SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT, December 4, 2022
(Isaiah 11:1-10; Romans 15:4-9; Matthew 3:1-12)
This year’s new TV shows are said to feature ever more
powerful characters. According to one writer, people don't care whether these characters
are morally good or bad. What they are interested in are their displays of
power. The writer laments the deterioration of morality in Western culture.
Like John the Baptist in the gospel today, he criticizes the growing lack of
virtue.
John does not hesitate to denounce the Pharisees and
Sadducees for their duplicity. They come as pious as Carmelite nuns to see him,
the holy man of the desert. But beneath their sanitized exterior lies arrogance
and disdain. These people are the same people who will harass Jesus for his
outreach to sinners. No wonder John calls them a "breed of vipers."
If he were alive today, John would not remain silent before
the irresponsible sectors of our society. They are the ones who want to make abortion
available on demand. The irresponsible also include those who reject any form
of sacrifice to control climate change. Newspapers often take John's critical
stance by warning of the damage that global warming is causing. They rightly
say that if a concerted effort to control the burning of fossil fuels is not
put into effect soon, future generations will suffer from ever more destructive
hurricanes and ever more unbearable temperatures. With even more vigor the
Church has condemned abortion as the taking of human life. She has said that
those who knowingly have or promote abortion are excommunicated. The newspapers
and the Church, like John himself, serve as prophets of destruction that are
necessary to capture the attention of the people.
However, John's message mentions the coming of a prophet
more powerful than himself. According to John, this prophet is going to
mercilessly punish the unjust with fire. He does not name who he is, but we know
that he has Jesus in mind. Certainly, Jesus will show power over unclean
spirits. Also, he will show anger when he purifies the Temple of the merchants.
However, his mission will have a very different character than that of John and
the prophets of destruction.
Jesus will not act like the great retaliator that John
expects. He will not go scolding drunkards, nor scolding prostitutes. On the
contrary, Jesus will eat with sinners and talk with women of ill repute. In
this way he will try to transform sinners by acts that touch their hearts. He
will know that every human heart has the capacity to turn to God when it feels
his love. Like the wolf living with the lamb in the first reading, Jesus will
instruct all humans to live together in peace with God as their Father.
We have to respond to God's love now. Our response should
include behaviors that alleviate global warming destruction as well as abortion.
We could turn the thermostat down a few degrees in the winter and a couple up
in the summer. In the second reading Saint Paul tells the Christians in Rome to
serve one another as Christ served all. By resisting climate change, we would
be serving not so much our contemporaries as future generations. The effect
will be the same. We would be treating other people with the love of brothers
and sisters.
