2nd. Sunday of Advent (A)
(Isaiah
11:1-10; St. Paul to the Romans 15:4-9; St. Matthew's Gospel 3:1-12).
Advent is the season given us by Mother Church to prepare
the way for Jesus' coming: He wishes to heal
our world’s suffering, and for that He needs entrance to the minds and welcome
in the hearts and of men and women everywhere, most especially, the hearts and
minds of every single Catholic and Christian; for no one is holy before the
Lord, and pseudo-religiosity is among the world’s deepest and most painful sores. Let each of us, as St. Paul said:
With one accord, with one
voice, (learn to) glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
at this our Sunday gathering, and pray that His Spirit may
rule in us, our families, our society and our world.
In today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah, we heard
some words which are frequently imitated today by people of all persuasions:
They
shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain.
For there are many who, when speaking of themselves, use
such expressions as, "I harm no one, I hurt nothing", thereby witnessing
to and justifying their own life-styles.
If we try to take their words in the kindest way and on the worldwide
scale, we can see what our modern society is claiming, for there seems to be no
doubt that our world is, in a certain measure, improving; evidence, perhaps, of
some moral progress – largely built on originally Christian foundations -- with
regard to human beings, animals,
nature, and even the environment,
beginning to be afforded more respect.
In the past, kings, emperors, and rulers have waged
dreadful, slaughter-full, wars, often enough for merely personal pride and
national advantage. At other times, when
floods came and crops failed, thousands, even millions died, and nothing was
done by the rest of mankind. You might
say that was because others did not know what was happening, and that is indeed
very true, but it is far from the whole truth, because even in more recent
times, the potato famine in Ireland, for example, was known and more or less
politically ignored, while the world-wide slave trade was blatantly practiced
and protected -- not only by colonial
powers -- for profit and power.
Today, however, the nations of the world are regularly
urged, and frequently consent, to
join together in providing help where and when needed. Children are no longer used for cheap labour
with such impunity as was formerly the case, and the equality of women is more
widely recognized and accepted. In
modern societies the poor are supported; the disabled are beginning to be
integrated more, and the mentally incapable are subjects to be cared for, not
nuisances to be buried in oblivion or otherwise disposed of. In all such respects our world is, indeed, much
improved, and these advances are frequently, but quite wrongly, considered to
be the result of purely human endeavour by those who think that to do no hurt,
no harm, or even better, to do good, promote ‘freedom’ all around, is the
panacea for all our world's needs and the surest guide to human fulfilment.
But all that, which is, it might seem, in such close accordance
with Isaiah’s glorious prophecy, was – according to the prophet himself -- to
come about by the coming of the Messiah for which Isaiah prayed with
such burning hope and which St. John the Baptist in our Gospel reading
translated into such blazing expectation, and that expectation, dear People
of God is largely unknown today: good people of the world plan and do good
things BUT those good things are the fruit of their own minds and hearts, for
their friends neighbours, and all others like themselves, they are not thoughts,
purposes and plans for God’s People; and as such, our modern do-gooders-of-much-good
have no need for any inspiration, grace, and strength coming from any pretended
Messiah.
However, there are other, disturbing, indications, which
seem to contradict such a rosy picture.
Never in history have there been such murderously successful leaders as
Hitler the racist, Lenin the ideologist, and Stalin the opportunist tyrant, to
say nothing of the Far Eastern demagogue, Chairman Mao, and petty African
tyrants. Closer to home and in days of
peace, politics and politicians are suspect, being openly mistrusted by large
swathes of the population; terrorism is not only practiced but also openly
justified, while money is worshipped and thuggery practiced by drug barons and
their minions who ruin more lives world-wide than even Hitler or Stalin were
able to kill. Corruption and venality are
everywhere to be found infecting iconic sporting events, while terrorism and
rogue states such as North Korea, Iran, and Somalia are constantly in media
headlines.
Such considerations should lead us to think that perhaps our
world’s apparent moral progress is not the same thing as real spiritual
progress; and that is indeed the case, for morality is not holiness: mere
morality can mask supreme pride, whereas holiness is not possible apart from
fundamental humility. The Scribes and
Pharisees were most moral, despising the licentiousness and cruelty of both
Roman and Hellenistic society; and yet you will remember from the Gospel
reading that John the Baptist said some seemingly cruel words to the Scribes
and Pharisees coming to him for baptism:
Brood of vipers, who warned you to
flee from the wrath to come?
What was John targeting with such severity? It was their racial pride, their presumed personal
righteousness:
Abraham
is our father. (John 8:39)
The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men --
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all
that I possess.' (Luke 18:11-12)
What then is the Christian truth about our world's
progress?
It would seem that, to a large extent, the progress, which
has been noted, is due to greater public awareness:
Then He said to me, "Son
of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark,
every man in the room of his idols? For they say, 'The LORD does not see us.'
" (Ezekiel 8:12)
You have set our iniquities
before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance. (Ps 90:8)
Harm and hurt are more readily done in the dark. And so, while the light of day and the glare
of public awareness can guide and promote human sympathy as they also expose
and dissuade criminality, only the light of God’s grace discovers the pride and
self-love which lie so often hidden in the depths of men's hearts, and which so
frequently stain their most noble efforts and motivate their most abominable
crimes.
Today we have instant publicity, world-wide awareness, and therein
a primary reason for our apparent moral improvement; the counter indications,
on the other hand, show that wide-spread within human society today there are
latent forces capable of causing terrible harm and great hurt, forces which, far
from being fundamentally changed by the threat of possible exposure, are merely
more cunningly disguised and more deviously promoted in pernicious freedoms.
What did the prophet Isaiah say about not harming, not
hurting, on God's holy mountain? Listen:
They will not hurt or destroy
in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the
LORD as the waters cover the sea.
Hurt and harm, destruction and death, he says, will only come
to an end, as distinct from being ignored or brushed under the carpet, when
mankind is filled with knowledge of the Lord, when men and women are willing to
humble themselves before God and seek to direct all their intentions along the
way of the Lord Jesus, for the glory of Father, and the good of their neighbour.
Our modern do-gooders, however, and those who so
confidently proclaim that they do no hurt, no harm, to anyone, often enough have
no intention of obeying or glorifying God in what they do: rather they believe
that the good they do, proclaims their own righteousness and humankind’s moral sufficiency
without any dependence upon a God, a Faith, or a Church.
Until men and women of today come to recognize the true nature
of the sin that is to be found not only in human actions but also in the human
heart, there is no chance that any number of sincere endeavours will effect any
real change to our world; and until it is recognized that salvation only comes
with repentance, and as a gift -- from God alone, through Jesus, by the Holy
Spirit -- no amount of self-justification will be able to bring peace to the
heart of humankind.
We can all appreciate the peace pictured by the prophet
Isaiah:
The wolf also shall dwell
with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the
young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their
young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the
ox. The nursing child shall play by the
cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My
holy mountain,
But the prophet solemnly told those who heard him that One
alone, the promised Messiah, could bring about that state of affairs on earth:
There shall come forth a Rod
from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the
Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. His delight is in the fear of the LORD, and
He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His
ears; but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity
for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
People of God, let us recognize where we should look for
salvation and fulfilment: it can only come to us through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Apart from Him, even in those who
seem to be the best of human beings, sin is never absent, only not seen, not publicly
appreciated as such; and the best works of merely human sincerity and concern
have no power to promote that salvation which is human-kind's supreme good and
which can come only as a gracious gift from God our Father in the name of
Jesus, His Son and our Saviour.
