Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent

December 7, 2025

I found an interesting reflection on life entitled Youth. Here it is…

Youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions. It is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a person of sixty more than in a youth of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit to dust.

Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing childlike appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station: so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and women and from the Infinite, so long are you young.

When the aerials are down and your spirit is covered with the snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at twenty, but as long as your aerials are up to catch waves of optimism there is hope you may die young at eighty.

Now, I know that we are living in a particularly challenging time. It seems that, on a daily basis, we are inundated with negative stories of anger, perpetual disagreement, cruelty, economic and political insecurity, natural disasters, fires, disrespect for human dignity, shootings and disregard for life. Every day it seems I get calls from people who can’t pay their rent or utility bills, mothers who worry about providing food for their families, immigrants who worry about government raids…It’s tiring and depressing. It’s easy to lose hope.

How different are our readings for this Second Sunday of Advent. They give us, at least in the case of Isaiah, a remarkable, rosy picture. In looking to a future with a Messiah, or Savior in it, we get God’s view of what life can be. “Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice and decide aright for the land’s afflicted….Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them….The baby shall play by the cobra’s den…” It’s like whoa! What’s this guy been smoking?

And then you’ve got John the Baptist, one of the stranger characters in the Bible. He takes on the corrupt leaders of the day, calling them a “brood of vipers”—a bunch of snakes. And then, in describing the one who is to come after him, the one whose way he’s preparing, he says: “the one who is coming after me is mightier than I….He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Again, wow! Most of us have been baptized. Do you feel the Holy Spirit? Would you describe yourself as being on fire?

Very clearly, we have two visions or interpretations of reality at work. One of negativity, panic, fear, and the desire to check out and give up. And the other of grit, and determination, and courage, and a positive spirit that never gives up.

Which vision is ours? Are we ready to give up, climb under the covers, and hope that nobody bothers us? Or are we open to God’s vision of a world that respects dignity, fights for justice, provides help for the weak, and cries out We are better than this!

Let me conclude with an inspiring way of looking at issues that are part of our day-to-day living—in a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. Speaking in 1967 Dr. King said, “Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’”

Is it right? A question rooted in Holy Spirit and fire. Is it right? A question that keeps us from being complacent and feeling defeated. Is it right? A question that is forever young and life-giving. Look around. Take a real look at what’s happening all around us, and dare to ask: Is it right?