{"id":3050,"date":"2019-12-08T11:36:48","date_gmt":"2019-12-08T16:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=3050"},"modified":"2019-12-13T13:41:48","modified_gmt":"2019-12-13T18:41:48","slug":"2nd-sunday-of-advent-year-c-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/2nd-sunday-of-advent-year-c-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"2nd Sunday of Advent, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2nd<\/sup> Sunday of Advent, Year A <\/a>
Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17 (3)
Romans 15:4-9
Matthew 3:1-12<\/p>\n\n\n\n

December 8, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advent is a\ntime to reflect on the coming of Jesus. \nLast week\u2019s gospel spoke of the Second Coming.  The birth of Jesus that we celebrate at\nChristmas is the First Coming of Jesus.  Today\nour gospel is set in the time just before Jesus begins his public ministry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

John the\nBaptist was sent to \u201cprepare the way of\nthe Lord<\/em>.\u201d  Thus he proclaimed, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at\nhand.<\/em>\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Repent!  You have sinned!  You need to do penance and to turn your heart\nto God.  Our liturgical color for Advent\nis violent (generally we say purple).  It\nis a color that signifies penance.  There\nwill be judgment for as Jesus says, \u201cTherefore\nevery tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the\nfire.<\/em>\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, we are\nnot to repent simply in fear, fear of judgment. \nNo, we celebrate Advent and repent in a spirit of hope<\/em><\/strong> knowing that\nJesus came into the world to save us from our sins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to\nacknowledge our sins as a sign of repentance and turning them over to God.  Jesus has given us a sacrament for this, the\nSacrament of Reconciliation.  We begin\nthis Sacrament confessing our sins.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

John the\nBaptist calls the Pharisees and Sadducees to \u201cProduce good fruit as evidence of your repentance<\/em>.\u201d  The best way for us to give evidence of\nrepentance to live better but it begins with receiving a Penance in the\nSacrament of Reconciliation that we do in atonement for our sins and as\nevidence of our repentance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We do this\nseeking the Lord\u2019s justice.  We might\nthink of \u201cjustice\u201d as one reserving punishment for their transgressions where\nit be for their sins or secular crimes. \nWith sin comes consequences but if we repent, God takes the punishment\nof sin and puts it on Jesus who takes away the sin of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\nexamine your conscience and find you have sinned, God offers us the gift of the\nSacrament of Reconciliation.  I encourage\nyou to examine your conscience.  If you\nfind you have sinned, in the bulletin you will find extra times we are offering\nfor the Sacrament during Advent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I have\nsaid so far focuses on reconciliation individually with God.  This should not flow from just fear with God.\n No, for as we celebrate the Sacrament of\nReconciliation, as Paul writes it is through \u201cthe encouragement of the Scriptures that we might have hope<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there\nPaul goes on to say that that we \u201cthink\nin harmony with one another<\/em>.\u201d  As we\nthink about reconciliation with God, we need to also think about reconciliation\nwith other people.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here Paul\nwrites, \u201cWelcome one another, then, as\nChrist welcomed you, for the glory of God<\/em>.\u201d \nIs there someone you need to forgive and welcome back into your life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there hope\nfor reconciliation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, we\nhave hope in Jesus.  Jesus is the one who\nfulfills what Isaiah speaks of in today\u2019s first reading, \u201ca shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse.<\/em>\u201d  Isaiah is speaking of a Messiah, Jesus, that\nis an heir to David (the son, the stump of Jesse).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Messiah\nwill open up a new age where \u201cthe wolf\nshall be a guest of the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid.<\/em>\u201d  Likewise the \u201ccalf and the young lion<\/em>\u201d and \u201cthe\ncow and the bear<\/em>.\u201d  Even \u201cthe baby shall play by the cobra\u2019s den<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus makes\nthis possible for us because \u201cthe spirit\nof the LORD shall rest upon him<\/em>\u201d giving him a spirit of wisdom,\nunderstanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, and fear of the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conflict\nbetween people is nothing new.  We know\nthat the Pharisees and the Sadducees did not get along with Jesus but know that\nthey didn\u2019t even get along with each other. \nWhy?  Because they each thought\nthey knew what was right and won\u2019t listen to each other or anyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We continue\nto see differences today.  We see it\nbetween countries like between North Korea and us.  We see it within our own country between\npolitical parties.  This is why we need\nto pray for our government leaders that God endow them with what they need to\nknow to be good leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also see\ndivisions within Christianity.  How many\ndifferent denominations are there?  Who\u2019s\nright?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who\u2019s\nright?  That\u2019s simple!  God is!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The secular\nworld\u2019s answer to all the differences of opinion is \u201crelativism\u201d, meaning you\ncan believe whatever you want as long as you keep it to yourself and don\u2019t hurt\nanyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s not\nwhat God asks of us.  God calls us to\nshare Jesus with others and to share the Truth of our faith.  We are not to force it on others.  God gives everyone free will but if a person\nnever hears about Jesus, then they don\u2019t really have any freedom to choose to\nfollow Jesus or not.  By offering to them\nwhat we know about Jesus, we give them the freedom to choose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do we\nknow we are right?  The Catholic Church\ncertainly has had its struggles and failings in the 2,000 years since Jesus\nwalked on Earth but it has survived the struggles because we are given in\nBaptism and Confirmation the gift of the Holy Spirit giving us wisdom,\nunderstanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord to\nhelp us live as children of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us listen\nto the Lord and follow him, reconciled with him and one another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2nd Sunday of Advent, Year A Isaiah 11:1-10Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17 (3)Romans 15:4-9Matthew 3:1-12 December 8, 2019 Advent is a time to reflect on the coming of Jesus.  Last week\u2019s gospel spoke of the Second Coming.  The birth of Jesus that we celebrate at Christmas is the First Coming of Jesus.  Today our gospel …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘2nd Sunday of Advent, Year A – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[223,491,82],"tags":[665,60],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-Nc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3050"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3050"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3055,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3050\/revisions\/3055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}