exclusively. What are we to do
if parents and our religious leaders no longer remind believers of the need to
repent their sins and sinfulness?
Well the answer is actually very simple, just not easy. In a word: Forbearance! There is no better way to provoke the
silenced voice of a sinner’s conscience than to turn the other cheek when faced
with suffering the injury of their sins, and injustices. This is also the boldest way to display
ourselves as true children of God, and incite the motion of the Holy Spirit. There will be no need for proclamations from
us of any kind. The Holy Spirit will
communicate to each conscience all that is needed to be heard by that soul; and
do so better than any person could even imagine accomplishing on his or her own. This is how the children of God are meant to
work WITH the Holy Spirit. All we need to do is love them enough to
forbear their injuries, and forgivingly pray for them to come to repentance. This is the greatest challenge for all true
Christians that yields the greatest of all fruits – participation in Christ’s
sacrifice as full members of His body.
Come! Let us show
ourselves to be TRUE children of God and advance God’s kingdom on earth by
practicing forbearance so that the Holy Spirit can instruct and inspire sinners
to repent their sins and injustices.
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