Kent Beausoleil, S.J.
Homily Second Sunday of Advent
Readings: Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17; Romans 15:4-9; Matthew 3: 1-12
Rumi, the famous Sufi poet, wrote in his work Hidden Music, I can’t pretend to be a lion
able to conquer the enemy – to master myself would be enough. Dark like the night I mourn and
hold the possibility of love inside me. But bright like the moon I will rise from darkness for I
have seen the source of light and being a child whose tutor is love, I will not grow up ignorant. I
will rise like a flame out of love’s fire and become love.* The message of our liturgy of the word
today this Second Sunday of Advent, like the message in the poetry from Rumi, shows us that
the love of the Lord will pierce the darkness of the world, the darkness of our hearts, and give us
light and love – urging us to be that gift for others as well.
This past Friday, in the way the day played out, two movements, one of desolation and
one of consolation, helped me see my need for the Lord and my need to repent. First, the de‘soul’ing experience. I had a tough week last week. I was very busy, assisting on a retreat all
weekend, full weekdays of work, and evening obligations that left me, an introvert, with very
little free time. And since, weekends are usually work days as well I try to keep Fridays free as a
personal day. So, this past Friday, I was really looking forward to a day of rest and relaxation.
Yet, that Friday, I had, what I can only explain was, and I am sure Jesus would agree
with me, a Pharisetical moment. So, after that busy week I was looking forward to recharging
my battery by going to a book store, an activity I love, seeing a movie, and then getting a bite to
eat. However, Newport on the Levee became a gauntlet of aggravating experiences which gave
me pause. I had been cut off by a car in the parking lot, cut off at Barne’s and Noble’s by a busy
shopper in the check-out line, and cut-off by someone in the parking validation line. During the
movie, a family of five sat behind me and talked throughout the whole movie – no matter mine
or other’s protestations. Finally, the music at the Mall was at full blast and obnoxiously
‘Christmas - y’ – think “We wish you a merry Christmas” over and over again and played at full
blast.
With each encounter and experience I could feel myself change. For every time I was
slighted and ignored in line I thought – “what is it my clothes? Is it my belt or camel hair? Do I
have honey on my face and locust legs sticking out of my mouth? These people -- these wolves,
these lions, these bears, these asps and adders, were all there to attack and ruin my perfect day.
I could feel the anger rise within me. I wanted to cut-down the ruthless with the rod of my
mouth I tell you what. I could take no more. I was ready to strike, not like one asp but more like
a brood of vipers.
So, this rise of anger in my heart became the kernel of my own participation in a
conspiring sense of narcissistic sin – of thinking only of my self, my ruined day, and not of the
real gift and graces of life and love present all around. How dare you treat me like this, I am a
child of God, a child of Abraham. I am justified in feeling how I feel. I have no need to repent.
And it was at that moment, that a voice entered my head, accusing me of being no better than the
pharisees.
Which then by God’s grace brings me to the moment of consolation – a vision of purity
which struck my heart, humbled me, and caught me to the quick. At the same instance the voice
named me pharisee, I exited the theater to head outdoors, and coming toward me was another
family, a direct contrast to the family in the theater, and a direct contrast to the darkness in my
heart. A father and a mother, a son and daughter, all hugging, all laughing, all sharing with
peace and joy of life not only the Cold Stone Ice Cream cone’s in their hands, but one another.
Here, despite, the feelings in my heart, stemming from the encounters of anger that I experienced
and that I was a partner to, was a family that said yes to joy, yes to each other, yes to life, yes to
love. Their love pierced my darkness, brought me light, and I was ashamed.
Isaiah foretells of a little child who will guide us. A child, with wisdom and understanding, counsel and strength, who will judge with justice, love and mercy and offer a
time of peace, a time where there will be no harm or ruin. A child in whom every thing and
every one in contradiction, opposition, and enmity will become neighbors, live in peace and
harmony, and where the dwellings of all will be glorious. A time where light pierces the
darkness.
Paul, calls us to welcome one another as Christ welcomed us. To live in one accord and
in harmony with each other. The call to unity is indeed this Jesus Christ, which the love of God
has graced and revealed to us, who brings light to this world of darkness, brings mercy for the
sinner, gives profound peace, and justice for all the poor and afflicted. This Jesus indeed brings
a darkness piercing love and light.
As the Jesuit Walter Burghardt remarks “Biblical justice, the justice Jesus inherited from
his ancestors, not only includes love; it is love.” Which raises an extraordinarily practical issue.
How does this touch the way we live? John the Baptist thundered in today's Gospel, "Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mt 3:2). To repent means to change the way we think
and act. It is a turning each day from what is dark in our lives and moving closer to the Christ
whose light and image we are (paraphrase). It is living a faith” Burghardt concludes, “that lives
what it utters.”** A faith that loves with the love of God. A love that pierces the world’s
darkness.
So, it is easy for me, based on Friday’s experiences, as I think it is easy for a lot of us, to
be like the pharisees, and defensively exclaim with righteous indignation, “love, what are you
talking about, we are children of God, of course we love!” Yet, in truth Jesus calls us to love
every human person, not just those we love already. We are called to treat every person as an
image of God. The love we celebrate in this Eucharist calls us forth to spread the light of Christ
not just where light already exists but where darkness is as well. Yet we all have our problems
with loving the dark world outside. And I am not just talking about loving the people who cut us
off in line or on the expressway, or who talk during movies.
Can we also love the illegal immigrant who commits a crime that affects our family?
Can we love a political leader whose foreign policy and stance on war does not mesh with our
aspirations for a just society. Can we love a troubled teenager who guns down 8 people in a
shopping mall? Can we love a sexual predator who moves into our neighborhood? Can we love
oppressive dictators who feel genocide is a legitimate means of power and control? These are all
good questions, for me and for us, with no easy answer.
So, Isaiah, Paul, and the good news of Matthew gives us a good place to search. We are
called to examine as our start, within our own community and within our own hearts, our
capacity to give and receive love. We must root out anything in our hearts that is not love, we
must repent. We must allow Christ a home in our hearts and be Christ for one another laying
down whatever might divide us. An example of being Christ for one another exemplified in the
many gifts you brought and fill our chapel and activity room today. This advent, as we move
forward and look into the empty crib we will see there our own soul reflected, as we feel the
roughness of the wood, smell the dark musk of animals, examine the shabbiness of the manger,
we peer into the dark places in our own souls and in our world. We call for light.
The Lord’s love pierces the darkness of the world with light. Yet, if we cannot love, if
we are unrepentant, if we don’t prepare the way of the Lord by allowing the Lord to pierces the
darkness of our own souls with light we will not be able to be light and love for others. Jesus
calls us to love ourselves and our neighbors with a love that is unconditional. We are to give to
others a love that loves the Christ gives, loving all, loving EVERYONE alike for the Lord is
coming to love, save, and redeem both righteous and sinner. It is then and only then, when we
repent and make a home for Christ and allowed him to lay down in the crib of our hearts that
truly the kingdom of heaven, a kingdom of profound peace, will be at hand.
Rev. Kent A. Beausoleil, S.J.
*Paraphrased from: Rumi, Hidden Music, Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi, trans.
(London: Thorsons, 2001): 157.
**Reverend Walter
Burghardt, S.J. “A New Millenium: To Be Just is to Love” New York Society of Jesus, (New York: Paulist Press): 2001.