Peace, the fruit of conversion. Second Sunday of Advent (A)

Last Sunday, the liturgy invited us to keep vigil. Today it calls us to conversion. Advent is a time of preparation, and the Church gives us four figures to accompany us: Isaiah, John the Baptist, Mary, and Joseph. Today we encounter the first two.

Isaiah, with his poetic and beautiful visions, comforts us. John the Baptist, on the other hand, is frank, austere, and uncompromising. The figure of the Precursor is presented to us with his austere manner of dressing and eating: clothed in camel's hair and feeding on locusts and wild honey. The prophet Isaiah had spoken of him as the voice of one crying out in the desert. His message was clear: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” His mission was to prepare and pave the way for the Lord, calling the people of Israel to repent of their sins. As he carried out this mission, the Pharisees and Sadducees approached him, and he was uncompromising with them. He questioned their motives for repentance and exhorted them to give “the fruit that conversion requires.He was speaking to them, but he is also speaking to us. He asks us to be mindful of the arrogance and hypocrisy that make us think we have earned salvation, the right to encounter Christ, the right to enjoy Christmas. Authentic conversion is more than a cultural habit or a superficial observance; it must bear fruit.

What, then, are the fruits of conversion? Justice and peace. The psalm speaks of justice flourishing in the days of the Messiah. St. Paul also mentions this, “Have the same attitude among yourselves as was in Christ Jesus.”.

In the beautiful vision of the prophet Isaiah, we see the peaceful coexistence of predators and prey, lions and lambs, leopards and goats, cows and bears, children and snakes, innocence and cunning. That is the future that the coming of Christ would bring. This is the fruit of conversion, where created reality can live in harmony. Where all races, tribes, and religions can live in peace. Pope Leo XIV has constantly reminded us to pray for peace and unity. Let us try to be collaborators of peace during this time of Advent.

Just as we prepare ourselves to encounter Christ in our daily activities, we also encounter him in those around us. Therefore, repentance and conversion become, so to speak, a necessary and ongoing first step toward salvation, in the encounter with Christ.

Humility will be necessary to bear the fruits of conversion, to overcome the temptation to believe that we are sufficient. John says: “God is able to raise up children of Abraham from these stones.”. Christ, who can raise children from stones, did not want to turn those stones into bread. Rather, he humbled himself and became man. Christ—true God from true God—to confirm the validity of John the Baptist's words, was born in a cave, in a manger. As Chesterton joked: “God became a caveman.” He became, so to speak, a man of stone, and asks us to be humble like Him. The eternal Son became a child in the cave, the Prince of Peace. At His birth, the angels sang: “Peace on earth.”