Second Sunday of Advent Lees meer
Second Sunday of Advent
First Reading
Baruch 5,1-9
Jerusalem, take off your dress of sorrow and distress, put on the beauty of God's glory for evermore, wrap the cloak of God's saving justice around you, put the diadem of the Eternal One's glory on your head, for God means to show your splendour to every nation under heaven, and the name God gives you for evermore will be, 'Peace-through-Justice, and Glory-through-Devotion'. Arise, Jerusalem, stand on the heights and turn your eyes to the east: see your children reassembled from west and east at the Holy One's command, rejoicing because God has remembered. Though they left you on foot driven by enemies, now God brings them back to you, carried gloriously, like a royal throne. For God has decreed the flattening of each high mountain, of the everlasting hills, the filling of the valleys to make the ground level so that Israel can walk safely in God's glory. And the forests and every fragrant tree will provide shade for Israel, at God's command; for God will guide Israel in joy by the light of his glory, with the mercy and saving justice which come from him. A copy of the letter which Jeremiah sent to those about to be led captive to Babylon by the king of the Babylonians, to tell them what he had been commanded by God:
Psalmody
Psalm 125
Antiphon
The Lord has done great things for us.
'When the Lord delivered Zion from bondage
It seemed like a dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter,
on our lips there were songs.
The heathens themselves said : 'What marvels
the Lord worked for them!'
What marvels the Lord worked for us!
Indeed we were glad.
Deliver us, O Lord, from our bondage
as streams in dry land.
Those who are sowing in tears
will sing when they reap.
They go out, they go out, full of tears,
carrying seed for the sowing :
they come back, they come back, full of song,
carrying their sheaves.
Second Reading
Philippians 1,4-6.8-11
and every time I pray for you all, I always pray with joy for your partnership in the gospel from the very first day up to the present. I am quite confident that the One who began a good work in you will go on completing it until the Day of Jesus Christ comes. For God will testify for me how much I long for you all with the warm longing of Christ Jesus; it is my prayer that your love for one another may grow more and more with the knowledge and complete understanding that will help you to come to true discernment, so that you will be innocent and free of any trace of guilt when the Day of Christ comes, entirely filled with the fruits of uprightness through Jesus Christ, for the glory and praise of God.
Reading of the Gospel
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Luke 3,1-6
In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar's reign, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the territories of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, and while the high-priesthood was held by Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah, in the desert. He went through the whole Jordan area proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the sayings of Isaiah the prophet: A voice of one that cries in the desert: Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight! Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be levelled, winding ways be straightened and rough roads made smooth, and all humanity will see the salvation of God.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Homily
It is not easy for us, men and women surrounded a civilization of noise, a multiplicity of messages, and a distracting chaos, to understand the figure of John the Baptist. A simple man, John is a good companion for us to rediscover the true meaning of life. The Baptist has one defining feature: he is a man who speaks, and he shouts to every man and woman that they should wait for the Lord.
John does not speak on his own initiative, however, but because he was touched by the "word" in that precise year, in that exact place, as Luke notes: "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius...the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness." His voice reaches all the way to our time. And the desert where he speaks is close to us: it is the desert of our cities, which have become deserts of loneliness, without humanity. John is a poor and free preacher. His clothing reveals his poverty: he only wears a camel skin and a belt around his waist. His food is poor: locusts and wild honey. But in his poverty, he is free.
John speaks against the Pharisees and Sadducees, revealing how skilled they are in pretending to repent in order to never change. He is not afraid to point out what happens in the royal palace, even if his courage will cost him his life. John does not justify the pride of those who feel secure because of some merit or another, perhaps because they are "children of Abraham." Pride is far from John's heart: "I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal." (see Jn 1:27), he says about Jesus. This humble man knows how to rebuke pride and self-sufficiency with great firmness. Humility is not fear. It is not silence. It is not moderation. It is not a spirit of accommodation. The humble person trusts in the Lord and in the Lord alone.
But strength does not make John inhuman or distant. He knows how to listen and how to speak, and he knows how to perform acts of forgiveness for the long line of men and women who come to him to confess their sins and be baptized with the baptism of repentance. John is a prophet who cries out. He cries out because he has to make room for a new life in the chaotic desert of this world. He wants to open the way of the Lord in the desert.
Het gebed is het hart van het leven van de Gemeenschap van Sant’Egidio. Het is haar eerste “werk”. Aan het einde van de dag komt elke Gemeenschap, of die nu klein of groot is, samen bij de Heer om het Woord te beluisteren en zich tot Hem te richten in het gebed. De leerlingen kunnen niet anders dan aan de voeten van Jezus zitten, zoals Maria van Bethanië, om het “betere deel” te kiezen (Lc 10, 42) en van Hem zijn gezindheid te leren (vgl. Fil 2, 5).
Elke keer dat de Gemeenschap zich tot de Heer richt, maakt ze zich die vraag eigen van de anonieme leerling: “Heer, leer ons bidden!” (Lc 11, 1). En Jezus, meester in het gebed, antwoordt: “Wanneer jullie bidden, zeg dan: Abba, Vader”.
Wanneer we bidden, ook in de geslotenheid van ons eigen hart, zijn we nooit alleen of verweesd. Integendeel, we zijn leden van de familie van de Heer. In het gemeenschappelijk gebed wordt naast het mysterie van het kindschap, ook dat van de broederschap en zusterschap duidelijk.
De Gemeenschappen van Sant’Egidio, verspreid over de wereld, verzamelen zich op de verschillende plaatsen die gekozen zijn voor het gebed en brengen de hoop en het verdriet van de “uitgeputte en hulpeloze mensenmenigte” waarover het Evangelie spreekt (Mt 9, 37) bij de Heer. Deze oude menigte omvat de inwoners van onze hedendaagse steden, de armen die zich bevinden in de marge van het leven, en iedereen die wacht om als dagloner te worden aangenomen (vgl. Mt 20).
Het gemeenschappelijk gebed verzamelt de schreeuw, de hoop, het verlangen naar vrede, genezing, zin en redding, die beleefd worden door de mannen en vrouwen van deze wereld. Het gebed is nooit leeg. Het stijgt onophoudelijk op naar de Heer opdat verdriet verandert in vreugde, wanhoop in blijheid, angst in hoop, eenzaamheid in gemeenschap. En het rijk Gods zal spoedig temidden van de mensen komen.
