2nd Sunday of Advent. December 4th 2016.

Is 11:1-10; Rom 15:4-9; Mt 3:1-12

Knowledge of God: the path to peace

“The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea”

The Baltimore Catechism asks the question, “Why did God make you?” as gives us the answer:
“God made me to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him here on earth and to be happy with Him
forever in the next.” This classic answer reminds us that the path to true and lasting peace
begins with true knowledge of God as the starting point and basis for selfless love and service of
God that brings us peace.

The prophet Isaiah announces in today’s First Reading the coming of the Davidic messiah and
how he would bring us all that we need for peace, “The spirit of the Lord will rest upon him; a
spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge
and of fear of the Lord.” He will bring about an era of universal peace and harmony in which
“there is no harm or ruin,” on earth because “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the
Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Though the Messiah is to bring us all that we need for peace,
beginning with true knowledge of God, we will have peace and harmony only when we are
filled with the knowledge of God with no room for lies and self-deceit and we let this
knowledge shape our attitudes and actions.

Jesus Christ, the expected descendant “from the stump of Jesse,” is indeed “our peace.” (Cf…)
He is the only one who brings to us all that we need for peace, beginning with that true
knowledge of God as loving Father and all that we need to know, love and serve God in this life
and enter into His own eternal rest. Though He is the Prince of peace, His entire life of loving
obedience and service of the Father even to the point of the cross and grave is the source of
our true knowledge of the Father, “Whoever has seen me has seen the One who sent me.” In
short, Jesus spoke and acted, suffered, died, rose from the grave and gave us His Spirit so that
we may truly know the Father too and have His own peace, “My peace I give to you.”

The Sadducees and Pharisees in today’s Gospel do not see any need to grow in their knowledge
of God, their love for Him or their life of service. They are satisfied with their severe view of
God and their ritualized external worship that does not have any room for true repentance,
growth in loving knowledge of God or more selfless service. With a false security in their
ancestral heritage, they feel and act as if dispensed from the call to love and serve God more
faithfully. Hence the Baptist’s rebuke to them, “Produce good fruit as evidence of your
repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our Father.’”
Unquenchable fire, and not peace, awaits them if they fail to repent.
After a successful ministry of baptism that drew all of Judea and Jerusalem to him, John the
Baptist confesses that he cannot do more than an external purification rite of baptism, “I am
baptizing you with water for repentance.” Jesus alone can bring that true knowledge of God
and the accompanying interior conversion of the heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, “He
(Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Jesus’ ministry of interior
regeneration through loving relationship with the Father supersedes a merely external rite.

My dear brothers and sisters, by that same Spirit of God from our incorporation into Christ, we
have all that we need for peace in our hearts, homes, communities and world. But this peace
cannot be automatic. Peace is not automatic; we open our hearts more to the peace of Christ
to the extent that we grow in our knowledge of God, and love and serve God more faithfully.

To journey into peace, we must grow continuously in our knowledge of God first and foremost.
To know God more, we must listen to His words to us in the scriptures with strong faith and
refuse to doubt both His commands and His promises to us. When we allow public opinion to
dictate our values and actions, we forfeit the peace that true knowledge of God brings into our
lives. We cannot succumb to the deadly religious and moral relativism of our times and still
hope for inner peace. We also cannot let the pains of life or our sinfulness make us doubt what
we know of God as loving Father whose love remains constant. We must also be ready to reveal
ourselves completely to God with all honesty if we are ever going to have true knowledge of
God. How can we hope to know God more when we respond to His complete self-revelation in
His Son Jesus Christ by trying to hide our sins and pretending we are flawless and omnipotent?
Unless we have this true knowledge of God, we will easily be overcome by self-love, our service
will only serve to feed our ego, and we lose all peace.

As we grow in this true knowledge of God, we will begin to trust God in all aspects of our lives,
our obedience will be more out of love for Him and not out of legalistic requirements, we shall
have such a fear of God that we would flee all occasions of sin out of the dread of offending
Him in any way so as not to wound this love that we share. It is such a love for God that will be
further expressed in serving others for God’s own sake and not for what we will get.

As we encounter Jesus in today’s Eucharist, let the words of the Angels in Bethlehem ring in our
hearts, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will.” Jesus again
brings us all that we need for this peace, beginning with that true knowledge of the living God.
His peace and harmony will reign in our world when we freely choose to love Him more
intensely and serve Him more faithfully after our hearts have been “filled with the knowledge
of the Lord as water covers the sea.”

Glory to Jesus!!! Honor to Mary!!!