A Commentary and Reflection on the Readings for the Second Sunday of Advent – Year C. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray. READINGS: Baruch 5:1-9, Phillippians 1:4-6, 8-11, and Luke 3:1-6.
The Liturgy of the Catholic Mass Teaches Us to Desire More
There exists an immutable truth in our journey through life: God’s desire for us transcends our own desires. This subduing reality stems from the fact that our desires are limited by our finite understanding. In other words, because our knowledge is finite, we can only choose what is partial. In contrast, because God’s knowledge is boundless and infinite, His desire for us is without restrictions, limits, or partiality. Therefore, God reveals Himself to us through personal experience, the sacred Scriptures, the liturgy, and the Sacraments so that we might more fully know Him and grow in the knowledge of His heart so that our desire for the good might increase and expand. However, we will still desire less for ourselves than God desires for us.
It is amazing that what passes as human wisdom is mere finite knowledge. Our natural disability to stretch our capacity for God is why the Apostle Paul said the proclamation that “Christ Crucified” is “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”[1] How can we expect people who have not received the gift of faith to desire more than what their human senses have revealed to them? If those who have been given faith can only desire partial, how much less can those who have not been bathed in divine revelation desire?
Indeed, the extent of our inclination toward sin is intrinsically linked to our desire for the good. While we inhabit the flesh, our desires will always fall short of the divine desires God holds for us. Nevertheless, the more fervently we yearn for God, the less we will seek to satiate the flesh with lowers desires. In essence, our proclivity toward virtue or vice is a direct reflection of what we choose to know and delight in.
This was the crux of Eve’s predicament in the Garden of Eden; she found herself enticed by the knowledge of both good and evil, mistakenly valuing them equally. Eve already possessed an understanding of goodness, yet she yearned to comprehend evil as well. So, it is with us: the person who revels in the knowledge of evil predisposes themselves to commit evil acts, while the one who delights solely in the goodness of God grows in virtue. This is why the Apostle prays for the Church in Phillipi in today’s Second Reading for the Second Sunday of Advent – Year C, “that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.” Thus, through a deepening knowledge of what is truly good, our desires align more closely with the divine will, leading us toward greater virtue and away from sin.
The narrative of the sacred Scriptures reveals that God discovers us amid our sins and offers us something far greater than we could ever desire for ourselves. In today’s Gospel Reading from Luke 3:1-6, we hear about John the Waymaker being sent to find us in sin and offer us the “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” so that we might grow in desire and expectation of the coming Messiah. Then, today’s First Reading from Baruch 5:1-9 exemplifies this essential truth. Written either during the aftermath of the Babylonian Exile or amidst the Maccabean revolt in the 2nd century B.C., the text addresses a community grappling with the trauma of displacement or the trials of cultural and religious suppression under Hellenistic rule. In either context, the prophet’s call is a beacon of divine hope: “Take off your robe of mourning and misery; put on the splendor of glory from God forever,” and “Stand upon the heights; look to the east and see your children gathered from the east and the west at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that they are remembered by God.”
This proclamation affirms that God’s desires for His people surpass their current sufferings, inviting them to embrace a vision of future restoration and glory. It promises a deliverance that may not come in their lifetime, perhaps meant for their children or grandchildren, yet it plants the seed of hope. This hope nurtures faith, and as faith flourishes, so does our yearning for divine goodness. In this divine economy, the more fervently we desire the good, the less inclined we are toward sin.
The liturgy of the Catholic Mass pedagogically participates in this desire of God to lead us out of our sin and suffering and into a deeper knowledge of Him by igniting our hearts with a burning desire for His coming and presence in our lives. Through the liturgy, we are called to scrutinize our lives, confess our failings, and pray for forgiveness, thereby harmonizing our desires with the divine will of God. We are then led in the Mass to lift up our hearts – to sacrifice all that we are and all that we have back to Him who shared it with us in the beginning. If repentance and sacrifice were enough, the liturgy could have ended there, but God wants more for us than that. He desires to give us Himself so that we might become our true selves. God, who raises the dead bread and wine into true life itself, dares to propose to raise us who were dead in sin to become like who the bread and wine have become.
Truly, we possess the enlightened capacity to aspire for more than we currently do. Through the sacred celebration of the Mass, God teaches us that His divine desire is to fill our hearts with an ever-deeper knowledge of goodness. By partaking in His Body and Blood, we become united with Him, allowing our finite desires to align more closely with His divine desire for us. As bread and wine are elevated into life, so too are we raised from the confines of sin to the glorious embrace of divine transformation.
This is just one way how the readings at Mass this Sunday connect to the Liturgy and how the Liturgy is forming us how to live our lives in the world. Be in the world what you have received through the Liturgy.
[1] 1 Corinthians 1:23.
