Jesus is God’s concern for us in person.  So, it is right that Paul asks us Christians to let all see our concern for others. 

The prophet Baruch and the prophet Isaiah proclaim God’s concern for us, though not in an express way.  For the first reading and Is 40, 1-5 announce that God comforts poor and beset exiles.

Of course, today’s gospel makes use, in part, of this text from Isaiah.  But the gospel uses the good news that Baruch and Isaiah bring as a call to all to repent.  Yes, the call is for all, so that we may all see that God saves all.  Not just the Jews but the Gentiles, too.  God’s game plan, then, is universal salvation.

And to repent means to change the way we think and live.  It is to break with the way tribes think, a religious habit, and to base our whole life on Jesus’ concern for us.  And he bears witness to the truth as he teaches us to love God and our brothers and sisters.  For us not to love in that way means to remain prisoner of the big lie of lies.  And it is “the ‘I’ that is self-sufficient.”

Hence, to be of the truth, to have true concern, is to practice the two great virtues of Jesus Christ:  being in awe of his Father and love for us men and women (SV.EN VI:413).  This, of course, can lead us to give up our bodies and to shed our blood.  But that is how we can be full of the fruit of justice for the day of Christ. Only thus can we know God’s comfort.

Lord Jesus, teach us true concern for others that is like yours and that of your Mother, conceived without sin.  Make our concern serve as a light and a leaven of justice, of love and of peace in the world. 

8 December 2024
2nd Sunday of Advent (C)
Bar 5, 1-9; Phil 1, 4-6. 8-11; Lk 3, 1-6