Second Sunday of Advent
The gospel reading from the First Sunday of Advent culminated with our Lord’s admonition to ‘Stay awake!’ This week we hear the words of the prophet Isaiah in the mouth of St John the Baptist describing his mission to prepare a way for the Lord, and make his paths straight. These are some of the words most often heard in the sacred liturgy throughout this holy season, and reflect its penitential character: a call to prepare ourselves for the threefold coming of Christ: His coming at Christmas, His coming in the heart of each believer, and in His return in judgement at the end of time.
But this season does not posses the same character as Lent. Rather ours is a joyful longing, a waiting for the birth of our Saviour who has already overcome the world. The sentiment is summed up by St John in his First Epistle ‘Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is’ (1 John 3:2). ‘We can rejoice in the Lord even now before the reality comes to us, and before we attain to the reality, for no little joy is given by the anticipation in hope of that in which we shall participate in reality later’ (St Augustine, Sermon 21).
The length of Advent is a meditation on the promise of God to dwell with his people, which finds its greatest expression in the prophecy of Isaiah. There we read that, ‘a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel,’ and in today’s first reading that ‘there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.’ Part of our reflection during this season should be asking ourself why we feel distant from the God who dwells with us. Our actions push God away, the very God who is Emmanuel, who is so near to us. But if we love, he will come near; if we love, he will dwell with us. If our hearts remain cold we cannot hope to share fully in the joy of Christmas.
