Second Sunday of Advent
Reflection: Joy to the world
By SISTER MARY McGLONE
Years ago, I used to take care of my “Irish twin” nephews.
One day, spring had finally triumphed over winter, the snow had disappeared and made way for that velvety-soft first growth of grass. One of the boys broke through the front door and did a belly dive to the ground yelling, “GRASS!”
Once landed, he remained for about a minute, contemplating what looked like a fresh forest of green when observed at ground level. His joy and fascination were so complete that I had to get down (no belly flop) and see what had captured his attention. Indeed, it was glorious!
I remembered that as I read today’s Liturgy of the Word. Baruch and Paul emphasize themes of joy. We don’t often hear from Baruch. He’s about as famous for being Jeremiah’s scribe as for the book that bears his name (Jeremiah 32:12-16). Today, we hear him echo Jeremiah’s promise of the restoration of the Chosen People.
As in last week’s Scriptures, the people who hear God’s good news are the exiles who had languished in a foreign land for a little more than 40 years. That was plenty of time to lose their traditions and give up on the God of Israel. Except that they didn’t. Prophets helped them understand what was happening and inspired visions of joy and the hope and for what would come from the hand of God.
As Baruch pledges that God will help, he tells “daughter Jerusalem” to abandon mourning and misery and dress up like a bishop or high priest with a tall mitre displaying God’s own name. Baruch sums up his message with his last line, “God is leading you in joy, God’s glory brightens your way, and you are on the road to a community of justice and mercy.”
Our Gospel brings us back to John the Baptist. It might seem strange to talk about that ascetic, bellowing prophet as a herald of joy, but it’s true. First of all, Luke is careful to tell us when and where John lived. He told his readers that John was a real person who had lived in the desert in reasonably recent history.
When he says, “The word of God came to John,” Luke indicates that Earth was being permeated by heaven. John’s time was no ordinary time, just as in the days when God led the people by divine light, John and friends lived in what the Scriptures call a kairos, an opportune time, a time when heaven and Earth are in synch (“on earth as it is in heaven”). A time when something entirely new can happen.
What word of God, what kairos time did John talk about? First of all, he announced the forgiveness of sin. The past had no more hold on people. No one need be defined by where they had been, but by where they were going.
John invited others to assume a new mindset, metanoia, translated here as “repentance.” In Greek, metanoia comes from the combination of words meaning beyond and mind. Metanoia is not as simple as repentance. Metanoia transforms our minds and spirituality, our social awareness, our world vision, and our relationships. Metanoia is an ongoing process of being willingly captivated by the possibilities God holds out for the world. Flattening mountains and straightening roads are minutiae in comparison with the promise, “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.” They will see it in those who are living metanoia.
We need to remember that we do not choose metanoia; it is a grace, an offer we can accept or refuse. Paul says this to the Philippians with his promise, “The One who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” God inspires metanoia, God continues working within and among us to “complete” it.
Metanoia was the experience that Mary had in the Annunciation, the same grace that led disciples to leave everything behind to follow Jesus. Metanoia involves the sacrifice of setting off on an enticing adventure that colors and reevaluates everything else in our lives. It becomes a communal adventure, joining people together in joyful anticipation, in action and in union with God. Metanoia propels us beyond our puny mindsets into a grand experience of living in unanticipated joy.
This week we will celebrate both the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Immaculate Conception reminds us that humanity is made for God. Guadalupe gives witness that Christianity belongs to every culture. Both feasts celebrate the human potential to collaborate with God’s ongoing offers of grace and thus change history.
Let’s celebrate this week with John, who believed in the joy of metanoia and with Mary who rejoiced when invited to live its promise.
Reading I
(Baruch 5: 1-9)
Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery;
put on the splendor of glory from God forever:
wrapped in the cloak of justice from God,
bear on your head the mitre
that displays the glory of the eternal name.
For God will show all the earth your splendor:
you will be named by God forever
the peace of justice, the glory of God’s worship.
Up, Jerusalem! stand upon the heights;
look to the east and see your children
gathered from the east and the west
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that they are remembered by God.
Led away on foot by their enemies they left you:
but God will bring them back to you
borne aloft in glory as on royal thrones.
For God has commanded
that every lofty mountain be made low,
and that the age-old depths and gorges
be filled to level ground,
that Israel may advance secure in the glory of God.
The forests and every fragrant kind of tree
have overshadowed Israel at God’s command;
for God is leading Israel in joy
by the light of his glory,
with his mercy and justice for company.
Responsorial Psalm
(Psalm 126: 1-6)
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Then they said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those who sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Reading II
(Philippians 1: 4-6, 8-11)
Brothers and sisters:
I pray always with joy in my every prayer for all of you,
because of your partnership for the gospel
from the first day until now.
I am confident of this,
that the one who began a good work in you
will continue to complete it
until the day of Christ Jesus.
God is my witness,
how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And this is my prayer:
that your love may increase ever more and more
in knowledge and every kind of perception,
to discern what is of value,
so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness
that comes through Jesus Christ
for the glory and praise of God.
Gospel
(Luke 3: 1-6)
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,
and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region
of Ituraea and Trachonitis,
and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,
during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,
the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.
John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”