Pastor's Corner: Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand

Doesn't that sound good? If there were ever words from Scripture that could bring a sense of hopefulness and joy to my heart it is the words in the title above. The words in the title are words used by John the Baptist as he prepared the way for the Jesus the Christ - the Messiah in the gospel of Matthew 3:2. A little later, in the same gospel, Jesus himself proclaims "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Matthew 4:17. In the Gospel of Luke 17:21, Jesus takes this same sentiment a little farther when in response to a question put to him by the Pharisees concerning when the Kingdom of God would come Jesus says "The kingdom of God is within you".

If this is true - and I believe it is because if you can't trust Jesus, who can you trust - why is there so much dissention, anger and violence in the world? If you take time to ponder this question about the violent state of our world you will arrive at the need for the season of Advent.

The season of Advent is a time of preparation for the Incarnation - when God becomes human in the person of Jesus and comes to live with us. So, another question comes to mind: if Jesus has already come are we just preparing to remember that holy event or is there more to consider? Yes! There is a lot more!

Every year we celebrate Advent. Every year we recall the birth of Jesus and the way He changed the world. Every year we celebrate the hope that Jesus brought into the world. Still the injustices, the anger and suffering continue in the world and they have a profound effect on each of us. If we let it (and we all do it to varying degrees), our hearts begin to harden. We begin to develop a callousness regarding the people and the events around us. We might begin to withdraw from others for safeties sake and for our own personal sanity. Worse yet, we might begin to live angry lives projecting on to others the anger and fear that we are living with. Not one of these responses is open to the grace of the Kingdom of God. The fear, anger, violence, callousness and withdrawal close our hearts and minds to Jesus and the gift of life he brings.

So the season of Advent (using the words of John the Baptist and of Jesus) calls us to repent, to turn around, to change directions. Advent asks us to consider our actions. Have we begun to live fearful lives? Are we angry at the world and the people around us? Are our hearts becoming hard and indifferent to the suffering and violence in the world? We are called to examine our lives in the light of the hope that came into the world with Jesus' birth. From personal experience I know that the Light of Christ will indeed expose in me all the negative ways of living I have taken on and Scripture, the Word of God will provide me with the wisdom that I need to be able to truly repent. Advent then provides us with an opportunity to examine our lives in the Light of Christ and determine how we can best repent and prepare to receive Jesus in a new and more complete way at Christmas. You might say this is something we are to do all year long not just at Advent and you would be right. The reality is that it is difficult to maintain the kind of discipline necessary to live a life of repentance, we begin to lose our focus and perhaps even our willingness to repent.

Repenting is not an easy thing to do. It requires humility, honesty and faith in God who wants us to be with Him forever. I am not sure if repentance ever becomes easy but I do know that the more we work at it the more our ability to repent will increase. This is why our Church asks us to celebrate Advent actively through repentance - so we will continue to increase our desire to enter into the Kingdom of God.

Our faith calls us to recognize that while the historical birth of Jesus took place 2,000-plus years ago that same birth continues to take place every day of our lives. The call of Jesus and of John the Baptist to "Repent" is something that takes place every time we take the time and make the effort to examine our lives and place Jesus at the center of our lives, in place of all those things and events that might distract us from life with Jesus.

When we repent well the Kingdom of Heaven is truly within us.

Happy Advent!

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Deacon Tim Maroney

St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church