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December 4, 2021Today’s First Reading and Gospel offer us an effective illustration of the inherent tension in the Advent season. In the early days of Advent, we hear many readings having to do with the Kingdom as it will be at the end of time when Christ comes again. However, we also now begin to hear in the Gospel the way in which Christ announces the coming of the Kingdom, not as a far-off event but in the here and now. Rather than being contradictory, these two perspectives of the coming of the Kingdom are intimately connected, and the Advent season is the perfect time to make it concrete in our daily lives.
How does Jesus announce the Kingdom in the Gospel? He does not simply tell people about it, but instead performs miracles and works of mercy for the poor and the sick. The message of hope proclaimed in the reading from Isaiah becomes reality in Jesus’s ministry, so that the Kingdom is in fact made present among the Jews. In Jesus, the Kingdom in its fullness is announced by making it present in a specific time and place. So, what does this mean for us?
It means that as baptized Christians, as members of Christ’s body, we are called to proclaim the Kingdom of God not just through our words but our actions as well. We can only truly hope for the fullness of the Kingdom at the end of time by accepting the commission given to the disciples: “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” In a season of extreme commercialism and spending, we can ask ourselves how we can announce God’s Kingdom by caring for the least among us. In this way, we prepare for the ultimate coming of the Lord and prepare ourselves for his immediate coming into our hearts here and now.
