Sunday 7 December 2025
2nd Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 11:1-10. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever – Ps 71(72):1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17. Romans 15:4-9. Matthew 3:1-12.
Gifts of the Spirit
The arresting opening lines of today’s reading from Isaiah are filled with anticipation. A shoot that springs, a scion that thrusts. Not brutishly but with the gifts of the Spirit. Our first reading goes on to suggest the peace that will flow, as the lion and ox eat straw together. We long for such peace. Given this, St Paul’s emphasis on hope is helpful. We are called to hope in Christ, and to enact this hopefulness by living as Christ did.
Hope is a kind of preparation for that which will be, and an appropriation of that which already is. Hope is not a crude means of ‘getting by’ but a recognition of all that God does and will do. Amid what has been done but is not yet fully realised, we hear John the Baptist’s call to repent. Such repentance is a way of opening the space to hope.
Email this Print This Page
