December 4, 2022

2nd Sunday of Advent (A)

This Advent Don’t Settle for the Status Quo

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

We cannot journey to Christmas without encountering John the Baptist. His camel hair coat and peculiar desert diet hardly make him a figure we can easily embrace. And yet there he is, preaching his stern, uncompromising message of repentance, a solitary voice “crying out in the desert” with a message few care to heed. He is not the kind of guest you’d invite to your Christmas party!

Yet, however unattractive he be, Our Lord said, “There is no man born of woman greater than John. He is the bridge between the Old and New Testaments, the last and greatest of the Prophets; the Precursor; the Herald of the Messiah. So, we can hardly overlook him! If we take our spiritual life seriously, we cannot and should not ignore the Baptist’s call to repentance—to what in the original Greek is called “metanoia.”

It means a complete change of mind and heart which turns us away from sin and toward God. This is the Baptist’s challenge to us who are often more content to remain the same, to be left alone. Yet, the Gospel challenge is about changing, about allowing for new growth, about moving from where we are to where God wants us to be.

Can we say that the Gospel message has changed our way of thinking, our behavior, our attitude toward others? Has it shaped our values? A great help to taking up the challenge of this metanoia, or change is making a regular self-examination of conscience and to take advantage of the graces that come from the Sacrament of Penance. It is an experience we postpone, we resist, we may even fear, but in it are found peace and the joy of a new beginning.

Today the Baptist summons us to rally our courage for what Fr. Nouwen calls the “grace of self-confrontation.” I’d like to provide have a little experience of making an examination of conscience. Our reaction to this series of questions I hope will move us to open the confessional door this Advent:
 

• Am I able to admit that I don’t have all the answers?
• Can I admit mistakes without blaming others?
• Do I figure out why I fail to do good?
• Do I console and help those who mourn and suffer?
• Have I been able to say: “I am sorry” and mean it?
• Am I charitable to others…even the ungrateful or those I don’t like?
• Am I able to affirm others rather than criticize them?
• Do I realize that every person is just as important as me?
• Do I choose to forgive, or do I hold a grudge?
• Do the needs of others come before my own?
• Am I honest about my own faults and failings?
• Do I keep myself pure in mind, body, and soul?
• Do I seek revenge?
• Am I at peace with myself and others?
• Am I only a Christian when it is convenient for me?
• Am I always complaining about something?
• Do I take the time for God through daily prayer and Mass every week?

St. John would not have us satisfied with the status quo. He would not have us be what Pope Francis calls, “armchair Christians,” but serious disciples on the road of repentance that leads to a joyous Christmas!