Second Sunday of Advent Year A
Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17
Romans 15:4-9
Matthew 3:1-12
What did people make of the wild figure of St. John the Baptist? We know he was thought to be the long-awaited messiah by many, but certainly not quite in the way Scripture had trained them to expect: “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, and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord.”
All those attributes could be variously interpreted, but perhaps upturned their anticipated idea of the savior if it were in fact to be John. St. Paul adheres to this mindset with regard to the insights in the inspired texts: “Whatever was written previously was written for our instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” He’s writing to the persecuted Roman Christians with a sincere prayer for their perseverance through trials unto their eventual tranquility, that they may “think in harmony with one another.”
John’s strange twofold diet of “locusts and wild honey” similarly signifies that pattern of divine judgment through suffering (as with the plague of locusts) joined to subsequent abundant delight for which they long (as in the land flowing with milk and honey). “John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist.”
An identical detail is paralleled as a symbolic object in the messianic prophecy of Isaiah: “Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.” Maybe we might call to mind the old custom of being punished with a belt.
Camel’s hair garments also represent painful penance. Ominously, we hear, “Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees,” ready for the thinning out of the fruitless overgrowth. “His winnowing fan is in his hand” to “clear his threshing floor” of “the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” After all, John’s talk of a “brood of vipers” and “the coming wrath,” what would they think then when he tells them, “ … the one who is coming after me is mightier than I”?
We might suppose that such an unpopular message would have had few takers. To the contrary, “At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River.” During this penitential time of Advent, we must take a cue from these, our spiritual ancestors, who “acknowledged their sins,” as the best and necessary preparation for the coming of the Savior. Only when we know the depths of our need for grace, although it might be harrowing to acknowledge, can we appreciate the Incarnate Grace we await to behold at Christmas, and then at last when He comes again at the end of time, another major and related theme of this sacred season.
What will that conclusive consummation of the world be like? Isaiah compares the grace of the finalized eschatological universe to the vastness of the ocean: “There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord, as water covers the sea.” The Psalmist relays a similar sentiment: “May he rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.”
This patternistic strategy of penitence-preceding-perfection works for both Jews and foreign converts, as it serves “to confirm the promises to the patriarchs, but so that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.” That’s all people, without exemption. Indeed, “In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed; all the nations shall proclaim his happiness.” This affirms the specified end goal as the harmonious praise of God: “that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The Baptist stands uniquely at the threshold of the New Covenant, introducing the advent of the Messiah with an urgent message of conversion so that absolute serenity can ultimately be effected. We enter this process ourselves as we renew our own compunction and joyfully prepare for His coming. First must come the balancing out of the cosmic scales of right and wrong by God’s merciful grace, with all the chastisement that entails, and then the total reconciliation that it brings can descend throughout the whole land: “Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever.”