Saints + Scripture: II Sunday of Advent

The Popish Plot
"Enter In"

'Tis the Second Sunday of Advent: Advent-link & Wikipedia-link Advent.

Scripture of the Week
Mass Readings—Second Sunday of Advent
The Book of Isaiah, chapter eleven, verses one thru ten;
Psalm Seventy-two (R/. cf. seven), verses one & two, seven & eight, twelve & thirteen, & seventeen;
The Letter to the Romans, chapter fifteen, verses four thru nine;
The Gospel according to Matthew, chapter three, verses one thru twelve.

Commentary: Reflection by Bishop Robert Barron (Word on Fire):

Friends, today’s Gospel presents John the Baptist as a revolutionary.

Advent is best understood as a preparation for a revolution. The liturgical readings for this time of the year—focusing on Isaiah, John the Baptist, Mary, and Jesus—positively crackle with energy and electricity. When we seek to understand them on their own terms and in the context of the time in which they were written, we discover their revolutionary power.

Around the year 30, an alarming figure appeared in the Judean desert, wearing animal skins and eating locusts and wild honey; and his theme hearkened back to the prophet Isaiah: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths." John the Baptist was telling his listeners to make ready for the arrival of the God of Israel as a conquering King who would, once again, overthrow the oppressors of his people.

And the revolution arrived in the person of a young Galilean rabbi, whose message was simple and unambiguous: "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." Jesus was saying that the new King has arrived and he’s begun his work; so change your lives and come under his lordship.

Reflect: How can truly living the Gospel today be as countercultural as John the Baptist was in his time?

Video reflection by Father Greg Friedman, O.F.M.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Reflection by Father Joseph Mary Wolfe, M.F.V.A. (Eternal Word television Network):

John the Baptist figures prominently in this year’s Advent gospels from St. Matthew, as the “burning and shining lamp” described in the Gospel of John (Jn. 5:35). The Baptist’s message was an invitation to repentance―of returning to the ways of the Lord. The simple people of his time, the “poor and lowly ones” who longed for goodness, lined up to receive the waters of the Jordan River from John’s hands as they humbly confessed their sins.

On the other hand, John had no patience for hypocrites. He likened them to poisonous snakes who think they have no need of repentance. Today’s Gospel and Psalm remind us of God’s mercy―He “delivers the needy” and “has pity on the weak”. They also warn us of God’s justice. As St. John the Baptist notes, “…the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

What a joy and relief to know that God loves and forgives us as we cleanse our hearts in preparation for the gift of His Son. How blessed we are to have this time of Advent preparation, to contemplate both God’s mercy and His justice! What can you do this week to turn back to Our Lord and to share with family and friends your own experience of Advent?

Video reflection by Stacey Sumereau (Array of Hope): Advent of Hope.

Video reflection by Deanna Miller (uCatholic): Advent Reflection, "Prepare the Way."

Audio reflection by Scott Hahn, Ph.D. (St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology): Breaking the Bread.

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Otherwise, 8 December would be the festival of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Madonna-link ūna, Madonna-link duæ, Madonna-link Array of Hope, Wikipedia-link Immaculate Conception, & Wikipedia-link Feast.

Commentary: Wayback Machine.

Papal Quote o' the Day

"In Advent, the Church arouses in us the consciousness of our sins. She also urges us, by restraining our desires & practicing voluntary mortification of the body, to recollect ourselves in meditation & experience a longing desire to return to God."
—Pope Ven. Pius XII (1876-1958)

Saint Quote o' the Day

"God certainly did not create us this way. We are fallen. All the facts support this view. There is a voice inside our moral conscience that tells us that our immoral & unmoral acts are abnormal. They ought not to be there. There's something wrong in us, something dislocated. God did not make us one way. Or rather, He did make us one way. And we have made ourselves, in virtue of our freedom, in other ways. He wrote the drama: we changed the plot. We are not just animals that failed to evolve into humans. We are humans who have rebelled against the divine. If we are riddles to ourselves, we are not to put the blame on God or on evolution. But we are to put the blame on ourselves. We are not just a mass of corruption, but we bear within ourselves the image of God. We are very much like a man who has fallen into a well. We ought not to be there, & yet we cannot get out. We are sick; we need healing; we need deliverance; we need liberation, & we know very well that we cannot give this liberation & this freedom to ourselves. We are like a fish on top of the Empire State Building. Somehow or other we are outside of our environment. We cannot swim back into the stream. Someone has to put us back."
—Ven. Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)

Chesterton Quote o' the Day

"A word came forth in Galilee, a word like to a star;
It climbed and rang and blessed and burnt wherever brave hearts are."
—G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)