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Second Sunday Of Advent Year A 2022

“Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Readings: Isaiah 11: 1-10, Romans 15: 4-9, Matthew 3:1-12
 

 

Repentance is turning away from a sinful past and turning to God. Repentance is not primarily any external act betokening internal change. Repentance is the internal change itself. Repentance is always one’s response to the prior act of God, who comes in Jesus to assume his rightful and full rule over a rebellious world. John the Baptist tells us, “The kingdom of God is at hand,” referring to the reign of God, the rule of God over the entire universe. This kingdom will come in the person of Jesus, whose birth we commemorate on Christmas day, when he is born anew in our hearts, changing us for God.

Repentance looks to the past with honesty and remorse, and to the future with the resolve for a new way of life. However, sometimes an honest remorse is not easy. Frequently we evade the contemplation of our own sinfulness by looking and focusing on other people’s sinfulness.


Repentance is always available. It is like the sea, where someone can bathe at any hour. The gates of repentance are never closed to anyone. So essential is repentance that, in order to make it possible, God cancels his own demands. The threat of the destruction of the sinner is cancelled. Opportunities for repentance last as long as life. God’s hand is stretched out under the wings of the heavenly chariot to snatch penitents from the grasp of justice and consequently cancelling their punishment by virtue of God’s mercy.


Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai said, “If a man has been completely wicked all his days but repents at the end, God receives him” (Ezekiel 33:12). Or, as the poet said of the man who gained the mercy of God in the instant of death,“Between the saddle and the ground, I mercy sought, and mercy found.” Such is the mercy of God that he as Lord will receive even our secret repentance.


Rabbi Eleazar said, “It is the way of the world that, when someone has insulted their fellow in public and after a time seeks to be reconciled, the one who has been offended says, ‘You insulted me publicly, and now you want to be reconciled with me in the presence of the two of us only! Go, bring the ones in whose presence you insulted me, and I will be reconciled with you.’ But it is not so with God. One may stand and rail and blaspheme in the market place, and then God will say, ‘Repent between the two of us alone, and I will receive you.’” God’s mercy is open to all who may be so ashamed that they can confess their shame to no one except to God alone.


There is no forgetfulness in God, because he is God, but such is the mercy of God that he not only forgives but he even forgets the sin of the penitent (Micah 7:18). He tells us, “Return as far as you can, and I will come to you the rest of the way.” When one has the opportunity to commit the same sin again in the same circumstance but chooses not to do so, that is true repentance. No case is hopeless for repentance, and no one is beyond repentance, for God receives anyone who repents.


Let us embrace this Advent season as a time of repentance in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. Let us “withdraw into the wilderness” and listen to the prophetic voice from within, a voice that is asking us to change our ways.


Let us ask ourselves: What then do I need to repent of? What must I do to prepare myself to receive the Lord when he comes? Let us retreat to the wilderness and discern with John the Baptist what we need to repent so as to have true repentance. It is in this way that we shall be ready to receive the Messiah.
 


 

Homily by Rev Fr Francis Wambua, SJ

 

 

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