An Agenda for Advent

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, C.M.I.

Lord Jesus, may your peace dawn on me when I struggle for justice. Amen.

“Justice for Peace” may be the right caption for this agenda. There are literally millions who suffer from injustice from the point of view of earthly blessings. One answer to this inequity is offered to us today through the person and ministry of John the Baptist.

John is portrayed in today’s Gospel (Mt. 3:1-12) as turning away from the blessings and securities he could have enjoyed, e.g., sufficient food, decent living conditions, comfortable clothing and the companionship of family and friends, in order to embrace a life of penance and fasting and a ministry that would not gain him any measure of popularity. He was to be the voice that truthfully pointed out sins and persevered in calling the guilty to repentance. John’s was not a pleasant job or a pleasing message, because preparations for welcoming the One who would bring peace, justice, harmony and the gifts of the Spirit can only be described as drastic and radical. John is held out to us each Advent not simply as Jesus’ herald but also as the one after whom the church is to model itself. Just as John’s was the voice that prepared for the first appearance of Jesus, so the church must be the voice that readies first itself and then all of mankind for Jesus’ second and ultimate coming. To put it in another way, John’s agenda dictates and continues to drive the church’s agenda: to work for peace and to struggle for justice and for an enduring harmony among the desperate peoples of this world.

In today’s first reading (Is 11:1-10), the prophet Isaiah gives beautiful lofty and poetic expression to our most fervent hopes for justice and peace. He speaks of wolves being the guests of lambs and babies playing by the dens of cobras. But in order for lofty poetry to become living policy, the church must continue to struggle to make the message of John the Baptist its own agenda, this Advent and all through the year. For more than a century, the church has openly declared its social agenda as one that has necessarily evolved from offering charity to the promotion of justice. As Thomas Massaro (Living Justice, Sheed and Ward 2000), has pointed out, where charity tends to involve individuals or small group of people acting to meet the immediate needs of others, work for justice involves a more communal and even global awareness of problems and their potential long term solutions. Where the notion of charity calls to mind voluntary giving out of one’s surplus, the demands of justice point to an absolute obligation to share the benefits of God’s creation more generously.