Brought to you courtesy of Catholic Ireland
2nd Sun Advent-Year A
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-07-12-2025-
Second Sunday of Advent
Gospel Text: Matthew 3:1-12
vs.1 In due course John the Baptist appeared; he preached in the wilderness of Judaea and this was his message:
vs.2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.”
vs.3 This was the man the prophet Isaiah spoke of when he said:
“A voice cries in the wilderness: ‘Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.’”
vs.5 Then Jerusalem and all Judaea and the whole Jordan district made their way to him,
vs.6 and as they were baptised by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins.
vs.7 But when he saw a number of Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism he said to them,
vs.8 “Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is coming? But if you are repentant, produce the appropriate fruit,
vs.9 and do not presume to tell yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’, because, I tell you, God can raise children for Abraham from these stones.
vs. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees, so that any tree which fails to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire.
vs.11 I baptise you in water for repentance, but the one who follows me is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to carry his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
vs.12 His winnowing-fan is in his hand; he will clear the threshing-floor and gather his wheat into the barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.”
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We have four sets of homily notes to choose from.
Please scroll down the page to read them.
Michel DeVerteuil : a formar Holy Ghost Priest, director of the Centre of Biblical renewal WI.
Thomas O’Loughlin: Thomas is on the theology faculty of Nottingham University
Donal Neary SJ: Editor of The Sacred Heart Messenger
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Michel de Verteuil
Lectio Divina with the Sunday Gospels – Year A
www.columba.ie
General comments
This is a long passage with many themes worked into it. Identifying the different themes before starting your meditation will help you to enter into the passage.
Verses 1 to 5 summarise the story of John the Baptist, but even in this section there are various points being made: 1. the fact that John preached in the wilderness;
2. that he appeared ‘in due course’, meaning at the time fixed by God;
3. that he was fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah.
The text of Isaiah in verse 3 is often misunderstood. What it is saying is that prophets always announce to people who are experiencing loss and abandonment that they can relax because God is going to show himself to them.
In verse 4 the Baptist’s garments are symbolic: they are the traditional garments of the prophets. His diet is simple and taken from the environment.
The rest of the passage gives us individual teachings of John the Baptist, each of them symbolic and a typical teaching of a prophet.
In verse 7-9 the mentality of all who are complacent is exposed, one that we will certainly recognise as typical of us who are religious people.
Verse 10 expresses dramatically an experience of a ‘coming of the Son of Man’.
Verse 11 gives us an insight into the spirituality of John the Baptist, as of all who are involved in a work of God. There is deep humility combined with trust in our particular vocation.
Verse 12 is another dramatic image of God’s coming and its effects. In your meditation you can enter into it as a message of comfort in a time of fear.
Scriptural Prayers
Lord, we thank you for conversion experiences:
~ a parish retreat;
~ a serious illness; self or someone close to us
~ loss of job, or beginning a new one
~ one of our friends telling us off;
~ meeting a great person.
At the time we were drifting, wrapped up in our own concerns.
he spoke to us in our wilderness and his message was simply this:
* we must re-think our values totally.
* We recognise that this was the experience the prophets spoke of when they said that no matter how desolate the wilderness we find ourselves in,
you will speak to us there.
*In fact, we can prepare for your coming. Thank you, Lord.
Lord, we thank you for what has happened in South Africa and Northern Ireland and now hopefully Gaza and Israel, Ukraine and Russia after all the killings there
We thank you for the great leaders who in due course appeared in those wildernesses,
Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Desmond Tutu, Allan Boesak, Martin Mc Guinness and Queen Elizabeth II and the Good Friday agreement in Ireland.
Like John the Baptist they wore the garments of the ancient prophets,
nourishing themselves from the resources of their culture,
and proclaiming that a decisive moment has come and the country must take a new path.
We thank you that the people responded.
As in the time of John the Baptist, when Jerusalem and all Judaea
and the whole Jordan district made their way out to him,
so today the people are abandoning their passivity, confessing that they have played their part in the system, and committing themselves to where ever their troubles lay.
Naturally some are coming forward like the Pharisees and Sadducees only because they wish to escape from the violence that is coming,
but your leaders are challenging them and calling on them to produce the appropriate fruit.
Lord, we thank you that recent popes have also been John the Baptist, preaching to the wilderness of the modern world that a moment of decision is at hand, e.g. global warning that even now the axe is laid to the roots of our civilisation and if it does not produce good fruit it will be cut down and thrown on the fire. c/f Popes John XXIII, John Paul II, Francis and now Leo XIV
Lord, don’t let us Christians presume that we can escape this retribution because we are the children of Abraham; remind us that you can raise children for Abraham from the dust and stones.
