2nd sunday advent :: 2007

8/14/2019 2nd Sunday Advent :: 2007

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2nd Sunday of Advent (12-09-07)

Scripture ReadingsFirst Isaiah 11:1-10Second Romans 15:4-9Gospel Matthew 3:1-12

Prepared by: Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P.

1. Subject Matter

The graces of Advent reveal the expectation that is identical with being human; we recognizeJesus Christ because of an exceptionality that corresponds with that elemental expectation;we live in hope.

2. Exegetical Notes

There shall be no harm or ruinfor the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord: Weare reminded of the programmatic passages where failure to know/understand is thr rootcause of evil and the occasion for disaster (JBC).

by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope: WhenJesus suffering is viewed against sacred history, it takes on a deeper meaning. Seen in thislarger perspective, it gives Christians a basis for their hope (Fitzmyer).

Matthew goes further than other evangelists by making John a little Jesus, putting Jesusown central message in his mouth (cf. v 2 with 4:17) (JBC).

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

522 God awakens in the hearts of the pagans a dim expectation of this coming [of Christ].

524 When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this

ancient expectancy of the Messiah.

840 When one considers the future, God's People of the Old Covenant and the new Peopleof God tend towards similar goals: expectation of the coming (or the return) of the Messiah.

1194 The Church, "in the course of the year, . . . unfolds the whole mystery of Christ from hisIncarnation and Nativity through his Ascension, to Pentecost and the expectation of theblessed hope of the coming of the Lord" (SC102 2).


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1818 The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in theheart of every man; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude.

2090 Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing and the beatific vision of God

2805 In praying the Our Father, we engage in an offering up of our expectations, that drawsdown upon itself the eyes of the Father of mercies.

4. Patristic Commentary and Other Authorities

St. John Chrysostom: John the Baptist preaches what the Jews had never heard, not evenfrom the Prophets: Heaven, namely, and the Kingdom that is there, and of the kingdoms ofthe earth he says nothing. Thus by the novelty of those things of which he speaks, he gainstheir attention to Him whom he preaches.

St. Gregory the Great: Crying in the desert, because he shows to deserted and forlornJudea the approaching consolation of her Redeemer.

REMIG. In this clothing and this poor food, John the Baptist shows that he sorrows for thesins of the whole human race.

St. Augustine: We who already believe the prophets who tell us of the resurrection and Christand the apostles who preach it must also proclaim it ourselves; we who hope to live after thatdeath must not lose courage, nor burden our hearts with debauchery and drunkenness, butprepared for action and with lamps burning, in eager expectation of our Lords coming, wemust fast and pray, not because tomorrow we die, but to die without fear.

John Cassian: When someone begged Jesus to come and raise his dead daughter by layinghis hand on her, he entered his house and granted what he was asking for in conformity withhis expectations.

St. Gertrude the Great: With love I hold you, most loving Jesus, nor shall I let you go;

because your blessing is by no means sufficient for me unless I may hold you yourself andhave my best share, all my hope and expectation.

Dorothy Day: Advent is a time of waiting, of expectation, of silence. Waiting for our Lord to beborn. To love with understanding and without understanding. To love blindly, and to folly.To see only what is lovable. To think only on these things. To see the best in everyonearound, their virtues rather than their faults. To see Christ in them.

Fr. Hugo Rahner: One of the happiest experiences in the world is when we look forward withthe eager expectation of a child to a Christmas present or the surprise that we feelorpretend, with a rather painful smile, to feelwhen the packages lying under the Christmas

tree are unwrapped. What is revealed in all this is a deep human longing. My heart, myloving heart, is like a carefully locked Christmas present. It contains treasures that have stillnot been discovered. My love is new and full of surprises. It looks forward to receiving a giftin return. And it is renewed and made young again when it hears the only possible answer: Ilove you too.

Mother Marie des Douleurs: The kind of expectation in which God wants to find our souls isan alert expectation, full of desire, full of love, not the expectation of change, but of theunfolding of our life of faith. Expectation does not mean inactivity, wasting time, orexcitement; it means concentration on an object of desire worthy of us.


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Pope John Paul II: Faith is shown to be an authentic adventure of cognition, for it is not anabstract discourse, nor a vague religious sentiment, but a personal encounter with Christ,which bestows new meaning on life. Only in the only-begotten Son of the Father can manfind a full, exhaustive answer to his intimate and fundamental expectations. We can thusconclude that the meaning of Christian hope, presented anew by Advent, is that of confident

expectation, of hardworking willingness and joyful openness to the encounter with the Lord.He came to Bethlehem to remain with us for ever. Let us therefore nourish these days ofimmediate preparation for the Birth of Christ with the light and warmth of hope.

Msgr. Luigi Giussani: If God became man, if he slipped into our crowd so that he were herenow among us, recognizing him a priorishould be easy. Why? Because of an exceptionalitybeyond compare. Why do you feel something exceptional to be exceptional? Because itcorresponds to the expectations of your heart, no matter how confused and nebulous theymight be. It corresponds unexpectedlyunexpectedly!to the irresistible, undeniabledemands of your heart in a way you could never have imagined or predicted, because thereis no one like this man. The exceptional is, paradoxically, the appearance of what is mostnatural for us. We approach exceptionality when something makes the heart beat for a

correspondence that we think is valuable. It is the exceptionality with which the figure ofChrist appears that makes it easy to recognize him.

