2nd Sunday of Advent Year A – Homily (2025)

2^nd Sunday of Advent, Year A
Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17 (7)
Romans 15:4-9
Matthew 3:1-12
December 7, 2025

The nation of Israel had long since broken into two nations.  At the time Isaiah is written, the two nations were defeated by their enemies.

Yet, what Isaiah writes in today’s passage is not a message of gloom and doom.  It is a message of hope.

Through Isaiah the Lord assures the people that the promise of the coming Messiah remains true, “On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.” 

The “stump of Jesse” refers to the Davidic lineage of kings. Jesse was David’s father.  The lineage of kings has been cut off, or so it would seem.

Instead of Israel ending forever, the Lord says a new king will come, “a new bud will blossom.”  The Lord speaks of how “the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him.” 

The Lord speaks of a coming radical change when “the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid…”  These things might seem shocking as we expect the wolf to eat the lamb and the leopard to eat the kid but radical change is coming.  It is hard for us to imagine such radical change could happen when human beings can’t stop shooting at each other but nothing is impossible for God.

God’s plan for his people is one with “a future of hope” (see Jeremiah 29:11). 

What we read in the prophecies of the Old Testament “was written for our instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

Soon we will end the present Jubilee Year of Hope but our hope in God will not end.  His promise endures forever.  So does our hope in him.

God’s promise of the Messiah was fulfilled in the first coming of Jesus.  We are almost to Christmas but not yet.

First, we hear of John the Baptist as the “voice crying out in the desert.  Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”  He calls all to repentance.

The world is pretty messed up today.  We do not live in “harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus.”  The wolf still does not lay as a guest of the lamb.  It has not happened but it will.

The world desperately needs “a voice crying out in the desert.”  The world also needs leadership that leads us to see our sins and to repent of them.  God will forgive us and give us the grace we need to “provide good fruit as evidence” of our repentance.

As we look forward to our celebration of the First Coming of Jesus at Christmas, we need to ask ourselves if we are ready for his Second Coming for when the Second Coming happens, “every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

In the days of Isaiah, Israel had fallen into sin.  This is why God allowed Israel to fall to its enemies.  Jesus came to set up free from our sin.

Christianity would spread throughout the world.  Christian values became as the foundation of western civilization.  This period became known as Christendom.  People were not perfect.  There was sin in the world but Christian values remained the foundation of society for centuries.

Now sin is taking over the world.  Christendom is broken but we are not within hope.  God’s promise remains.

We need to pray that God endows our leaders, spiritual and civil, with his judgment so that they may govern with justice that leads us to peace.  We need leaders who point us on the way to “rescue the poor.”

The world is falling into sin because we are losing our way.  Some people are rejecting God.  Others have forgotten him because we have failed to be God’s voice in the world. 

Yet, as I have already said, our hope is not lost.  While “we have no merits to plead our cause” (today’s Prayer over the Offerings), we are assured that God can rescue us with his mercy.

We need to stop, with the help of God’s grace, letting our sins get the best of us.  We need to pray, as we heard in our collect (aka opening prayer),

Almighty and merciful God,
may no earthly undertaking hinder those
who set out in haste to meet your Son,
but may our learning of heavenly wisdom
gain us admittance to his company.”

What “earthly undertaking” do you engage in that stands in the way of you fully embracing your faith?  What keeps you from spending more time with Jesus?

What “earthly undertaking” keeps you from putting the heavenly wisdom you hear at the center of your life?

If you want the world to change so that the wolf will be a guest of the lamb and that we might all “live in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus,” the place for you to start is with repenting of your sins and making God #1 in your life.

Start by confessing your sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Then, at this time of year, make sure the way you celebrate Christmas puts Jesus as the center. 

If you haven’t already, two simple ways to start are make sure your Christmas decorations include images of Jesus’ birth and offer of everlasting life, and make sure the Christmas music you listen to outside church, speaks of the real meaning of Christmas, Jesus’ birth.