HOPE OF BECOMING LIKE GOD

SUNDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Isa 11: 1-10; Ps 72:1-2,7-8,12-13,17; Rom 15:4-9; Mt 3:1-12

The Saviour of Mankind

On the second Sunday of Advent, the light of hope of salvation is brighter than it was on the first Sunday. The Church has led us through a whole week of rumination on the ancient prophecies of Isaiah and their fulfilment in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. As we mentioned in our reflection yesterday, the whole material creation is the farmland of Yahweh. He planted all men as good seeds in his farm, that we may bear fruit in being like Him. We are good because God made us, for all he made are good. We are seeds in the sense that we bear his image without our effort, and he is to transform us into his likeness through his grace and our cooperation. Every seed is so constituted because it has vitality in itself, but it cannot germinate, grow, and produce fruit without external help. We cannot transform ourselves into the likeness of God but rather must cooperate with God through his image in us to become like him. The transformation would have been seamless and continuous if the original fall had not happened. Sin entered through the evil one and made darnel of the good seed God created us to be. The transformation became extra difficult and costly, requiring the Eternal Word to become man and assume the office of the Chief Labourer in the vineyard that is his inheritance.

John the Baptist’s harassment of the Pharisees and the Sadducees in the Gospel passage clearly shows that the good seeds are corrupted into darnels when men lack attention and faith in the word of God. “Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is coming? But if you are repentant, produce the appropriate fruit, 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. 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.” From these solemn words, we understand that one becomes like the serpent (brood of vipers) instead of becoming like God by following the devil. If we put aside our rationality by which we are images of God and live irrational lives, we become darnels or a brood of vipers. The Baptist also sees the possibility of God transforming the darnels into wheat and vipers into sons of God. Nothing is impossible for God, who can raise children for Abraham from stones. The difficulty of the transformation due to our reckoning, not according to God. So, none of us must presume that his case is a lost one; everyone should share the hope of redemption from the Saviour who comes to save the world.

The Saviour has his roots in David’s faith and trust in God. Even deeper than David, for David received, uniquely, the gift that was given to Judah by the prophetic words of Jacob, their father. Thus, the prophecy refers to the stock of Jesse. We understand that it is not one man’s achievement or contribution, but the contributions of the Patriarchs, whose faith in the word of God formed the solid stock, with roots deep in God. “A shoot springs from the stock of Jesse, a scion thrusts from his roots: on him the spirit of the Lord rests, a spirit of wisdom and insight, a spirit of counsel and power, a spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” This same spirit is operative in every good seed, transforming it from image to likeness of God in its fruition. It is the Holy Spirit coming from God, and also the spirit of the devout soul giving it a spiritual life by which it lives and cooperates with God. Hence, the Holy Spirit is operative in every devout soul, building all into the mystical body of Jesus Christ and labourers in the vineyard of God.

Subsequently, we who are still undergoing transformation into the likeness of God bear the resemblance of both the Son of Man and that of the ruthless. “He does not judge by appearances, he gives no verdict on hearsay, but judges the wretched with integrity, and with equity gives a verdict for the poor of the land. His word is a rod that strikes the ruthless, his sentence brings death to the wicked.” As sharers in his divine life and Spirit, we give the sentence condemning ourselves as sinners in sincerity, and as sinners we suffer the death sentence in our bodily lives that his glorious life may also be visible in us. This is the flourishing of justice in us who live in the days of the Saviour. We are peaceful because we give to God what belongs to him and to ourselves, sinners, what belongs to us. Our life here is of hope then, until God completes our transformation into the likeness of his Son. Paul prays for God’s help for us as we go through the transformation. “And may he who helps us when we refuse to give up, help you all to be tolerant with each other, following the example of Christ Jesus, so that united in mind and voice you may give glory to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Saviour of the world is the One who is to come; he is the one who brings the Spirit of transformation, the flames of fire that will transform the good seeds and burn up the darnels or chaff in the everlasting fire.

Let us pray: Almighty and merciful God, may no earthly undertaking hinder those who set out in haste to meet your Son, but may our learning of heavenly wisdom gain us admittance to his company. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.