Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12
In due course John the Baptist appeared; he preached in the wilderness of Judaea and this was his message: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’ This was the man the prophet Isaiah spoke of when he said: ‘A voice cries in the wilderness: Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.’
This man John wore a garment made of camel-hair with a leather belt round his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judaea and the whole Jordan district made their way to him, and as they were baptised by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins. But when he saw a number of Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism he said to them, ‘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. I baptise you in water for repentance, but the one who follows me is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to carry his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fan is in his hand; he will clear his threshing-floor and gather his wheat into the barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.’
Homily
Over the past few years we have seen an unprecedented rise in crimes of passion. For a people so often described as carefree and fun-loving, the rising number of incidents of road rage is alarming to say the least. The rising murder rate and increase in violent crime all point to a malaise in our country. In the midst of this avalanche of bad news however, the Gospel reading for this Sunday reminds us, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.”
The kingdom of heaven as we know will arrive at its completion in the last days but even now we can begin to experience it in the love, care and concern we have for each other and the environment.
This is indeed Good News. The kingdom of heaven characterized by justice, peace and love can be ours. It is within our grasp but only if we repent, only if we are capable of changing our instruments of war and hatred into instruments of peace and production, instruments of care for each other.
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The first reading of the prophet Isaiah describes for us in very symbolic language what the kingdom of heaven will be like. It says, “The wolf lives with the lamb, the panther lies down with the kid, calf and lion feed together, with a little boy to lead them. The cow and the bear make friends, their young lie down together. The lion eats straw like the ox. The infant plays over the cobra’s hole; into the viper’s lair the young child puts his hand. They do not hurt, no harm, on all my holy mountain, for the country is filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters swell the sea.”
This is in fact God’s dream for Trinidad and Tobago and in fact for the whole world and it will come about. We however can hasten its realization or be obstacles to its realization through our willingness or unwillingness to repent.
What does repentance ask of us? It asks first of all that we be conscious of the fact that we have not lived or that we are not living what God has asked of us. What God has asked of us is very simple. We have been asked to seek first the Kingdom of heaven and as the hymn says “All the rest will fall in line.” This means that we act justly with our neighbors, that we love them and that we love God in them and that we walk humbly before our God. As a nation however we have once again slipped on the world wide corruption index. We are not acting justly. We put ourselves and our desires before everyone else including God. We think and behave as if God no longer exists.
Repentance means a reversal of that kind of behavior.
This may seem a tall order for us but we can do it if we really want to. There are in fact many persons in our land striving to live what God asks of us but there are not enough. All the disciples of the Lord Jesus must make the effort. Let us take example from the saints. Let us take example from the great examples of faith in our land and above all let our homes be schools of repentance in which our children can learn to always evaluate their lives in the light of the Gospel. When that happens we will find that the Kingdom of heaven is indeed close at hand.
Prayer
All powerful and ever loving God, we thank You for the Good News contained in the readings for this weekend. Father, we all want the Kingdom but we are lazy to undertake the process of repentance. Give us the grace to value the Kingdom in such a way that we will take all necessary steps to facilitate its coming. We ask this through the intercession of Mary, our Mother and Jesus, Your Son. Amen