“The great problem for the church today is not (our) survival but our lack of prophecy.” …Thomas Merton
Lord, as a church, we often wonder why more people don’t make their way to us,
ask for baptism and confess their sins. Perhaps it is that we do not wear the garments of the prophets, and we do not nourish ourselves from the wisdom of our culture: caring enough for our needy,
Lord, we thank you for those who continue to bring the gospel message
in areas of society which are looked down upon
~ the worker priests;
~ those of us who work with gay/transgender people or with people involved in the slave trade or in poverty , Alcoholics Anonymous and other addicted people.
~ political and local leaders who work for peace and justice
They proclaim in the wilderness that you are there and all of us need is to open themselves to your presence in them.
Lord, we thank you for the deep joy of knowing, like John the Baptist,
that we are the humble servants of your great work,
that others will follow us who will be more powerful than we are,
and so we can be content to baptise with water for repentance
because others will baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Lord, evil discourages us
– the evil within ourselves, in our families, our church community, in society.
We thank you that every once in a while you send us people like John the Baptist
who remind us that you are there with your winnowing fan in your hand
and you will clear your threshing floor.
All that evil which frightens us, you will burn in a fire that will never go out,
whereas goodness which seems so frail to us is your precious wheat which you will gather into your barn to share with others.
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Thomas O’Loughlin,
Liturgical Resources for Advent and Christmas
www.columba.ie
Introduction to the celebration
Christmas is coming! If you are not already busy preparing, then you will have at least heard many people telling you it is time you started getting ready. This year we are all, well nearly all, facing available energy and financial deficits and negative other leftovers.
As the people of God we need to start thinking about the welcoming of the Christ and the preparations that we are called upon to make as disciples. We must prepare the way for the Lord to enter our lives, to enter the lives of those around us, and to enter into our world with his word of peace and forgiveness.
Homily Notes
1. Do you know this rhyme?
‘Christmas is coming, The goose is getting fat,
Please put a penny in the old man’s hat.’
A few simple comments on this little rhyme can provide a checklist for people to remind themselves of what we celebrate during Advent.
Christmas is coming.
preparations for holidays,
for all the festivities
buying and sending cards and presents,
arranging food, everyone is ‘ getting ready’.
Everyone is looking forward some with joy, others with dread to the period around Dec. 25. Prices are rising everywhere
‘Looking forward’ and ‘getting ready‘ are basic Christmas activities: we as Christians are looking forward to the coming of the kingdom, we are looking to the return of the Christ in glory. We are also looking forward to the life of the world to come. We are always getting ready
*to be better disciples,
*to be witnesses,
*to be the eyes, feet and hands of Jesus.
What we are looking forward and working so busily to prepare for is ‘Christ Mass‘: the Christian feast. The feast that proclaims that the Son of God has come among us, walked with us, talked with us, suffered with us, and offered us adoption as daughters and sons of God. He is coming among us now, and will come again to judge the living and the dead.
2. The goose is getting fat.
If God has sent his Son among us, then this is a cause for joy. We as Christians can be truly party animals for we are celebrating the depths of the Father’s love. It is right that we should have the great party that the thought of a fat goose brings to mind. We are a loved and redeemed people: we have more to celebrate than we can even imagine.
3. Please put a penny in the old man’s hat.
But if we rejoice that the Father loves us and has sent his Son among us, then it also make demands on us. Being disciples means we have to be doers. We cannot be indifferent to sufferings and needs of others.
~God loves us; we must love others;
~God has forgiven us; we must forgive others;
~God provides for us in our need; we must provide for others.
~We cannot party with honest hearts until we have sought to relieve suffering.
The image of the old man with his hat on the ground in front of him begging reminds us of the work we must do to bring about the kingdom.
Christians rejoice as we wait for the Lord when he comes again in glory to say:
‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ (cf Mt 25:34-40).
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Donal Neary SJ
Gospel Reflections for Sundays of Year A: Matthew
www.messenger.ie/bookshop/
The Straight Way
Beforemotorways a journey took ages, with many twists and turns, corners and hills. Now much has been made straight.
John’s message was that we would live along a path where words and actions match, and where kindness matches convictions.
John was the man of desert food and desert dress; he took time out to find what the biggest thing in life was and then kept following it, often not knowing where it would take him.
God’s guiding is gentle. John found that Jesus was a gentler guide:
no name-calling,
no bringing of the axe to the tree,
but calling each of us his friend, and
nourishing the tree rather than cutting it down.
s. Our hearts can be melted at Christmas time by the love of God and love of others, if we can just thaw out . Think of, or remember a past Christmas time when you made a decision to allow Jesus do this for you again – maybe it is time to try again this year!
Lord Jesus, this year, arm our hearts to be like yours.