Finding your way again
The readings for this Second Sunday of Advent (A) are so very full, and I don’t just mean long – they are dense.
There’s a whole bunch here about sprouts and buds coming out of stumps, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, judging rightly, justice, punishment and peace. The wicked are slain, but children play safely with snakes and carnivores eat grass. John appears preaching repentance and penance and the kingdom of heaven, and promising judgment.
As I prepared for this weekend, I reminded myself of the people to whom God says through Ezekiel (38:17-18): “As for you, my flock… was it not enough for you to graze on the best pasture, that you had to trample the rest?” I was a bit like a dumb steer trampling good feed into the mud as I looked for grass.
Some of those explorations were fruitful. I encourage you to consider reading through the Gospel or the reading from Isaiah two or three sentences a day between now and next weekend. It will be time well spent.
If you want to wrestle with giants, I encourage you to read the second sentence about the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our first reading from Isaiah 11. Then read paragraphs 1831 and 1832 from the Catechism on the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. Finally, go to aquinas.cc on the internet and read Lecture 2 from Saint Thomas Aquinas on Isaiah 11. It is not easy reading, but it is beautiful and clarifying.
Or, think about the desert and what it means, and why John would go out into the desert – an uncomfortable place where nobody goes except that they are coming to seek out the word of God. Where is our desert? Do we go there?
We know that God works in mysterious ways. And, by mysterious, I don’t just mean spooky or mystical – I mean ways that make us shake our heads and wonder “what on earth…” For example, although these scriptures are cram-packed, and many of the passages I grazed upon were delightful, God used Santa as portrayed in the silly movie Elf to get me back on track. In response to Buddy’s grief over his father being on the naughty list, Santa says “Some people, they just lose sight of what is important in life. That doesn’t mean they can’t find their way again.”
And that is perhaps the most important thing in these scriptures. As Saint Paul says to the Romans, whatever was written was written for our instruction, so that we might have hope. Hope that although we and those we love lose sight of what is important in life. That doesn’t mean we can’t find our way again.
John comes preaching repentance – the first step in finding our way again. Now, as Father said last week, Advent is not currently observed as a penitential season. Canon 1250 states clearly that “The penitential days and times in the universal Church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.”
Advent (except Fridays, of course) is not in that list.
So. Advent is not formally penitential, but here we are, and John the Baptist is preaching repentance and penance. And those are different things. Repentance is in the mind and heart – to weep bitterly over our sins and to stop doing deeds worthy of those tears. To do penance is to do good in order to make right what has been wrong. Forgiveness comes through the blood of the Lamb, but penance is the outward sign of the grace of repentance imparted by Christ.
How, then, do we reconcile this? Advent is not a penitential season despite the purple, simplified decorations, less instrumental music, and these readings calling us to repentance and penance.
Thankfully, we don’t have to reconcile this. The US Bishops already did. In 1966, the bishops issued a Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence. They revised it slightly in light of the 1983 updates to Canon law, and the document remains the official guidance of our US Bishops. In it, the bishops begin by acknowledging that “Forms and seasons of penance vary from time to time and from people to people. But the need for conversion and salvation is unchanging, as is the necessity that, confessing our sinfulness, we perform, personally and in community, acts of penance in pledge of our inward penitence and conversion.”
They also address the reality that the tradition of Advent as a penitential season had become unpopular, and while they call upon the faithful to make Advent season “a time of meditation on the lessons taught by the liturgy and of increased participation…” they do not add Advent to the list of penitential times for the church.
They also point out that Lent retains “its ancient appeal to the penitential spirit of our people” and leave intact the obligations to fast and abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
They then proceed to their famous section removing the obligation to make every Friday a little Lent, just as every Sunday is a little Easter. They terminate the law of abstinence from meat binding under pain of sin, but they encourage the faithful to continue that observation by choice, or to choose another observation.
What’s really important here is the why – in brief, the binding requirement is removed so that we can choose freely and out of love to do what was once commanded.
Advent is not formally penitential, but we are called to continual conversion. We are called to repent not only once, but always. We are called to do penance not just when commanded, but when our hearts are moved.
The good news is that “some people, they just lose sight of what is important in life. That doesn’t mean they can’t find their way again.”
This is the good news of Advent. This is the good news of Lent. This is the good news of every season. We do lose sight of what is important. But we can find our way again, and we don’t have to wait for a particular time of the year – the kingdom of the Lord is at hand, and there is still and always hope for us if we will only reach for it.
In every season, we can and should prepare the way of the Lord to our hearts by repentance and penance – by turning from what is wrong to do what is right and good.
If we do so, no matter the season, then justice and peace will flourish in our hearts. God will have pity on us. Dead stumps and hopes and dreams will bring forth flowering buds. The spirit of the Lord will rest upon us. We will have peace in our hearts. And God’s dwelling – the church and our very own hearts – will be full of God’s glory.
