Scripture for Mass
Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72 (71):1-2. 7-8. 12-13. 17. Response: cf. 7.
Romans 15:4-9
Matthew 3:1-12
Advent is a time to dream – children about gifts, migrants about their home country, and many of us about the joy of celebrating Christ’s birth with family and friends.
We also cherish bigger dreams, such as the cessation of violence and relief from hunger for everyone during the Christmas season.
Today’s readings invite us to meditate on the greatest dream of all, God’s vision for all people and our planet. What is this amazing dream? That the wolf and the lamb, the lion and the ox, the child and the cobra live side by side in harmony and peace. That all hurt and harm are banished from our world.
This dream represents a decisive challenge to our polarised understanding of a world with only two categories of people – meek lambs, oxen and children on one side; ravenous wolves, lions and cobras on the other. It also challenges our belief that reconciliation and peace can only be realised when the other side is completely won over to our side.
But what is the alternative path that allows us to collaborate in realising God’s dream? John the Baptist urgently pleads for our personal repentance, conversion and renewal. The Church invites us to inclusive synodal conversations in which we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit and listen with humility and sincerity to everyone. Meanwhile, our participation in the Eucharist unites us ever more closely to Christ, empowering us to love all others, including our enemies.
Throughout Advent, Dream Big!
Creator God, we praise you for the magnificence of the earth, and for forming all people in your own image and likeness, and yet each one unique.
Forgive us for denigrating and demonizing those who differ from us, and for damaging and destroying the common home we share with cacti and cockroaches, horses and hippopotami.
Grant us eyes to see beauty in difference and hearts to appreciate the blessing of diversity.
May your Holy Spirit renew us, leading us to find true unity in Christ, so that his peace may reign in our hearts and in all the earth.
Amen.
Fr. Tim Mulroy
