Entry 0564: Reflections on the Second Sunday of Advent
by Pope Francis
On three occasions
during his pontificate, Pope Francis has delivered reflections on the Second Sunday of Advent, on
7 December 2014, 6 December 2015,
and 4 December 2016. Here are the texts of the two brief addresses
delivered prior to the recitation of the Angelus.
May
the Virgin Mary help us to prepare ourselves for the encounter with this ever greater
Love, which is what Jesus brings and which, on Christmas night, becomes very very
small, like a seed fallen on the soil. And Jesus is this seed: the seed of the kingdom
of God.
POPE FRANCIS
ANGELUS
Saint Peter’s Square,
Sunday, 7 December 2014
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Good morning!
This Sunday marks the
second stage of the Season of Advent, a marvelous time which reawakens in us the
expectation of Christ’s return and the memory of his historical coming. Today’s
Liturgy presents us with a message full of hope. It is the Lord’s express invitation
from the lips of the Isaiah: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God” (40:1).
These words open the Book of Comfort, in which the Prophet addresses the
joyous proclamation of liberation to the people in exile. The time of tribulation
has ended; the people of Israel can look trustingly toward the future: at last they
can return to their homeland. This is the reason for the invitation to let themselves
be comforted by the Lord.
Isaiah addresses people
who have passed through a dark period, who have been subjected to a very difficult
trial; but now the time of comfort has come. Sorrow and fear can be replaced with
joy, for the Lord himself will guide his people on the way to liberation and salvation.
How will He do all this? With the solicitude and tenderness of a shepherd who takes
care of his flock. He will in fact provide unity and security and feed his flock,
gather the lost sheep into his sure fold, reserve special attention to the most
fragile and weak (v. 11). This is God’s attitude toward us, his creatures. For this
reason, the Prophet invites those who hear him—including us, today—to spread this
message of hope: that the Lord consoles us. And to make room for the comfort which
comes from the Lord.
We cannot be messengers
of God’s comfort if we do not first feel the joy of being comforted and loved by
Him. This happens especially when we hear his Word, the Gospel, which we should
carry in our pocket: do not forget this! The Gospel in your pocket or purse, to
read regularly. And this gives us comfort: when we abide in silent prayer in his
presence, when we encounter Him in the Eucharist or in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
All this comforts us.
Let us therefore allow
Isaiah’s call—“Comfort, comfort my people”—resound in our heart in this Season of
Advent. Today there is need for people to be witnesses to the mercy and tenderness
of God, who spurs the resigned, enlivens the disheartened, ignites the fire of hope.
He ignites the fire of hope! We don’t. So many situations require our comforting
witness. To be joyful, comforting people. I am thinking of those who are burdened
by suffering, injustice and tyranny; of those who are slaves to money, to power,
to success, to worldliness. Poor dears! They have fabricated consolation, not the
true comfort of the Lord! We are all called to comfort our brothers and sisters,
to testify that God alone can eliminate the causes of existential and spiritual
tragedies. He can do it! He is powerful!
Isaiah’s message, which
resounds in this second Sunday of Advent, is a salve on our wounds and an impetus
to prepare with commitment the way of the Lord. Indeed, today the Prophet speaks
to heart to tell us that God condones our sins and comforts us. If we entrust ourselves
to Him with a humble and penitent heart, He will tear down the walls of evil, He
will fill in the holes of our omissions, He will smooth over the bumps of arrogance
and vanity, and will open the way of encounter with Him. It is curious, but many
times we are afraid of consolation, of being comforted. Or rather, we feel more
secure in sorrow and desolation. Do you know why? Because in sorrow we feel almost
as protagonists. However, in consolation the Holy Spirit is the protagonist! It
is He who consoles us, it is He who gives us the courage to go out of ourselves.
It is He who opens the door to the source of every true comfort, that is, the Father.
And this is conversion. Please, let yourselves be comforted by the Lord! Let yourselves
be comforted by the Lord!
The Virgin Mary is
the “Way” that God Himself prepared in order to come into the world. Le us entrust
to Her the salvation and peace awaited by all men and women of our time.
POPE FRANCIS
ANGELUS
Saint Peter’s Square,
Sunday, 6 December 2015
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Good morning!
On this second Sunday
of Advent, the Liturgy places us in the school of John the Baptist, who preached
“a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Perhaps we ask ourselves,
“Why do we have to convert? Conversion is about an atheist who becomes a believer
or a sinner who becomes just. But we don’t need it. We are already Christians. So
we are okay.” But this isn’t true. In thinking like this, we don’t realize that
it is precisely because of this presumption—that we are Christians, that everyone
is good, that we’re okay—that we must convert: from the supposition that, all things
considered, things are fine as they are and we don’t need any kind of conversion.
But let us ask ourselves: is it true that in the various situations and circumstances
of life, we have within us the same feelings that Jesus has? Is it true that we
feel as Christ feels? For example, when we suffer some wrongdoing or some insult,
do we manage to react without animosity and to forgive from the heart those who
apologize to us? How difficult it is to forgive! How difficult! “You’re going to
pay for this”—that phrase comes from inside! When we are called to share joys or
sorrows, do we know how to sincerely weep with those who weep and rejoice with those
who rejoice? When we should express our faith, do we know how to do it with courage
and simplicity, without being ashamed of the Gospel? Thus we can ask ourselves so
many questions. We’re not all right. We must always convert and have the sentiments
that Jesus had.
