Homily
for December 9, 2007
Liturgical Year A- Cycle II
2nd Sunday of Advent
By Fr. John Carney Topic:
Work to bring about the Kingdom of God
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Each year about this time, we take another
look at the
great John the Baptist. He was an
interesting and very different kind of figure.
Of course he was a cousin of Jesus, and he himself was the product of a
miraculous conception and birth to a great degree. His parents
were barren and were given the
gift of John. Many believed that John
lived with the Essene community near the Dead Sea throughout most of
his early
life. The Essene’s were a group of very
pious and dedicated Jews who went beyond the laws. They fasted
and prayed daily. It was the basis for their lives. They
lived a celibate lifestyle. Perhaps John did get his formation if
you
will, as an Essene, and then when he came upon the scene dressed very
strangely
and with a strange diet, people were drawn to him. There is no question that John was
very popular. Indeed, he was more popular than Jesus was
initially. Today we see him at the banks
of the Jordan River where he is baptizing.
That’s not the same baptism we received when we became Christians.
There was a Jewish tradition of ritual
baptism and it meant the removal of sins, so the sins were washed away
at
baptism. That was the kind of baptism
that John was performing at the Jordan.
He was incredibly popular. The
scriptures tell us that, “At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the
whole
region around the Jordan were going out to him.” All these people
were drawn out to him. It’s good to ask the question, “Why?
What did they want from him? What attracted them to John?”
I think it’s pretty simple. They wanted a change. They
wanted something different, something
new and better. They were sick of the
oppression, the injustice, and the political system under which they
suffered. They thought, many of them,
that maybe this was the Messiah, this John.
Many of them were hoping for this new kingdom to come, a kingdom of
materialistic wealth, a kingdom of military power and dominance so that
once
again, Israel could be the dominant power in the Middle East as it had
been
under King David some thousand years before.
To a large extent, I think we are here
for the same
reason they gathered around John. We are
here because we want something new. We
want something better. We are sick of a
lot of things we see in the world. We
are sick of a lot of things we see in our own lives. We want
change. Indeed, perhaps there are some among us here
today, that think that maybe even God will sweep away this current
world. You hear some people say, “How long will God
tolerate this mess before he cleanses it with fire and brings about his
kingdom?” There is even a group I read
about several weeks ago that were holed up in a cave because they
believe Jesus
is coming in April or May and they are getting ready. It’s an
ongoing situation. In the past we’ve seen that in Jonestown,
about 10 years ago remember the group in Rancho Santa Fe in California.
They killed themselves waiting for the
rapture or whatever. John might actually have believed for
a time that God was
going to use him to help bring about the new kingdom in a cataclysmic
way. He came to understand differently. He came to
understand that the Kingdom of God
is HERE and NOW. It exists. It’s imperfect, but it exists.
It is in our midst and in our hearts. But the question is still, I think, in
our minds though,
will the world end in a great event, like the Scriptures tell us in
many
places, there will be fire and earthquakes, etc. The Scriptures
also suggest a different
coming of the kingdom. We heard that
today in Isaiah. The Scriptures suggest,
and many theologians believe, that the Kingdom of God will come in it’s
fullness when we get it right, when we, as some theologians say, when
we
restore creation to what it was intended to be, the face of Jesus
Christ. When
we get it right, then God will come in the fullness of the kingdom.
If that’s the case, and I personally believe
it is, then the end of the world is not eminent. Relax.
We have some more time to fix this mess.
Today’s scripture tells us of how we
can bring about the
Kingdom. This is very important. God will not just bring
about the kingdom; He
will use us to bring the Kingdom. That’s
very important. Some Christians believe
this idea that Jesus is my Lord and personal savior, just me and him.
The world is evil and nasty and dirty and
it’s going to end in disaster, but I want to be saved. That’s not
our belief at all as Catholic
Christians. We believe that we are in this
world to work to bring about his kingdom.
The world itself is beautiful for it was created by God. Yet
there are sin and disaster and oppression
and war. It doesn’t have to be that way
if we do our job. The Scriptures tell us how to do it,
to work with Christ,
in Christ and through Christ, to bring about the Kingdom of God.