Msgr. Luigi Giussani: Man, in all of the ages of history, resists the consequence of themystery made flesh, for, if this Event is true, then all aspects of life, including the sensibleand the social, must revolve around it. And it is precisely mans perception of beingundermined, no longer being the measure of his own self, that places him in the position ofrefusal.

Fr. Julian Carron: The situation of contemporary man is riddled with difficulties, but none ofthese can take away his hearts expectation. The very nature of mans heart moves him tohope. Only the unique Presence of the Lord can move the person to the very depth of his

hearts expectation. We ourselveswill be transformed according to the glorious image thatattracts our gaze. So we shall be able to reflect Christs light through the whole of our lives,so that men and women of our time find reasons for believing and hoping for the fulfillment ofthe promises inscribed in the depths of our hearts, revealed and realized fully in ChristsEucharistic self-giving.

5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars

What enabled the martyrs and so many of the saints who face untellable suffering topersevere was the expectation they had of Christs closeness and power. In his newencyclical, Spe Salvi/Saved in Hope, Pope Benedict XVI draws our attention to a passagefrom a letter written by the Vietnamese martyr Paul Le-Bao-Tinh ( 1857) which illustrates

the transformation of suffering through the power of hope springing from faith: I, Paul, inchains for the name of Christ, wish to relate to you the trials besetting me daily, in order thatyou may be inflamed with love for God and join with me in his praises, for his mercy is forever (Ps 136 [135]). The prison here is a true image of everlasting Hell: to cruel tortures ofevery kindshackles, iron chains, manaclesare added hatred, vengeance, calumnies,obscene speech, quarrels, evil acts, swearing, curses, as well as anguish and grief. But theGod who once freed the three children from the fiery furnace is with me always; he hasdelivered me from these tribulations and made them sweet, for his mercy is for ever. In themidst of these torments, which usually terrify others, I am, by the grace of God, full of joy and


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gladness, because I am not alone Christ is with me ... How am I to bear with the spectacle,as each day I see emperors, mandarins, and their retinue blaspheming your holy name, OLord, who are enthroned above the Cherubim and Seraphim? (cf. Ps 80:1 [79:2]). Behold,the pagans have trodden your Cross underfoot! Where is your glory? As I see all this, Iwould, in the ardent love I have for you, prefer to be torn limb from limb and to die as a

witness to your love. O Lord, show your power, save me, sustain me, that in my infirmityyour power may be shown and may be glorified before the nations ... Beloved brothers, asyou hear all these things may you give endless thanks in joy to God, from whom every goodproceeds; bless the Lord with me, for his mercy is for ever ... I write these things to you inorder that your faith and mine may be united. In the midst of this storm I cast my anchortowards the throne of God, the anchor that is the lively hope in my heart. ( Spe Salvi, #37).

6. Quotations from Pope Benedict XVI

In their hearts, people always and everywhere have somehow expected a change, atransformation of the world.

Eternal life is that mode of living, in the midst of our present earthly life, which is untouchedby death because it reaches out beyond death. Eternal life in the midst of time. If we live inthis way, then the hope of eternal fellowship with God will become the expectation thatcharacterizes our existence, because some conception of its reality develops for us, and thebeauty of it transforms us from within. Thus it becomes apparent that there is in this face-to-face encounter with Godthat very liberation from the self which alone makes any sense ofeternity.

That we might have hope Hypo-mone is normally translated as patienceperseverance, constancy. Knowing how to wait, while patiently enduring trials, is necessaryfor the believer to be able to receive what is promised (10:36). In the religious context of

ancient Judaism, this word was used expressly for the expectation of God which wascharacteristic of Israel, for their persevering faithfulness to God on the basis of the certaintyof the Covenant in a world which contradicts God. Thus the word indicates a lived hope, alife based on the certainty of hope. In the New Testament this expectation of God, thisstanding with God, takes on a new significance: in Christ, God has revealed himself. He hasalready communicated to us the substance of things to come, and thus the expectation ofGod acquires a new certainty. It is the expectation of things to come from the perspective ofa present that is already given. It is a looking-forward in Christs presence, with Christ who ispresent, to the perfecting of his Body, to his definitive coming. (Spe Salvi, #9).

When I can no longer talk to anyone or call upon anyone, I can always talk to God. When

there is no longer anyone to help me deal with a need or expectation that goes beyond thehuman capacity for hope, he can help me. (Spe Salvi, #32).

7. Other Considerations

All Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to [John the Baptist] andwere being baptized: The whole world is filled with an inexorable expectation; the people goout to John the Baptist in the hope of having that expectation fulfilled.


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Recommended Resources

Benedict XVI, Pope. Spe Salvi/Saved in Hope (Holy Fathers new encyclical on hope)

Benedict XVI, Pope. Benedictus. Yonkers: Magnificat, 2006.

Cameron, Peter John. To Praise, To Bless, To Preach - Cycle A. Huntington: Our SundayVisitor, 2001.

Hahn, Scott:http://www.salvationhistory.com/library/scripture/churchandbible/homilyhelps/homilyhelps.cfm

Lohr, Aemiliana. The Mass Through the Year: Volume One - Advent to Palm Sunday.Westminster: Newman, 1958.

Merton, Thomas. Seasons of Celebration: Meditations on the Cycle of Liturgical Feasts.Gloucester: Peter Smith, 1983.

Website: http://www.borromeo.org/reflect/homilies2007/homilyindex2007.htm -- by Msgr.Gregory Malovetz.

2nd sunday advent :: 2007

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