The first Sunday of Advent presented us with the eschatological return of the Son of man at the end of times; today instead the liturgy speaks to us of the historical coming of Christ among us; coming prepared by prophecy which shows us the qualities of the future Messiah and the ethical foundations of his Kingdom. The Gospel of Matthew (Mt 3: 1-12) presents the preaching of the Baptist, located in the desert, near the Jordan. The Jordan evokes the passage from sin to conversion and John the Baptist in fact preaches the conversion. But beware, this is conversion in view of the imminence of the Kingdom of Heaven and is thus a great change in the history of salvation: the new Israel will no longer inherit the earth but will rather inherit the Kingdom of Heaven (of God). The images evoked by the passage from Isaiah (Is 11: 1-10), including the wolf and the lamb that dwell together, describe the polarities, as in Jesus, which can be reconciled so as to make peace. Paul’s passage also speaks to us of reconciliation: hoping that among the Christians of Rome there is a common mind in Christ, he desires that Christians find a common consensus on those problems with respect to which the weak (in the faith) and the strong (in the faith) still disagree. Such a common glorification is important because it prevents mutual contempt, but not only that: the glorification of the Father also prevents hardness of heart that can cause disturbance in our brother.

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Santa Maria – Praglia (Italy)

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey