05/12/2010 - 2ND. SUNDAY IN ADVENT SEASON - A
1Reading Is 11,1-10 Psalm 71 2Reading Rom 15,4-9 Gospel Mt 3,1-12
Who gets baptised as a child gets to live the first and important experiences of
the Faith and Ecclesial Communion in his own family. If this does not pass it on
to the child, baptism remains an event with no effects and the child grows as if
nothing happened to him, therefore like any other child with no other reference
if not his own selfishness. The parents who ask for baptism are to be admired, especially
if they are prepared. To prepare for the baptism of a child does not mean to prepare
for the feast that might follow, but to prepare one's life to be a place where the
faith in Jesus Christ is passed on. Such parents commit themselves to learn to pray
together, to forgive and ask for forgiveness, to give without expecting to be repaid,
to live the day of the Lord as a day that belongs to the Lord, to think of others
and speak of them as brothers and sisters who need to be loved, respected and accepted
as they are. Such parents try to live the ecclesial communion sacrificing quality
time in favor of the needs of the parish. Among such needs, in the first place is
the urgency of the passing on of the Faith. Parents and godparents who choose to
give baptism to their kids should busy themselves to help them come to know Jesus
as Lord and Saviour. They should know that he is the joy of man, he is the one to
give birth and make grow life from within, necessary not to live as slaves in this
world, slaves of others, or their thoughts and of their attitudes. It's living with
Jesus as friend that helps the kid, and then young adult to enjoy his own interior
life freely, that makes him capable to judge and discern as to resist to the pier
pressure of vage ways and ideologies. The parents that choose baptism for their
children, but doesn't do anything so that they enjoy a communion with the Church,
a communion with other believers, a spiritual communion that grows by taking part
in the liturgical celebrations, as if they are celebrating against themselves. They
think that they have fulfilled their duty as christians, but in reality they would
not: their child grows witht he same emptiness they have lived, and shall experience
frustration, in search of surragates such as perversive sex, drugs, smoke, gamling,
football, and shall be in need of psychologists to balance his personality. I'm
not saying, then, that it is better not to baptise the children, but I want to underline
that it's not right for parents not to prepare themselves too.
Great changes are announced by the prophet, unexpected ones, held impossible. Wild
and poisonous annimals are not dangerous anymore, so that no one shall be afraid.
"Knowing the Lord" shall change men who won't be violent anymore. The
prophet himself says that this shall happen when "the root of Jesse" shall
be know as the distinction among the peoples. We are aware that things are so: when
"the root of Jesse", that is the discendent of David, Jesus Christ, is
accepted and served by a people, in whom things change fundamentally. History speaks
of many changes that marked peoples with the arrival of the Gospels. Unfortunately
today we see the opposite: peaceful peoples become violent because they don't "know
the Lord".
What Isaiah propheties, we see it being fulfilled in the preaching of the Baptist.
This man who attracted crowds with his austerity and his trust in God, was preparing
ground for Jesus to be welcomed, inviting and exhorting people for conversion. He
was insisting that all would recognize their own sins and confess them. Two were
the attitudes of those who run up to him. There were those who truly humbled themselves
and were asking for forgiveness through baptism, marking themselves by a public
rite their will to welcome the Messiah, "the one to come". There were
those who were going to see John out of curiosity, proud of themselves, sure that
they were not in need of the what John was doing because they had everything. These
were the pharisees and the sadducees, who were holding on to a ministry and belonging
to a religous group. John was aware of their pride and spoke to them harsh words.
He also called the "vipers", equal to "children of the snake",
and all knew who was the snake. Who is proud at heart is exactly so, unable to receive
salvation, hence lost, not only he himself but a cause for others to be lost too.
Conversion is necessary: the coming of the one who "is to baptise in the Holy
Spirit becomes judgement and condamnation, instead of salvation, for those who do
not convert, who do not humble themselves and doesn't feel the need of the saviour.
At Christmas many go to church for a celebration: would they be converted? Are we
ready to carry within us, not only on that day, but all days, the Holy Spirit given
by Baby Jesus? John the Baptist wants to help us prepare to welcome Jesus not only
with a emotion, but with a life open to new revelations, ready to join with him
to fulfill his desires.