Second Sunday of Advent
Reflection
John the Baptist appeared in the desert
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Mark 1:1-8
Repentance is not only personal. It calls us beyond ourselves and our circumscribed world. It promises that a willingness to change opens the way to new life. Repentance is an inner urging to return to societal balance and order and leave behind the chaos of a dysfunctional world. As we think of this in a nation that is divided, a country devastated by illness, and a stressed value system, it offers the challenge of a new beginning. What went before needs a life-giving change. To repent is to follow the way that leads out of alienation to reconnection. To repent is willingness to admit our flaws and to work toward a renewal of our relationship with God and one another.
Prayer
May I be willing to see the areas where I need repentance.
Action
Reflect on what needs to be reconnected in your life whether it be with a person or as part of the wider social order. Having experienced all the social disconnections of the past year, analyze where we are all being called to repentance. Focus on one thing you can do to foster reconnection whether it be personal or in a broader context.
Suggested Readings
Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled with them, and then come and present your offering.
Matthew 5:23
Of all acts of man repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.
Thomas Carlyle
I was being called to surrender the very citadel of myself. I was completely in the dark. I did not really know what repentance was or what I was required to repent of. It was indeed the turning point of my life.
Bede Griffiths
Repentance means change, and it takes a humble person to change.
Ezra Taft Benson
Repentance means you change your mind so deeply that it changes you.
Bruce Wilkinson
Healing yourself is connected with healing others.
Yoko Ono
We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate — thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising.
Maya Angelou
To reconcile conflicting parties, we must have the ability to understand the suffering of both sides.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Genuine repentance must bear the seal of a corrected life.
Lewis F. Korns
He that never changes his opinions, never corrects his mistakes, and will never be wiser on the morrow than he is today.
Tyrone Edwards
It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, “Wait on time.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
The work of community, love, reconciliation, restoration is the work we cannot leave up to politicians. This is the work we are all called to do.
Shane Claiborne
God is not looking for repayment, but repentance. What heals a broken relationship is sincere love and contrition.
Frederica Mathewes-Green