Early one morning, while taking a walk, I came upon a beautiful, breathtaking scene. It rained the night before and a puddle of water had accumulated on the swale. I looked over, and there, together, enjoying the pool of water, without fear of each other, were ducks, squirrels, some small birds, and a swarm of large white ibis. I remembered this scene as I read Isaiah’s vivid prophetic imagery (Isaiah 11:1-10); “the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together…” What an awesome portrayal of peaceful living! Animals that typically fear each other living together as one! Isaiah used this imagery to proclaim his vision of the coming kingdom when the disorders of the world will be overturned and God’s reign of unity, peace, and harmony among all peoples will be ushered in. We can only attain Isaiah’s vision of peace and harmony through God’s amazing grace that enables each of us to acknowledge our role in the disorder of the world and empowers our transformation.
Sunday’s gospel (Matthew 3:1-12) features John the Baptist, the forerunner, who was the one sent to “prepare the way of the Lord.” John prepares the way of the Lord by making God’s people ready for God’s new ordering of the world from disharmony to harmony. John sees this beginning within the heart of each person. Each person makes the choice between the goodness of God’s kingdom that unites us with God and the self-focused kingdom of the world which disunites us and leaves the world disordered. To choose God’s kingdom is to take the first steps of confession and repentance, to “turn around,” to have a total change of heart and mind towards God’s direction.” John therefore proclaimed, “repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” In repentance, we examine our lives and acknowledge our joint and individual sins.
At the root of our sins is our failure to love. In the Church’s Confession of Sins, again and again, we humbly admit “we have not loved You with our whole heart, we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.” Repentance, therefore, is an unending appeal to God for forgiveness and an openness to be transformed into the way of love. As we are transformed, we “bear fruits worthy of repentance.” We discern tiny glimpses of ‘fruits” in acts of kindness or reconciled relationships.
While John offered baptism for repentance, we humans need more. If we are to attain God’s reign of harmony and peace, we need the grace of God to purify our hearts, lift us up each time we fall, and teach us how to live the radically new life of love. John therefore openly declared that Jesus Christ, the Powerful One was coming and He would baptize believers with the Holy Spirit and fire for interior purification and strengthening in the way of love. Thanks be to God that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners!”
Prayer: God of Life, in baptism You give us new birth into a living hope, calling us into Your marvelous light, to live as Your people. Bless us with Your Spirit’s presence, that our work, prayer, and fellowship may bear fruit for Your glory and lead the world in the way of love, peace, and harmony.
