SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT

1.       Isaiah is our staple food during Advent. Through the year, the first readings are chosen to introduce or emphasize the theme of the Gospel as we follow chapter by chapter each Sunday. Not so in Advent - the Gospels are chosen as Isaiah leads us to the Messiah, the one who is long awaited.

          Our first reading today is from the most awesome and vivid description in Isaiah. It is a picture of Creation and a Garden. The wonder and joy of living together whee Evil has gone and real Peace fills people of good will. It is a picture of perfect harmony

          the leopard and the lamb

          the calf and the lion

          the bear and the Cow all in harmony.

And the child fears not the serpent, the snake. No harm will be done. This is the promise made to the people of Israel - a promise that continues today.

2.       This is in stark contrast in the world we are living today. There is a genocide being carried on in Dafur, in Sudan even as we gather and pray in our churches. But who cares. Sudan does not have Oil. There are people being killed in Palestine, in Israel. Today ten, tomorrow twenty. But we have become anaesthetized to the numbers. There are 100,000 killed in Iraq and we hear world leaders tell us that we will not wait for them to come to our shores and destroy, we will take the attack to them. It is a pre emptive strike. And shades of the Crusades, we claim to be Christians.

The Birth of Christ which we await with eagerness is a birth of Compassion. It is a compassion that will surely challenge injustice everywhere. But the confrontation will not be done with Violence, with guns, with Aerial Attacks, but with mercy and justice.

3.       John in our Gospel, challenges us to make a U-turn on a one way street of Arms, Weapons and Violence. This is not because we are pacifists by philosophy. It is because reality tells us that an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth does not work. All it does is leave us as a blind and toothless people still at each others throats.

          No more weapons to destroy each other because Christ has come into this world that we may have life and have it to the full.

          No more weapons to destroy each other because we are made in the image and likeness of God. And you do not wantonly destroy a thing of a beauty and a joy forever.

          No more weapons to destroy each other because as Isaiah tells us the Messiah will not crush the bruised reed.

4.       Our challenge is to work towards making Creation a Garden where the Leopard and the lamb, the Calf and the Lion, the Bear and the Cow will live in harmony - and therefore even more strongly must the Human being who has been called to govern these animals.

          It is a time of hope, of eagerness, of longing, of life. In our own small way, in our own limited sphered of action and living, we too must prepare the Way of the Lord. We are called to say NO

          to hatred and bitterness

          to revenge and to holding on to grudges

          to being lame, crippled, blind to seeing and helping the needy in our midst.

We are called to say Yes

          to take the first step in reconciliation, even when we are the victims

          to acknowledge and rejoice at the talents of others.

          to celebrate our differences in cultures, language, sexual orientation.

If the Leopard and lamb, the lion and goat can to it - why should we not. After all Isaiah tells us that we have been given the

          Spirit of wisdom and understanding

          spirit of counsel and might

          spirit of fear and the knowledge of the Lord.

Who could ask for anything more.

5.       In our second reading, Paul shows us how this can succeed. It was a time of turmoil and unrest. So far those who chose to follow the Lord were from the Jewish community. They were aware of the traditions and prayer and customs of Jesus who was himself a Jew as were his disciples. Now there is a growing group of Pagans who want to be Christian. They know neither the tradition nor the History of the Jews. They are a minority at the present, but they are soon going to outnumber the Jews - they will also impose their traditions on the Christian Community.

          Cultural and ethnic traditions were due to collide. There would be different temperaments unable to accept one another.  Groups where one way of thinking would prevail - there would be violent struggles, disagreements and perhaps even schisms. Paul calls on the community to be rooted in love. He asked them to welcome each other as Christ himself had welcomed them.

6.       Harmony and peace is not an impossible dream even in our world where we tend to be suspicious of each other.  How this is a matter of making a decision to reach out to others. It is not one based on feeling and likings. We cannot like everyone. There is always someone who will rub us the wrong way - and that is why the human person is so fascinating. The Human Person is so different and unpredictable. We can and must take the decision to love, to reach out as Jesus said: Love one another - as I Jesus have loved you.

It will exist if we take up the challenge to act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with God. We can build the Garden painted in Isaiah.