(This is the second in a series on the Sunday Scripture readings of Advent.)
By Luke Gregory
For The Catholic Messenger
According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Advent is a time of preparation that directs our hearts and minds to Christ’s second coming at the end of time and to the anniversary of Our Lord’s birth on Christmas.” If you are anything like me, keeping this focus in mind during the four weeks of Advent can be difficult. As a father of three young children, the temptation of becoming distracted by society’s bombardment of advertisements for a certain gift or toy is a real struggle, especially since the shopping push seems to begin earlier and earlier each year. For instance, this year, I went to a grocery store the day after Halloween and noticed that they already had Christmas candy on the shelves! #it’snotevenThanksgivingyet
Thanks be to God that the Church, in her wisdom, selected the readings for each week of Advent with the focus of this liturgical season in mind, thereby helping us to fight off the temptation of consumerism by maintaining our focus on what is truly important about Advent. In St. Matthew’s Gospel this weekend, we hear about St. John the Baptist and the message that he proclaimed in the desert of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” If these words did not catch the peoples’ attention, St. John’s attire and the food he ate would have. The Gospel states that “John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.” I can only imagine what the people of that time would have thought of him. However, despite the eccentric appearance of John, the message that he proclaimed rang loud and clear: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” The efficacy of St. John’s message was obvious, for the Gospel continues to say that “at that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.” Can you picture your pastor coming to Mass this weekend wearing camel’s hair, holding a jar of honey and a bag full of locusts, and telling the congregation about the upcoming communal penance service and that all need to “repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand?” You probably cannot, but maybe he should. It would certainly grab everyone’s attention!
Today, like the people of that time, we need to be awoken from our complacency and we, too, need to acknowledge our sins and repent of them. Advent is a wonderful time to prepare our hearts and souls for the anniversary of the first coming of Christ at Christmas, but we must not forget the first part of the USCCB’s definition of Advent as a time of preparation for “Christ’s second coming at the end of time” (emphasis mine). Since we do not know “the day or the hour” (Matthew 25:13), let us not grow complacent but instead, keep at the forefront of our hearts and minds this Advent that Christ will come again at the end of time and, more proximately, at the moment of our own death and judgment and that we should always be spiritually prepared to meet him when he comes, heeding the words of St. John the Baptist, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
(Luke Gregory is director of faith formation at Sacred Heart Parish in Newton.)
