 |
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati Main Page || The Catholic Telegraph || Live Letters index |
Live
Letters Second Sunday of
Advent II Peter 3:8-14 |
The Catholic Telegraph
December 3, 1999This Sunday we meet John the Baptist in the gospel. He’s a strange figure, strangely clad and strangely fed, but a man with a message. And the message is: Change your way of life and get rid of your sins because somebody very important is on his way here. John’s message found fulfillment in the beginning of the public life of Jesus, but it also applies to the second coming of Christ to which we give our attention during the season of Advent. It is this second coming that our live letter for today addresses.
This is the only time in the Church’s three year cycle of Sunday readings that we hear from the Second Letter of Peter. This book of the New Testament does not seem to be the personal work of the Apostle Peter but is attributed to him by its author because the author appeals to the authority of Peter and presents a message that he is convinced Peter would have conveyed if he were still alive. It is not addressed to a specific community, as are Paul’s letters to the Romans or the Corinthians, but is a kind of general exhortation in letter form. Hence it is classed among the "general" or "catholic" epistles. Scholars think that it is among the last books of the New Testament to have been written.
In the section of the letter that we hear today, the author seems to be addressing some sceptics who held that God is a distant God who is not involved in the world. "Nothing has ever changed and nothing is going to change. There’s not going to be any ‘Second Coming’ of Jesus!"
In response the author offers what has been called "a theology of delay." Delay of the second coming does not mean that it’s not going to occur. God’s idea of time is not our idea of time, and if God seems to be taking too long to fulfill His promises, it’s in order to give us time to get ready. But "the day of the Lord" will come, not when we expect it but when God has planned it. And will there be change? Everything will be changed! The sordid world that we know will be purified and transformed into "new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." In the meantime, we are to conduct ourselves "in holiness and devotion, waiting for and hastening the coming day of God."
The author’s exhortation is addressed to us. First of all, we are to wait. The waiting is not to be the passive waiting of someone in an airline terminal, but the alert waiting of someone with an eye on the clock, busy accomplishing a mission. This is the kind of waiting that St. Paul spoke to the Corinthians about last week.
As we wait, we are to conduct ourselves "in holiness and devotion." It’s important for the Christian believer to have correct ideas about holiness and devotion.
Most people associate holiness with very special people and very special activities. We look on Mother Teresa and the Pope as holy because of their extraordinary dedication to God and to God’s people. That’s quite correct, but that’s only one part of holiness. Most basically, holiness means being like God, and all those who are like God are holy, and we are all like God because we have been made over into the image of Christ in baptism. Holiness is not something that a few people acquire by extraordinary efforts. Holiness is something that we are all given through the generosity of God. We are holy because Christ lives in us and because we live in Christ.
Similarly, "devotion" is not just a matter of saying certain prayers or engaging in certain practices like saying the rosary or visiting the Blessed Sacrament. In the Christian tradition of spirituality, devotion means dedication and loyalty to the Lord. It’s another name for religious consistency.
Consequently, when the author of Second Peter calls us to conduct ourselves "in holiness and devotion," he is calling us to be aware of who and what we really are and to behave accordingly. He’s calling us to be alert to Christ’s life in us and to carry out with consistency the implications of that life in the circumstances of our own particular situation. This requires some attentiveness and some determination, to be sure, because we are so easily distracted from the really important things in our lives. But it doesn’t require extraordinary efforts to make ourselves holy to start with. God has already taken care of that.
Finally, the author speaks of "hastening the coming day of God." The author seems to suggest that our living out of the holiness that God has given us, our consistent response to what God has made us to be will somehow speed up the coming of the day of the Lord, perhaps because our holiness and devotion will make the world a little more ready for its final righteousness.
The Lord will surely come. It doesn’t really matter if He delays, because there’s plenty for us to do in the meantime - starting today.
###
Conversation Questions:
How do I express holiness and devotion in my life?
How does my life hasten the coming of the Lord?
###
Main Page
|| The Catholic Telegraph || Live Letters index
Copyright © 1999 the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.