Pilgrims on a Journey
Second Sunday of Advent
Isa 11:1-10; Ps 71; Rom 15:4-9; Mt 3:1-12
On the First Sunday of Advent, we embarked on a new journey which will eventually lead us to another feast of Christ the King in the year 2005 – a journey in which we shall face new adventures and experiences in our life. Along the way, we shall discover new things which we may have never seen or which we may have always ignored before. Surely we’ll come across difficult moments … unexpected events may come our way which may take us unaware, whereby we will experience the need to make a halt and rest. It may happen that we lose sight of the road we’d like to take in order to reach our desired destination … we may find ourselves on a mistaken route.
The liturgical readings which we reflected upon on the First Sunday of Advent bear witness to the fact that everybody is invited to embark on this journey which will usher us to a deepening and a strengthening of our personal faith experience. The extract form the letter to the Romans (13:11-14) outlines the items which may serve as the contents of the baggage that we’ll carry with us on our spiritual journey.
The liturgical texts which the Church proclaims on the Second Advent Sunday elaborates further on this theme of “journey” or “pilgrimage”, as it puts forwards three models that may enlighten our path to perfection.
In the first reading (Isa 11:1-10), the prophet Isaiah posits a list of the characteristics with which the Messiah – “the shoot [that shall] come out from the stump of Jesse” (Isa 11:1) will be endowed. These qualites, like wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord, can be likened to the gifts of the Holy Spirit which are fundamental assets for our spiritual pilgrimage, because we all need, for instance, the power to be able to take crucial decisions in life, the wisdom to do so responsibly and the gift of understanding to discern correctly what the Lord is telling us day after day. Such a model is being presented to us so that we may conduct our life in imitation of it.
The fact that everybody is being invited to take up the challenge of such a journey is once again being emphasized in a second extract taken from Paul’s letter to the Romans (15:4-9). In the context of serious conflicts between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians (i.e. Christians coming from pagan lands) Paul thunders that Christ came to save everybody. Now, those who are travelling with us on our spiritual itinerary are likewise emerging from different backgrounds and life circumstances. Following Jesus’ example, we are invited to welcome them and serve them. Many contemporaries of Jesus did not welcome him, furthermore, they rejected him, but he still left the doors of his heart wide open for them. This is another inspiring paradigm on which we are called to model our life.
The Matthean Gospel text (3:1-12) presents us with a third model: John the Baptist who preached about the necessity of penance and conversion of the heart. Like the prophets who came before him, he stressed the importance of a return to justice and right doing, of building healthy relationships based on mutual respect and honesty, and of interesting ourselves in all that can improve our well being and heal the lives of others.
All this stands in sharp contrast with the secular values promoted by the contemporary world wherein one seems ready to go against his/her own beliefs to show himself/herself better than the rest, wherein one imagines that success can be achieved through minimum effort, wherein egoism gets the upper hand as one defends his/her own interests to the detriment of others … the self reigns supreme. Perhaps we shall not pass on this message to a crowd as big as that which the Baptist had in front of him, but what is certain is that we are all invited to pay heed to the Word which is being proclaimed to us at the beginning of this Second Week of Advent so that we may at least share it with those who are most near to us.
Isa 11:1-10; Ps 71; Rom 15:4-9; Mt 3:1-12
On the First Sunday of Advent, we embarked on a new journey which will eventually lead us to another feast of Christ the King in the year 2005 – a journey in which we shall face new adventures and experiences in our life. Along the way, we shall discover new things which we may have never seen or which we may have always ignored before. Surely we’ll come across difficult moments … unexpected events may come our way which may take us unaware, whereby we will experience the need to make a halt and rest. It may happen that we lose sight of the road we’d like to take in order to reach our desired destination … we may find ourselves on a mistaken route.
The liturgical readings which we reflected upon on the First Sunday of Advent bear witness to the fact that everybody is invited to embark on this journey which will usher us to a deepening and a strengthening of our personal faith experience. The extract form the letter to the Romans (13:11-14) outlines the items which may serve as the contents of the baggage that we’ll carry with us on our spiritual journey.
The liturgical texts which the Church proclaims on the Second Advent Sunday elaborates further on this theme of “journey” or “pilgrimage”, as it puts forwards three models that may enlighten our path to perfection.
In the first reading (Isa 11:1-10), the prophet Isaiah posits a list of the characteristics with which the Messiah – “the shoot [that shall] come out from the stump of Jesse” (Isa 11:1) will be endowed. These qualites, like wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord, can be likened to the gifts of the Holy Spirit which are fundamental assets for our spiritual pilgrimage, because we all need, for instance, the power to be able to take crucial decisions in life, the wisdom to do so responsibly and the gift of understanding to discern correctly what the Lord is telling us day after day. Such a model is being presented to us so that we may conduct our life in imitation of it.
The fact that everybody is being invited to take up the challenge of such a journey is once again being emphasized in a second extract taken from Paul’s letter to the Romans (15:4-9). In the context of serious conflicts between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians (i.e. Christians coming from pagan lands) Paul thunders that Christ came to save everybody. Now, those who are travelling with us on our spiritual itinerary are likewise emerging from different backgrounds and life circumstances. Following Jesus’ example, we are invited to welcome them and serve them. Many contemporaries of Jesus did not welcome him, furthermore, they rejected him, but he still left the doors of his heart wide open for them. This is another inspiring paradigm on which we are called to model our life.
The Matthean Gospel text (3:1-12) presents us with a third model: John the Baptist who preached about the necessity of penance and conversion of the heart. Like the prophets who came before him, he stressed the importance of a return to justice and right doing, of building healthy relationships based on mutual respect and honesty, and of interesting ourselves in all that can improve our well being and heal the lives of others.
All this stands in sharp contrast with the secular values promoted by the contemporary world wherein one seems ready to go against his/her own beliefs to show himself/herself better than the rest, wherein one imagines that success can be achieved through minimum effort, wherein egoism gets the upper hand as one defends his/her own interests to the detriment of others … the self reigns supreme. Perhaps we shall not pass on this message to a crowd as big as that which the Baptist had in front of him, but what is certain is that we are all invited to pay heed to the Word which is being proclaimed to us at the beginning of this Second Week of Advent so that we may at least share it with those who are most near to us.
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