Gospel (Mt 3.1 to 12)
Gospel Mt 3 0.1 to 12
Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!
From the Gospel according to Matthew
In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." He is the one that was spoken by the prophet Isaiah when he said: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths!
John wore clothing of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, his food was locusts and wild honey.
then flocked to him from Jerusalem, throughout Judea and the area around the Jordan, and, confessing their sins, were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think you can say to you, We have Abraham as our father. I tell you that God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Already the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals: he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
He has a winnowing fan, will clean up his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. "
Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!
From the Gospel according to Matthew
In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." He is the one that was spoken by the prophet Isaiah when he said: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths!
John wore clothing of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, his food was locusts and wild honey.
then flocked to him from Jerusalem, throughout Judea and the area around the Jordan, and, confessing their sins, were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think you can say to you, We have Abraham as our father. I tell you that God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Already the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals: he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
He has a winnowing fan, will clean up his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. "
Second Sunday of Advent A year
Gospel Mt 3, 1-12
At the time of Jesus believed that Elijah had not died but had been kidnapped only to reappear in the sky one day. In fact, the prophet Malachi foretold, "Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me ... I will send you Elijah the prophet before comes the great and dreadful day of the Lord "(Mal 3,1.23).
When, after Easter, early Christians realized that "the Lord's day" was when Jesus brought salvation, who was also realized he had spoken to Elijah the prophet was John the Baptist , charged by God to prepare the people for the coming of the messiah. It also reminded him of what he had said the Master: "What did you go to see in the desert? A reed shaken by the wind? A man clothed in soft garments? A prophet? Yes, I say, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written: Behold I send my messenger ahead of you, he shall prepare the way before you "(Lk 7:25-27). "The Law and all the prophets prophesied until John. And if you accept it, he is Elijah who is to come "(Mt 11.13-14, 17:13).
Who was John? A rather enigmatic. Josephus - the famous historian of the time - it looks like this: "It was a good man who exhorted the Jews to live a good life, treating them with justice and submitting each other with devotion to God and being baptized. In truth, John had the idea that even this cleansing was acceptable as forgiveness for sins, but he was convinced that was resolved only a cleansing of the body if the soul had not been previously purified by means of right conduct "( Jewish Antiquities 18.5.2 § § 116-119).
In the Gospel of Matthew today described him as an austere man (v. 4). His food was simple inhabitants of the desert, her dress was crude: the belt to the sides that characterized Elijah (2 Kings 1:8) and the coat of hair - the uniform of the prophets (Zech 13.4).
whole person of John the Baptist was denunciation and condemnation of the affluent society that - then as now - bet on the ephemeral, the frivolous, false values \u200b\u200bof luxury and ostentation.
Evangelist His message is summed up in one simple phrase: "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (v. 2).
The hope for a better future was a central theme of the message of the prophets. Unlike other people who put their golden age in the past, Israel placed the "kingdom of God" in the future. Waiting for a world where the Lord would have exalted harmony and peace abound, a world where personal relationships were marked by love, reconciliation with nature, with men, with God
apocalyptic preachers had described the history of humanity as a succession of kingdoms of animals. "Beasts emerged from the sea" were the great empires of Babylon, Media, Persia, Greece (Dan. 7). Times were tough, but we had to lose heart: the ancient world was now at the end and the new world was about to burst.
these pains should not be interpreted as signs of death, but as suffering from a difficult birth: a prelude to the birth of the new era.
As these expectations of the people, it is easy to imagine how the preaching of John arouse great enthusiasm. Everybody was running to be baptized to be introduced first in this "kingdom of God."
Baptism by water was not enough. Jordan was not a pool from which it emerged miraculously cleansed from sin. To be ready to enter the "kingdom" was necessary to "convert", that is the reverse path, change course, change completely the way of thinking and acting. It was not enough to correct some moral behavior, it was necessary to implement a new exodus.
"came to him from Jerusalem ...." Here the people of Israel, now installed in the promised land, who abandons his alleged condition of freedom and returns the Jordan. It was considered free, but in fact continued to be slave of their religious beliefs, his own stubbornness, the false image of God who had made it.
"confess their sins." Become aware of life still in exile, of being deprived of freedom.
Every year on the second Sunday of Advent, the liturgy proposes to Christians preaching of John the Baptist because, as he prepared the people of Israel the coming of the messiah, so today is able to teach you to welcome the Lord who comes.
Then as now, the most difficult step to take is to understand it is necessary to "break away" from the "land" in which you have installed, "exit" from the religious and theological false security that is built and we welcome the news of God's word
not all responded promptly to the invitation of the Baptist, not all were willing to make a radical change of heart. The Pharisees and the Sadducees, though intrigued by the preaching of John, found it hard to get involved, they did not trust, they preferred to keep their certainty (vv. 7-10). They thought they were already right with God by virtue of being children of Abraham. This false security will be reported later told by a famous rabbi: "As the screw rests on dry wood, so the Israelites rely on the merits of their fathers."
The reproach which welcomes the Baptist Pharisees and the Sadducees is stern: "You brood of vipers." He compares them to snakes, which inject their poison of death in those who inadvertently comes near them. Then move on to invective, the announcement of the disaster about to hit them: they run the risk of being cut as a tree that bears no fruit, and to be burned like chaff. Incumbent upon them the wrath of God
We are faced with dramatic images that appear to refute the dream of the first reading of Isaiah.
The tone is threatening and not surprising on the lips of John the Baptist, so we expressed the preachers of that time and this is the language that often appears in the Bible. The precursor uses it to warn those who reject the invitation to conversion is devoid of love encounter with Christ that is to introduce it in his joy and his peace.
In the context of the whole gospel the words of the precursor take on a meaning that goes beyond the immediate. It happened to Caiaphas to say, without realizing it, a prophecy-51).
When he spoke of ' wrath of God, John did not have clear ideas how would manifest.
The wrath of God is an image that recurs often in the Old Testament and is not intended as an explosion of hatred of the victim. It is an expression ia (Jn 11.49 of the love of God comes out against evil, not against the person who does, do not want to hit the man, but from sin.
the ax, which cut the trees at the root, the same as given by Jesus to the scissors pruning vines and branches free of unnecessary deprive the precious lifeblood and suffocate (Jn 15:2). The trees uprooted and thrown into the fire are not the men, that God always loves as his children, but the roots of evil that are present in every person and every property and must be broken to pieces so that it can not throw spears (Mal 3:19).
The cuts are always painful, but those made by the providence of God are: create the conditions for new snack branches, capable of producing fruit.
The fan is finally implements with which the Lord is the living image of his view: describes the way in which the actions of every individual is evaluated by God
In human courts the judges take into account only the errors and make the award based on the evil done. Take little account of good works. In the opinion of God is just the opposite. He, with the fan is of his word, bring everyone to the fiery breath of his Spirit who sweeps away the chaff, leaving only the precious beans in the yard: the works of love which few or many, all occurring .
Fernando Armellini (biblical scholar)
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