To repent is to see things differently and, as a result, to live differently.

 

 

Second Sunday of Advent  B  2020

Today we move along on our Advent journey towards the celebration of the Son of God entering our world, our humanity, and our community.  John the Baptist calls us to move from the wilderness of sin and discouragement to a state of hopefulness and trusting expectation.

This Advent season is a waiting season for us in capital letters.  We are waiting to get beyond the restrictions of these pandemic days.  We are waiting for a vaccine.  But may this forced time of waiting be an invitation for us to enter into the blessings of the Advent season of waiting.  For me a slower pace of life is getting me in touch with the grace of the Advent season. I am trying to step back from the busyness of day to day activity and to simplify my day.

The grace that was given to me was that way down underneath all the busyness someone waits for me to come home to who I truly am.

My wish for myself and for all of us is for the Advent grace of pausing.  Keep vigil with your life and keep vigil with the God who welcomes you with His merciful, forgiving love.

In this pandemic Advent season, John the Baptist still calls us to repentance in our Advent journey.  Additionally, in the second Scripture reading, Peter also calls us to repentance.  Peter says: “God is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

I would like to reflect with you the on the meaning of repentance that the Lord calls us to in our Advent journey -- a kind of repentance that is given to us when we encounter the Lord.

For many the word repentance is a word that belongs to yesterday.  It is equated with sackcloth and ashes.  Some see repentance as something that we do only if we get caught.  But repentance is far more than blurting our “I’m sorry” if we get caught cheating on our taxes or are engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior.

When John the Baptist calls us to repentance, he is not talking about self-incriminating scruples but for a radical open-mindedness.  The Greek word is metanoia. It means going beyond our normal mindset.  It speaks of a change in our vision of life.  It is about placing God first in our lives.

Repentance means to “rethink.”  Repentance calls to rethink and to reform our lives.  To repent means to see things differently and, as a result, to live differently.

When we place God first in our lives, the joy of the Gospel motivates us to share what we have been given.  We then prepare our hearts for the coming of the Prince of Peace.  Repentance is not negative and down faced.  Rather, it looks up and looks forward.  It breaks the chains of sin and death that hold us down.  Don’t get stuck in the notion that repentance means feeling sorry and miserable.  It is simply this.  It means you have stopped doing what is wrong, and now you are going to do the right thing.

Make no mistake about it, John the Baptist calls us to confront sin in our life.  One of the temptations of our times is to applaud the absence of guilt.  Some people are pleased that guilt has been dethroned.  In some quarters, the absence of guilt in today’s society makes it very difficult to talk about sin and the need for repentance. 

True repentance means a willingness to confront sin in our lives.   May I give you an Advent suggestion this week that I did during this past week in one of my long walks.  Sometime when you are alone, say your sins out loud.  Speak about the way you have not responded to the love that Jesus shares with you, how you have not lived up to your identity as a daughter or son of God.  If you think about it this way, it will be less a list and more of a conversation with the Lord, but a conversation about my sins which I speak out loud.

There’s something very real about hearing yourself speak your sins.

But we are not to be bogged down in our sinfulness.    While are of us are God’s beloved and made in the image and likeness of God, none of us are perfect.  All of us are sinners.  All of us have need for the Savior.  All of us are called to repentance in this beautiful Advent season of repentance.  But be assured that God’s judgment is that we are worth saving.  God’s judgement comes to us in in His grace and mercy.

“Prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord,” says the Prophet Isaiah.  That prophecy has great meaning when we apply it to our own hearts.  It is in our hearts that we need to prepare a way for the Lord.  It is in our hearts that we need to make a straight highway for God.  It is the valleys of sin in our own hearts that are to be filled with God’s mercy and healing.

One of the beautiful ways to experience repentance is the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  In this Sacrament, we encounter the merciful and healing love of Jesus who fills the valleys of sin in our hearts with God’s mercy and healing.  When we realized how much we are loved and forgiven, we are motivated to metanoia.  Like Zacchaeus, we then want to share the love we have received.

This Advent we salute the forerunner John the Baptist who prepared the way by challenging the people’s sins. He was not after the popular vote. He had eyes only for God. With eyes fixed on God, John announced that the judgment of God was to be revealed in the love and the mercy of Jesus who came not to condemn but that the world might be saved through Him.

Are we ready to share in the work and mission of John the Baptist?  In recognizing our need to repent, may we be led to announce the merciful love of Jesus to one and all?

I conclude with the Advent prayer we will hear again and again: “God of mercy, may this Eucharist bring us your divine help, free us from our sins, and prepare us for the birth of our Savior.”  Amen

Have a blessed day.