Dec. 4, 2022: 2nd Sunday Advent A
Dec. 4, 2022: 2nd Sunday Advent A
Do you have someone you trust that you can confide your innermost secret? The parents of our second graders had a chance this weekend to take a peek at their children’s innermost thoughts. As the children were preparing a list of what to confess to the priests for their First Reconciliation, many of them brought their list of sins to their parents to look over. This is probably the first and the last time that their children freely reveal what’s really going on in their hearts. I would imagine that one temptation for the parents as they reviewed their children’s lists is to inform their kids that some sins are missing from their list.
Some children were very nervous during First Reconciliation, as their body language revealed how tense and stressful it was to talk to another person about their sins. I was struck by how their young conscience was sensitive to what we adults would consider as ‘little’ or ‘silly’ sins—white lies, refusal to listen, being mean to their siblings, and being annoyed. If I were to broadly categorize their sins, I would say they all fall under the category of ingratitude.
Gratitude is recognizing everything as a gift to be cherished, fostered, and shared. A Christian is one who sees everything as a gift from God. Everything points our minds and hearts to the Giver of all good gifts. Ingratitude is to take something and claim it as our own, thereby disconnecting the gift from the Giver. Our conscience, which I refer to as our “Sixth Sense,” allows us to know when we have failed to respond to God’s offer of love by failing to love God and our neighbor. Our deep interior knowledge of our sinfulness, of the disorder in our lives, and of resentments should lead us to sorrow and confusion as to why we fail to be grateful to God for all his goodness. Let’s ask an honest question to ourselves: what am I unhappy about in my life? Is the root of this unhappiness a hidden ingratitude?
When you heard the words of John the Baptist, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near,” what did you feel inside? Did his words resonate with you to the point that you also desire to turn your life to God? Or did you feel detached or unemotional like the Pharisees who came out of curiosity to see the spectacle of people getting baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. True repentance, John declared, is evidenced by inward conversion and not just external observance.
When I prayed with this scripture, I imaginatively placed myself in the Jordan River among the throngs of people in line to be baptized by John the Baptist. When my turn came to be baptized by John the Baptist, I imagined John asking me, “Why are you here, Paul? What do you seek?” In my prayer, I responded, “I want to rededicate my life to God. I have been a priest now for 14 years. Regretfully, I have taken many gifts that God has given me for granted, and I’m afraid that I have pushed God from the center of my life and instead placed my preoccupation in the center. I need a Savior in my life.” Then I imagined John the Baptist pointing me to Jesus who was standing by the bank of the River Jordan and saying, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world… while I baptize you with water of repentance, he will baptize you with the inner, transformational power of God’s Holy Spirit… Prepare yourself for the way of the Lord’s coming. Clear your road to him.”
This Advent, John the Baptist is reminding us that the Savior is about to arrive. If we are honest with ourselves, we admit that we struggle to find God, to know God, and to love God. On our own we cannot save ourselves; as much as we delude ourselves that we are fine on our own, we are that one sheep among 99 who has wandered off from the Father’s house and we do not even know that we’re lost.
If we were to make a list of sins like the First Reconciliation children, among the sins would be our failure to be grateful to God, that is, failure to notice the numerous ways in which God has provided for us. The Heavenly Father already knows our “list,” just as the parents of the First Reconciliation children. Through John the Baptist, the Father reminds us to turn our lives toward him once again. He sent His only Son because we need a Savior. Pope Francis said, "God is in love with you in a way that not even the greatest of theologians can ever fully explain. God thinks of each of us and loves each of us. He 'dreams' about us. He dreams of how He will rejoice with us. He wants to renew our hearts so that joy may triumph."
So as we gaze at the flickering Second Advent candle, we ask the Father to enkindle in us the gift of faith. As prophet Micah prophesied that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, we long and desire for Jesus to be born once again in our hearts. We long for the Lord to come and change our lives. Come Lord Jesus, come!