The voice of the Baptist
still cries in the deserts of humanity today, which are—what are today’s deserts?—closed
minds and hardened hearts. And [his voice] causes us to ask ourselves if we are
actually following the right path, living a life according to the Gospel. Today,
as then, he admonishes us with the words of the Prophet Isaiah: “Prepare the way
of the Lord!” (v. 4). It is a pressing invitation to open one’s heart and receive
the salvation that God offers ceaselessly, almost obstinately, because he wants
us all to be free from the slavery of sin. But the text of the prophet amplifies
this voice, portending that “all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (v. 6). And
salvation is offered to every man, and every people, without exclusion, to each
one of us. None of us can say, “I’m a saint; I’m perfect; I’m already saved.” No.
We must always accept this offer of salvation. This is the reason for the Year of
Mercy: to go farther on this journey of salvation, this path that Jesus taught us.
God wants all of mankind to be saved through Jesus, the one mediator (see 1 Tim
2:4-6).
Therefore, each one
of us is called to make Jesus known to those who do not yet know him. But this is
not to proselytize. No, it is to open a door. “Woe to me if I do not preach the
gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16), Saint Paul declared. If Our Lord Jesus has changed our lives,
and he changes it every time we go to him, how can we not feel the passion to make
him known to those we encounter at work, at school, in our apartment building, in
the hospital, in meeting places? If we look around us, we find people who would
be willing to begin—or begin again—a journey of faith were they to encounter Christians
in love with Jesus. Shouldn’t we and couldn’t we be these Christians? I leave you
this question: “Am I truly in love with Jesus? Am I convinced that Jesus offers
me and gives me salvation?” And, if I am in love, I have to make him known! But
we must be courageous: lay low the mountains of pride and rivalry; fill in the ravines
dug by indifference and apathy; make straight the paths of our laziness and our
compromises.
May the Virgin Mary,
who is Mother and knows how to do so, help us to tear down the walls and the obstacles
that impede our conversion, that is, our journey toward the encounter with the Lord.
He alone, Jesus alone can fulfill all the hopes of man!
POPE FRANCIS
ANGELUS
Saint Peter’s Square,
Sunday, 4 December 2016
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
In the Gospel given this second Sunday of
Advent, John the Baptist’s invitation resounds: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand!” (Mt 3:2). With these very words, Jesus begins his mission in Galilee
(see Mt 4:17); and such will also be the message that the disciples must bring on
their first missionary experience (see Mt 10:7). Matthew the evangelist would like
to present John as the one who prepares the way of the coming Christ, as well as
the disciples as followers, as Jesus preached. It is a matter of the same joyful
message: the kingdom of God is at hand! It is near, and it is in us! These words
are very important: “The kingdom of God is in our midst,” Jesus says. And John announces
what Jesus will say later: “The kingdom of God is at hand, it has arrived, and is
in your midst.” This is the central message of every Christian mission. When a missionary
goes, a Christian goes to proclaim Jesus, not to proselytize, as if he were a fan
trying to drum up new supporters for his team. No, he goes simply to proclaim: “The
kingdom of God is in our midst!” And in this way, the missionaries prepare the path
for Jesus to encounter the people.
But what is this kingdom of God, this kingdom
of heaven? They are synonymous. We think immediately of the afterlife: eternal
life. Of course this is true, the kingdom of God will extend without limit beyond
earthly life, but the good news that Jesus brings us—and that John predicts—is that
we do not need to wait for the kingdom of God in the future: it is at hand. In some
way it is already present and we may experience spiritual power from now on. “The
kingdom of God is in your midst,” Jesus will say. God comes to establish his lordship
in our history, today, every day, in our life; and there—where it is welcomed with
faith and humility—love, joy and peace blossom.
The condition for entering and being a part
of this kingdom is to implement a change in our life, which is to convert,
to convert every day, to take a step forward each day. It is a question of leaving
behind the comfortable but misleading ways of the idols of this world: success at
all costs; power to the detriment of the weak; the desire for wealth; pleasure at
any price. And instead, preparing the way of the Lord: this does not take away our
freedom, but gives us true happiness. With the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, it is
God himself who abides among us to free us from self interest, sin and corruption,
from these manners of the devil: seeking success at all costs; seeking power to
the detriment of the weak; having the desire for wealth; seeking pleasure at any
price.
Christmas is a day of great joy, even external,
but above all, it is a religious event for which a spiritual preparation is necessary.
In this season of Advent, let us be guided by the Baptist’s exhortation: “Prepare
the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,” he tells us (v. 3). We prepare
the way of the Lord and make his paths straight when we examine our conscience,
when we scrutinize our attitudes, in order to eliminate these sinful manners that
I mentioned, which are not from God: success at all costs; power to the detriment
of the weak; the desire for wealth; pleasure at any price.
© Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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For reflections on the Second Sunday of Advent
by Pope Benedict XVI,
please scroll down to the bottom of this page.
* * * * *
For reflections on the Second Sunday of Advent
by Pope Benedict XVI,
please scroll down to the bottom of this page.
* * * * *
