Second Sunday of Advent
December 4, 2021
Church of the Nativity, Timonium
A Word of Thanks
Let me begin by saying how happy I am to return to the Church of the Nativity to celebrate with you this season of preparation for your patronal feast, the birth of the Savior, our Savior who will come again in glory at the end of the ages. Echoing St. Paul’s words in this evening’s reading from Philippians, let me add that “I pray always with joy in my every prayer for all of you because of your partnership for [the sake of] the Gospel . . . .” Thank you for the vitality of this faith community that relentlessly seeks ‘to level the mountains and fill in the valleys’, in other words, to create a pathway so that those exiled from the Faith might return to the Lord and to his Church.
And with you, I want to thank Father Michael White who has served as pastor of this parish community for some twenty-five years. When he first came to Nativity and surveyed the scene, and then decided to try something decidedly “out of the box”, he was very much a John the Baptist, ‘a voice crying in the wilderness’. To the best of my knowledge, Father White does wear camel’s hair & dine on locusts, but he has been and remains a voice that calls many to faith in Christ and welcomes many into the fellowship of the Church . . . Father Michael, warmest thanks!
The Ingathering of Israel’s Exiles
To celebrate Advent well is to re-live the experience of the Israelites, to capture in our hearts the longing that they experienced for the promised Messiah. Because Jesus was born and achieved our salvation over 2,000 years ago, we can easily position the Lord in the past, but not so easily in the present & future. We may admire what Jesus said and did, but fail to see his importance for us now. This is one of the ways that we can relegate Jesus to the periphery of our busy lives. Yet, when our hearts are longing for the coming of the Lord, when we yearn for his Presence in our hearts and homes and faith communities, we will never take the Lord Jesus reduce Jesus solely to a figure of history. Instead will see clearly the obstacles to be removed and the gaps to be filled in, so that we can welcome our Savior more completely into our lives. As St. Paul reminds us, this is not something we do alone, as isolated individuals. Rather, this is something we do together, in partnership, as we journey together. Nor is it something we do under our power but only through the grace of God.
When we enter into the experience of the people of Israel, what do we find? Do we not find them longing for deliverance from their oppressors? Do we not find them begging God to gather his People together again? Recall that after the Babylonian exile, many of the tribes of Israel were scattered, and Israel itself came under one foreign oppressor after another. When John the Baptist began his ministry, Israel was but an outpost of the Roman Empire.
In this evening’s first reading, the prophet Baruch captures the longing of Israel. In spite of the misery and gloom that the People of God had suffered, Baruch envisions a new and glorious day when those scattered afar will return to the holy city of Jerusalem. “Up, Jerusalem [he says], stand upon the heights, look to the east and see your children, gathered from east and west, at the word of the Holy One.” . . . Catching a glimpse of Baruch’s prophetic vision, we understand more clearly what St. John the Baptist’s ministry was all about. By preaching a baptism of repentance while he was still in the desert, John called those living in exile from the God of Israel to return to their God, that is, to make a new exodus, through the desert of repentance, to the promised land. And the promised land to which John called them was not an earthly paradise, but rather, the Kingdom of God which Jesus would usher in and personify. The highway that John the Baptist seeks to construct are those spiritual inroads that lead us to Christ who calls peoples of every nation and language to himself.
The Project of the Gospel
What is the upshot of all this for ourselves? It is simply this, that our longing this Advent should not be confined merely to our private lives or to concern for our family and loved ones. Rather, filled with longing for the coming of the Lord, we should deeply desire that the Church in our day experience a new exodus, a new exodus in which our scattered members come from afar and are newly ingathered from their exile… whether from the exile of imposed on many by COVID, or from the exile of indifference, preoccupation, naked secularism, and sin. We should also be concerned, as indeed you are, to remove every obstacle that hinders those who should be returning to the practice of the faith, including and especially any and all forms of scandal in our ranks.
That is why what St. Paul says to us this evening is so important. He speaks of “a partnership” he shares with the Philippians, “a partnership for the Gospel” that I now share with you and you with me. This partnership, to repeat, exists for the sake of the Gospel – not only the preservation of the Gospel message, whole and intact, but especially for the project of spreading that message and building the Christian community upon its firm foundation, including this and every parish, the Archdiocese itself, and the Church Universal. And to remind ourselves, St. Paul teaches us that the work of building up the Christian community is, in the first place, God’s work. It becomes our work to the extent that we have encountered the Person of Christ and to the degree that we share a longing to encounter him ever more deeply – in Word and Sacrament, in one another, and in our service to those in need. What’s more, the work of sharing and spreading the Gospel should make of us a distinctive kind of a community, a community marked by humility and love, a community that ‘values what really matters right up to the day of Christ Jesus.’
What, then, must we do, especially in this season of Advent? First, like St. Paul we should unite in thanking the Lord for coming among us at Christmas, at the end of time, and into our lives each day, especially through the gift of the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Prayers of praise open the eyes of our soul to the vision of a merciful God who sent his Son to gather and heal a wounded human family. Second, let us pray for that wisdom which we gain only when we encounter Christ, and know him in a deep and personal way – for only through such knowledge do we know how to remove the obstacles and fill in the gaps – thus making a smooth highway for the return of those who are exiled from the Lord and the Church – be it ourselves or others. Third, we should pray for the Church – the Church of the Nativity to be sure – but also whole Archdiocese, including all its parishes and ministries, as well as the Church throughout the world. Specifically, we should pray for the Church’s mission of evangelization but our prayer should also prompt us to engage in that mission of gathering God’s People, whether by organized ministries, or a simple word of encouragement, or by the persuasive power of good example.
If we are found watching in prayer, exultant in God’s praise, wise beyond our abilities, and engaged in works of evangelization and charity, then we shall celebrate the feast of the Nativity with a joy like no other. May you have a blessed Advent and a joyous Christmas, and God bless us and keep us in his love!