The first step is to repent. Without repenting, nothing else
occurs. They were coming to the waters to be
baptized, to repent. John told them,
“Repent!” Interesting, the Sadducees and
the Pharisees also came to be baptized. He called them a brood of
vipers
because they didn’t feel sorry for their sins.
Indeed, they felt self-righteous.
The first step is we must offer God a humble and contrite heart and ask
for his forgiveness, grace and mercy. We
have to clean up our own act first or the rest of this ongoing work of
the
kingdom we can’t do. A cousin of mine was over from Ireland
several weeks
ago. He was looking at the Presidential
candidates, both Republican and Democratic parties. What are
there, 15 or 17 candidates for the
Presidency? He looked at me and he said,
“Is that the best you people can do?”
And I said, “You know it is.”
They are flawed, but so are we.
Who are we to demand…so much of the campaign get so negative. We
are so quick to bring someone else down,
when we have no right to do that because we have our own faults, our
own
weakness, our own vulnerability. I say
that as a side note. I hope that the
excruciating months ahead will be civil months and we won’t look for
what’s
wrong with people but what’s good about them, what qualities that they
have
that we want to see in our political leaders.
So, first we have to repent, clean our own act first. Secondly, the Scriptures tell us today
that God has given
us gifts to use to bring about the kingdom. Isaiah says,”The spirit of
the LORD
shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit
of
counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the
LORD.” We are
to use these gifts and others to bring about the Kingdom. The
communion prayer, the prayer after
communion says, we are to “judge wisely the things of earth and to love
the
things of Heaven.” Gifts are like
muscles, the more we use them, the stronger they are. So first, repent.
Secondly use the gifts God gives us.
Thirdly our goal is to bring about God’s will. Thy Kingdom come, thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven…. Thy Kingdom come, they will
be
done. What is God’s will but to bring
about a society of justice and of mercy and of peace, in that order?
The bumper sticker, “If you want peace, work
for justice”, is true. There is no peace
without justice. If people are oppressed, peace is not real. We
are to use our gifts to bring about
justice and for Christians, justice is mercy and mercy is justice.
What things must we work hard to
protect? First and foremost, human life. That’s the first
right, the first need we
have. If human life is not held sacred,
the environment, social justice, employment justice, all those other
things fall
away. Human life, from conception until
natural death. The Psalm tells us that
Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever.
Finally the Scriptures tell us that we must
be one. To be effective to bring about
the kingdom we must be unified. We must
not be in our parish 3000 different voices all with our own opinion
speaking
what we believe is true. We must speak
with one voice, especially on those matters that are so sacred to God
and to
sacred to the Kingdom. Saint Paul says
today in Romans, “ May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you
to
think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus, that
with one
accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus
Christ.” We begin with repenting.
We use the gifts. We work for
God’s goals, and we do that as one voice.
But first that difficult part, that repentance. Let me conclude
with this prayer. Bow your heads. This is taken from Psalm
51. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and
put a new and
right spirit within me Create in me a clean heart, open and
receptive, so that I
may be present to you as you are to me. Create in me a clean heart, cleared of
the refuse of old
battles with others and deadly opposition with myself. Create in me a clean heart, freed from
the clutter of a
busy world, so that I can enjoy the beauty of life’s simple things and
relish
the gifts I easily take for granted. Create in me a clean heart, cleansed
from harsh thoughts,
shame, and perfectionist tendencies. Create in me a clean heart, brushed
free of frantic
busyness, so that I will have time to dwell with you in the listening
space of
solitude and silence. Create in me a clean heart, scrubbed
of racism and
prejudice, drawing me toward all as my sisters and brothers. Create in me a clean heart, washed
with your mercy and Strengthened by your love, helping me
move beyond
whatever keeps me from union with you. Create in me a clean heart, cleansed
of anxiety and lack
of trust, restoring in me an enduring faith
in your abiding
presence and unconditional love. Create in me a clean heart, so that we
may do your will
on
earth as it is in Heaven and so bring about the Kingdom
of God.