Second Sunday of Advent

December 7, 2025

Matthew 3: 1-12

    The first reading today from Isaiah gives us the background for the appearance of John the Baptist.  Isaiah is pointing to the day when “a root shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.  The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.”  Isaiah goes on the state the qualities of this messiah:  full of wisdom and understanding, full of strength and knowledge of the Lord, who will judge the poor with justice.  Isaiah points to a time of peace and well being like no one has ever seen.  And so you say, ‘We are still waiting!’  Yes, we are still waiting, but at least now we know what we are waiting for because Jesus has shown us the way to the Father.  He made the first steps in bringing this wonderful time into being.

    Now, it is the call of John the Baptist that may wake us up to what is expected of us.  He is “the voice of one crying out in the desert, prepare the way of the Lord.”  John’s appearance was like the voice of God coming alive again in Israel;  it had been 400 years since the last prophet.  John denounce evil wherever he saw it whether the source is the king, the church leaders, or the crowd of listeners themselves.  But, his point is not just to condemn people, to embarrass them, to make them want to die.  Rather, it was to call them back to God, to challenge them to be what they could be.  John’s call is a call to action in thought, word, and deed.  And, it is not all about John, but it is to point beyond himself to another, to one greater than himself:  “I am not worthy to carry his sandals.”  

    However, John tells it like it is:  do not come out to the desert as a curious onlooker, as one who wants to be in the know, or as one who wants to find fault with the preacher.  John calls all to repentance of the heart which finds expression in life:  “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.”  It is not good enough to simply say, ‘We are saved because Abraham is our father.’  This statement would shock any Jew of John’s day.  The real way is to follow John’s advice to change the direction of one’s life and turn back to God.  Not the God of our own making, bur the God which Jesus Christ will show us.  With Jesus and God, we will bring into being the vision of Isaiah we heard in the first reading.  And we will do it one life lived well at a time.

    Paul in is letter to the Romans reminds us and encourages us in our particular life lived for God’s Kingdom.  He reminds us that charity begins at home:  “Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God.”  Christ and therefore ourselves are called to minster to one another as members of the Christian community, His body, and also to those who do not yet follow Christ.  How do you think that people found their way into the church in those early years?  Was it by preaching on a street corner or writing a fascinating epistle?  NO, it was by observing how the Christians treated one another, AND how the Christians treated those who did not believe, how the Christians ministered to everyone who was in need, either physically or spiritually.

   This then is the meaning of Advent:  to be Christ to those who are one of us and even more to those who do not know Christ.  We are called to be precursors in the same way John the Baptist was. This can be hard to do with someone we meet who doesn’t believe as we do. Jesus, John, and Paul certainly found this out, but it did not stop them. The challenge they offer is to change the direction of our lives.  This is not the message we really want to hear.  But this is the message of John the Baptist, really, the message of Christ, Our Lord in Advent of 2022.  The task seems impossible, but only if we try to do it all at once.  John and Paul did not; Jesus only did so after his Incarnate life was fulfilled in his passion, death and resurrection.  But we live it out as John and Paul did: 0ne life lived well at a time.

Fr. John Tran