My dear people:

John the Baptist is the prophet during Advent.  John announces in today’s readings that the Messiah is coming, and a Home Coming is about to begin.  This event concerns us, each one of us in the pews today!  

We begin in the Old Testament. There, Baruch prophecied that God would one day gather His children from the east and west into Jerusalem.  To understand this prophecy, we should put ourselves back into the time of Jesus and grasp the cultural context.  For those who lived in 30 AD, the one intense desire of every devout Jewish man and woman was what the great “ingathering” of all the tribes of Israel.  You see, there was a problem in the time of our Lord.  Many of the Jewish tribes were lost!  Originally, once the Jewish people entered and settled into the Promised Land, they had twelve distinct tribes living side by side. Ten tribes lived in what was considered the Northern part of the Kingdom and two tribes lived in the southern part.  Eventually, the Assyrians conquered the Northern part of the Kingdom, and the ten tribes in the north were “lost”.  This meant that the Jewish people living in the north were exiled, carried away, and mixed in with the gentiles.  Later, the two southern tribes, all that remained of the Jewish people, were conquered and carried off into exile by the Babylonians.  For some time, it seemed that God’s chosen people had been wiped off the face of the earth!  Thankfully, the two southern tribes were able to attain freedom and returned to Jerusalem.  While the southern tribes were safe back in Jerusalem, the other ten were still missing!  And this was a huge sadness!  And so, in the time of John the Baptist, it was assumed that the Messiah would return, and, among other things, he would bring back the ten tribes of the north.  This bringing back was understood as the “ingathering” of the people.  

Jerusalem is a mother, arms wide open, embracing her children in her bosom.

Now, this ingathering of the 12 tribes of Israel is not a thing of the past but involves us directly.  You see, the ingathering did happen, but not the way the Jews had imagined.   The Messiah did come.  His name was Jesus, and Jesus made a New Israel that was and is way larger than the ethnic group Jews and Jews only belonged.  He has called all the nations, including us, to be gathered in this new home - the Church.  Jesus chose Twelve men who became the beginning of the New Israel.  These men were supposed to be the new heads of the twelve tribes of the new Isarel!   We have been part of the great ingathering, the great homecoming that God has planned for all ages.

You see, God wants us to be welcomed home.  The Catholic Church is our home.  The Church is God’s New Israel, part of his plan of salvation from before time.  We are all welcome in the Church!  Beautifully, this Advent, God is telling us that He is not content with anything less than all of His children being home, being safe and sound, and full of joy!

We as Christians have been tasked with the responsibility to “make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19).   Thus, part of living our faith will involve sharing our faith.  Is there anyone in my life that could use an invite to Church?   Let’s go out there and seek to bring back a lost sheep to Holy Mother Church!

Padre