The readings for today, the second Sunday of Advent, convey a message of fulfillment, completion, and restoration. We are reminded that God's love for us is such that his kingdom, the completed kingdom of Jesus Christ, breaks forth into the world of our everyday experiences, into the personal here and now of each of us, and has the power to make everything entirely new.
Rather than being a message that serves only as a mere reminder that if we could just somehow believe things would be better, it is a message that goes much further and has real meaning for people who live real lives. The message for today is one that assures us of in-breaking of kingdom of God into our present.
Too often the situations of life can tempt our faith—the best we can do with life, we may feel, is to be stoic about it. Perhaps we may be tempted to say, "Fine, go ahead and put on all the trappings of the season, but does anything really make a difference? Does anything really change at all?" Today's message is for the realists among us. It is for those whose ability to believe has been tempted by the events of life. Nevertheless, it's also a reminder both of the glory to come and that which has been given to us already.
The first reading today, which is actually the entire fifth chapter of Baruch, is set against the background of Babylonian exile and the fall of Jerusalem. Certainly it was a situation in which a mere admonition—a few words of encouragement—only to believe or to understand that all things are surely serving a purpose, would not have been taken well. The people to whom Baruch was written had lost everything—their enemies had triumphed over them and they were led away in defeat. It's doubtful that they would have been open to being told that all they need is to have a better attitude about the whole thing. It's doubtful that they would have accepted a message of "just believe."
Nevertheless, they do receive a message of God's love—it is a message of the power of God to enter into the world of existence and to transform it in real way. It is a message that speaks to the now of individuals and to the now of a nation of people. It points us simultaneously to the time of completion and to the in-breaking of God into our world. Therefore, today's is a message of incarnation: of what is hoped and longed for being made present in a real and substantial way. It's the message of a gift to us and looking forward a little we might see that it's also a message of a sacrifice that frees us from an even greater captivity, which is at the root of all spiritual exile.
We too may look for God's real in-breaking kingdom to be revealed among us in our lives individually and as a whole, as a Church and as a human family whose divisions long—and even cry out—to disappear. The kingdom of God is such that we learn by observation that it comes into our world in every period of human history. The kingdom comes to us from the time of completion of all things to somehow be made present to us in a real way, in a way that has the power to affect our lives and our world. It is the power of a reconciling God making the central event in reconciliation—the coming of Christ and his sacrifice—always present to us.
The message for today is indeed one of the love of God who is able to do all things, and it's also a message filled with hope. The Advent season in itself teaches us to be forward-looking to the day of the Lord's coming, to the last day, but also teaches us to look to the here and now for the kingdom of God. The present itself must hold the seeds of hope, else wise we are left with emptiness and void of hope. In a real and concrete way the present must yield to that power that makes every lofty mountain low and fills the deepest age-old depths.
Five hundred years—more or less—had passed from the time of the writing of Baruch to the birth of the Lord. The people were told to put away their misery and to expect the desert to bloom, and to know with certitude that the angels of mercy and justice were leading and lighting the way. Rather than being a given a hope to be long-delayed, the people to whom Baruch wrote experienced the kingdom of God entering their world—their here and now—from the time of final completion. They were given a vision and accompanying hope, but more they were given the ability to realize that God was at work among them in their situation of exile.
While we too look with faith to the future completion of God's work on earth, we must also look to the past, to a time when God broke into the world of human affairs with the birth of the infant Jesus at Bethlehem. We also look, perhaps in a way that some may consider to be more realistic, to our present lives because our everyday lives are where we experience our truest struggles. It is also in the here and now where past and future collide and where we take our beliefs into consideration and make decisions that are ultimately important for us.
The lesson of the in-breaking of the kingdom of God into our world, into all times of human affairs, is that we are not left alone. The power of God is at work always and at all times reconciling, healing, and loving us. He whom we call God, our Lord Jesus, is present before us inviting us to partake in his presence and in the love that has the power to transform us. We keep in mind that he transforms real lives, lives that struggle in the here and now, and perhaps struggle even to begin to believe. His kingdom enters our world and does something so wonderful that it can only be approximated in the language of metaphor.
He comes to us to, to move the mountains and fill the valleys, to populate the seeming wastelands of our lives with forests of fragrant evergreens. He breaks forth into the world of personal longings to bring us his kingdom of peace, mercy, and justice in a real and lasting way.
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