Advent: Part Two
Hope and Conversion
During the second week of Advent, the Liturgy focuses our attention on John the Baptist, that great prophet who suddenly appears in the desert to announce the coming of the Messiah. Like us, John is waiting. He is waiting for something new that will change and transform the face of the earth. He is waiting for the final and definitive coming of salvation. He is waiting for the long-expected Messiah.
But John understands that if the Messianic age is upon us, then there is need for a profound change and transformation in our lives. Therefore, in addition to announcing the coming of the Messiah, he calls us to repent—to change and reform our lives so that we can receive the salvation that God is offering in Christ.
John’s message reminds us of the intimate connection between “hope” and “repentance.” Those who wait in hope must change and reform their lives if they expect to receive what they are waiting for. Because those who wait in hope are looking for a new creation in which the justice and mercy of God will reign, they cannot continue to live in the same way they lived before. They must change their lives in order to enter into the kingdom of God.
This Advent season finds us between hope and fulfillment. On the one hand, Advent teaches us to wait and hope for the salvation that God is about to bring. On the other, we know all too well that we are still stuck in the old age of sin and death. And so we find ourselves between the old and the new, between what has been and what will be.
This is why we need to repent during this Advent season. This is why John the Baptist calls us to reform and change our lives. John warns us that we cannot enter into the new age if we do not leave behind the old age. John warns us that we must be prepared to enter this new age of salvation; we must change and reform our lives. John shows us the connection between hope and repentance. He shows how hope points us to the new age, and repentance prepares us for the new age.
What do to we need to repent of this Advent? How should we change and reform our lives so that we can enter into the new age of salvation that God is preparing for us?
First, we need to turn away from those things that conform us to the old age of sin and death—those habits whereby we repeat the same destructive behavior over and over again, those addictions that enslave us. Second, we need to view our lives and the world about us from an entirely new vantage point. We need to see the world about us from the point of view of the gospel so that we can see the world clearly. Third, we need to embrace the new age of grace and salvation wholeheartedly and without reservation. We need to give ourselves entirely to Jesus Christ and his gospel.
The conversion to which John the Baptist calls us this Advent can be summarize in three phrases: (1) turn away from destructive behavior, (2) look at the world from the point of view of the gospel, (3) embrace the gospel wholeheartedly and without reservation.
Father Matera