The Gift of Repentance

Second Sunday of Advent. Fr John Patrick Kenrick preaches on the true meaning of repentance.

In the season of Advent we reflect on the hope that comes to us from a Saviour born of God’s chosen people, the Jews. God chose his people for a purpose, to witness to the One true God and to His love for humanity. The chosen people have known infidelity and suffering but they have also been reminded so often of God’s tender love and mercy.

The first reading is a call for repentance from the prophet Baruch who describes a sad state of affairs. Jerusalem has fallen, destroyed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. The prophet is writing in exile and he is conscious of the sins of his people. He addresses himself to Jerusalem because for the chosen people guilt is not so much individual guilt – it is more a collective guilt. For the same reason, repentance is possible just because God’s promises to his people as a whole are certain. Baruch declares ‘God will guide Israel in joy by the light of His glory’. In Advent we need to become more aware not only of our personal sins but also of the way in which our whole community, our society, falls short of what God expects of us – like the bill to allow assisted suicide.

Sometimes we may think that God has forgotten us or given up on us. That is how the Jews must have felt in Babylon. To this Baruch says no, God is still here. He will liberate us and raise us to glory and that is why we can repent not just with confidence but with joy. What Baruch is telling his people is meant for us too. Our repentance is not the condition for God’s mercy. It is simply the way we grasp hold of the gifts that God is always holding out to us. In this season of Advent we should remember that repentance is just accepting the forgiveness that God is always extending to us. It is as simple as that. God’s own Son born in Bethlehem and raised to glory for our redemption stands at the centre of human history waiting to be received. We should pray for our society as a whole to receive him.

St Paul expresses this well in the second reading from Philippians. For him repentance means learning to value what God is offering us, to value Christ, to value our faith. God doesn’t give us faith and hope in order to give up on us when we falter. The thing is to persevere conscious that God has the power to complete what he has begun. And the key to everything says Paul is to grow in love for each other, because that is the way we grow in our understanding of what God is doing with us. There are echoes of that point in the recent papal encyclical Dilexit Nos. The more love we show to those who are not believers the more likely they are to see the truth.

The gospel today sums up the message of hope in Advent. When we look at the world everything seems to be going wrong. But the point is to look not at the world but at God – then the picture changes completely. When God inspired John the Baptist to preach repentance the times didn’t seem propitious. The Romans were in charge, Tiberius was emperor, Herod Antipas and his brothers were the local despots and the chief priests that unholy pair Annas and Caiaphas. Yet, the really significant event was John’s preaching in the wilderness. Once again repentance meant accepting the certainty of God’s

promises. Only this time there was a difference, because the Messiah was about to be revealed.

Repentance can sound a heavy sort of thing. That is why the Church has another word – reconciliation. And it is meant to be collective not just individual. We go to confession in Advent to unburden ourselves and we ask God to complete his work in us and in our society. As Christians we are being asked to make smooth the path for others by showing them that sin is no obstacle to God’s love and mercy. That is the only way to bring true hope to the world, by first renewing our own fidelity to Christ – who is always with us.

Readings: Baruch 5:1-9 | Philippians 1:4-6,8-11 | Luke 3:1-6