2nd Sunday of Advent
To The Pilgrims of Hope at Epiphany
The Bethlehem (Peace) Candle: Mary and Joseph’s Journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem (Luke 2:4-7)(Second Sunday of Advent, Year A, Mathew 3:1-12, 07 December 2025)
Repent: For God’s Nearness Reveals the Kingdom Within – In the Gospel given this second Sunday of Advent, John the Baptist’s invitation resounds. Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand! (Matthew 3:2). With these very words, Jesus begins his mission in Galilee (Mathew 4:17); and such will also be the message that the disciples must bring on their first missionary experience (Matthew 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. 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 inyour midst. This is the central message of every Christian mission. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 2016)
Dearly Beloved Brothers and Sisters– In this holy season of Advent, a voice rises from the desert– clear, unsettling, full of urgency and hope. It is the voice of John the baptist, thundering with simplicity the words that stand at the threshold of the Gospel itself.
A young traveler once arrived in a village known for its harsh winters and barren fields. The people there complained constantly: Nothing grows here. Nothing good can come to us. One morning, an old gardener–quiet, simple, unknown to most– began digging a small patch off frozen ground near the village well. The villagers laughed: why waste your time this soil is dead. The old man smiled and replied the seed is already alive. The soil needs ony to be opened.
Day after day he tilled, watered, and waited. Slowly, shoots broke through the cold earth. Then blossoms appeared. And soon, a small but vibrant garden stood in the middle of the village– a sign of unexpected life. The villagers were astonished. How did you do this? they asked. He answered: I did not bring life from far away. I simply uncovered the life already given.
John the Baptist is like that old gardener. He does not manufacture God’s kingdom; he simply opens the soil of the human heart. Jesus and the disciples announce the same truth: God’s kingdom is not distant it is already among us, already alive, waiting to break through. The missionary does not bring something foreign or force something new; he merely prepares the way so that Christ, who is already near, may be recognized, welcomed, and allowed to grow. John’s cry is not the whisper of a recluse who despises the world; it is the cry of a sentinel who sees dawn breaking before anyone else, the watchman who has spent the long night listening for footsteps of salvation.
The Call That Echoes Through the Gospel -It is striking that these exact words of John will later become the very first words Jesus preaches in Galilee Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Mat hew 4:17) And again, they become the very words the disciples repeat on their first mission (Matthew 10:7) This repetition is not accidental. Matthew the Evangelist shows that the entire Christian mission begins with the same heartbeat God has drawn near. The Baptist prepares the way. Jesus announces the fullness. The disciples echo the Good News. It is not merely a message about God it is the proclamation of God’s nearness, God’s approach, God’s arrival invulnerability and mercy.
The Kingdom of God Is in Your Midst – Jesus later makes this startling statement the Kingdom of God is in Your midst. (Luke 17:21). This is not simply spatial– nearby– but existential. It means: God is closer to us than we are to ourselves. God is not arriving from the outside: God is awakening from within. The divine life is already germinating in the human heart, like a seed awaiting surrender.
This is why repentance metanoia is not a threat but an invitation. Not a turning away out of fear, but a turning toward the One who is already turning toward us. Metanoia is not about guilt; it is about possibility. Not about punishment; but about new creation. Not a narrow moral correction, but a profound reorientation of the self toward fullness.
Advent: The Season of Interior Reorientation – Advent is not passive waiting; it is active readiness. John calls us to: clear the inner roads, remove the crooked habits of the heart, lower the mountains of pride, fill the valleys of indifference, and straighten what has become twisted or confused. This is not moralism it is phenomenology of the spiritual life. John is describing the geography of the soul. The obstacles that prevent us from meeting Christ are not out there. They are inner terrains: fears, resentments, addictons to self, the quiet refusal to be moved. Advent is the time to ask: Is there room in my heart for the One who comeshumbly? Or am I too crowded with myself?
The Missionary Dimension: Proclaim, Do Not Proselytize-Pope Francis reminds us: the Christian who truly listens to John the Baptist becomes a person who proclaims rather than proselytizes. To proclaim is to witness a reality already present the kingdom of God is in our midst. To proselytize is to recruit. To proclaim is to reveal.
A missionary is not an advertiser. A missionary is someone who says with their life: something has happened among us. God has drawn near, God has entered the human story, and the human heart is capable of God. This is why Francis says: missionaries prepare the path for Jesus to encounter the people. Advent is missionary time. We prepare not only for our encounter with Christ, but for Christ‘s encounter with others — through us.
The Desert as the School of Authenticity– John appears in the desert because the desert is where unnecessary things fall away. The desert is: the place without masks, the place without distractons, the place where we face ourselves honestly and the place where God becomes audible.
Many people today live in interior deserts loneliness, uncertainty, moral fatigue.But the biblical desert is not desolation; it is preparation. It is the threshold of promise. God always leads His people through the desert before the promised land. Perhaps Advent asks us: What desert must I enter so I can hear God again?
The Hope Hidden in the Call to Repent -John‘s message is urgent, yes, but not bleak. It is urgent because it is hopeful. His very words are the flame that melts the winter of the soul. He is saying: you are closer to God than you realize. Let nothing keep you from Him. Repentance is not about looking backward: it is about making space for the future, for the God who comes not to condemn, but to create something new.
A Cumulative Summary– John the Baptist’s cry: Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, is a summons that reverberates through philosophy and spirituality alike: a call to awaken consciousness from its slumber, to expand the mind: (metanoia), and to reorient the whole being toward the nearness of God. It reveals a God who is not distant but pressing upon the edges of our existence, inviting us into a new way of seeing, desiring, and living.
In Advent’s liminal space — that threshold between old world and new: the heart becomes the place where time meets eternity, where the kingdom begins to take root. Repentance becomes not sorrow but transformation, not moralism but liberation. The Season is inviting us to become living bearers of God’s presence. This is the central message of Christian mission and the fundamental movement of the spiritual life: turn toward the One who already draws near.
Concluding Words: Prepare the Way of the Lord -dear friends, this Advent, the Baptist stands not only at the river Jordan but at the riverbank of our hearts, calling us to awaken. He does not say: fear, for judgment is near, but rather: rejoice, for God i s near. The kingdom is not a far off utopia. It i s the divine nearness that transforms ordinary life, ordinary hearts, ordinary days.
Let us make room. Let us turn toward the One who is already turning toward us. Let us prepare the road for Him in the geography of our soul. For the kingdom of heaven is at hand closer than breath, deeper than longing, already arriving, silently, within.
Dear Epiphany:
If there is a relationship that needs healing–let the kingdom come!
If there is a habit that needs surrender–let the kingdom come!
If there is a ear that needs ourage–let the kingdom come!
If there is a corner of the heart long untouched–let the kingdom come!
The kingdom of heaven is at hand. it is near. it is upon you. it is within you!
Fraternally,
Fr. John Peter Lazaar SAC, Pastor