Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Advent

The novel Quo Vadis takes place in Rome a few years after the Resurrection of Jesus. During this time, Christianity was outlawed, and a brutal persecution was underway. However, despite the danger, Christianity continued to flourish, largely due to the inspiring teachings of the Apostle Peter.

At one point in the story, a young Roman named Vinicius fell in love with a beautiful Christian woman, but she wouldn’t have anything to do with him because his life was so different from hers.

Vinicius became intrigued by the young woman and her strong beliefs. This piqued his curiosity about how Christians worship. One night, he followed her to a secret gathering and hid in the shadows outside the meeting place. He listened intently to their service.

During their worship, Peter stood up to preach. As he spoke about Jesus, Vinicius began to take to heart what Peter was saying and contemplate what he would have to do in his life to become a Christian.

He concluded that he needed to take two significant steps. First, he would have to figuratively throw away his current life and burn it to ashes. Second, he would have to start a completely new life.

That image is an excellent example of what ancient Jews meant by conversion. Conversion in ancient Jewish culture meant returning from the wrong path and starting afresh on the right path. 

That is what John the Baptist tells people to do in today’s Gospel reading. He advises people to turn away from the path of sin, which ultimately leads to death, and instead, choose the path of righteousness, which leads to life.

John urges the people to signify their commitment to making a change in their lives by stepping down into the river and being baptized. However, he emphasizes that the act of washing their bodies, which symbolizes cleansing their souls, is only the first step towards transformation. It's merely a prelude to the second step, which involves not only letting go of their old way of life but also embracing a new way of life.

This explains what John meant when he said, “I have baptized you with water; he [Jesus] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” John’s baptism is a one of repentance.

The second step is receiving the baptism of rebirth that Jesus will bring; it is receiving the Holy Spirit and beginning a new life.

During the Advent season, we are called to take these two important steps. Despite being baptized, we often fall back into sin due to our human nature. Therefore, Advent is the perfect time to reflect on our lives and recognize the areas where we need to make changes. We must take these areas and symbolically burn them to ashes, so we can start anew and revitalize our spiritual life.

I want to close with an old story that illustrates the kind of Advent conversion the Church invites us to make.

In early British history, punishments were harsh to deter crime. During that time, a man was caught stealing sheep. The authorities punished him by branding the letters "S.T." on his forehead, which stood for "Sheep Thief." Despite the humiliating episode, the man succeeded in living down his past and moved on with his life.

As the man grew old, the letters "S.T." remained visible on his forehead. When children asked their parents what the letters stood for, the parents recognized the good deeds the man had done over the years and replied, "They stand for the word 'saint.'"

God says to all of us today, in the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Wash yourselves clean!… Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow.”