Archbishop of Sydney

Second Sunday of Advent

St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
Is 40:1-5,9-11; 2 Pet 3:8-14; Mk 1:1-8

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
4/12/2005

John the Baptist is a puzzling and disturbing figure, but he is certainly a symbol of Advent because he announced the coming of the Messiah, his cousin and our Redeemer.

John announced Jesus’ first coming as a prophet and teacher, when he baptised Our Lord during his public preaching campaigns with their call to belief and repentance.  At Advent we are also reminded that Christ Our Lord will come again at the end of time as the universal judge.

In the early Church, in some quarters, the expectation that the Last Day was imminent was very strong.  So St. Peter in his second letter was forced to explain that we do not know when the end will be, either personally or for the whole of mankind.  God is outside time because God is spirit and we know now that time is linked with matter and space.  So Peter could say that for God a day can mean a thousand years; or vice versa!

Our sensibilities are towards the other end of the spectrum away from Peter’s listeners.  I suspect that we do not have a strong awareness of the last Advent, when Christ will come again, although good Christians know they should be prepared.

A month or so ago at dinner I was seated next to a wonderful old Catholic lady, who said that a quick and easy death was a blessing.  I replied that this was so provided we are repentant, ready to go and meet the Lord.  She agreed easily and quickly.

But back to John the Baptist.  John is the last of the Old Testament prophets, a dividing line between the two Testaments and is the precursor of Jesus himself.

He enjoyed a considerable following; at least five of Jesus’ disciples (according to one commentator) had been disciples of John and St. John Chrysostom even described his early death as providential, so that the fervour of the crowd was directed towards Christ rather than shared between the two cousins!

He was austere, mortified; courageous and stern.  His martyrdom prefigured Christ’s death; a spectacular beheading on Herod’s orders at the request of Salome the dancing girl, which has been captured often in dramatic paintings e.g. Caravaggio and even in music such as that of Richard Strauss.  He had criticised Herod and denied he could marry his brother’s wife, Herodias, who put up Salome to asking for John’s head on a plate!

John the Baptist is one of the keys to our tradition and his story and message exemplify how the Christian tradition feeds and sustains us.

John called his followers to repent and believe.  He came from the countryside, the wilderness and proclaimed and performed many baptisms with water, a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  He promised the arrival of someone greater than him i.e. Christ, who would bring the Holy Spirit, whom we still receive especially through the sacraments.

For this Advent sermon I now want to say a few words on one of those sacraments which bring us the Holy Spirit – the sacrament of penance or reconciliation.  This is the way required by the Church for us to put our repentance into practice and receive God’s forgiveness through sacramental absolution.

We are blessed in this cathedral by having many people come to confession.  Nearly all of them go away the better for it and feeling better for it.  Overall people now go less frequently to confession and some Catholics hardly go at all.  This varies from parish to parish, and one factor in this mix is whether the priest explains the need for confession and its usefulness. I do not want to be guilty of failing to do what I criticise others for failing to do i.e. not preaching on the importance of confession!

We are obliged to confess at least once a year, if we have committed a very serious sin i.e. a mortal or death bearing sin; and I hope and pray that many are regularly in the state of grace without mortal sin.

But we should never make the mistake of saying we have nothing at all to confess.  On a few occasions people have protested to me energetically that they were not sinners.  Nearly always I suspected they were crooks! None of us is perfect and such a claim to perfection is evidence either of moral blindness or at least of a lack of sensitivity and self-knowledge.

The following of Christ is not done only in our heart of hearts.  Christ founded a community, which comes together regularly, and follows a ritual of prayer and activities.  All the sacraments from baptism to the anointing of the sick are like this.  And so too is confession.

God cannot forgive us if we do not repent, if we keep telling him we have no reason to be sorry and Christ and the Church want us to use the Sacrament of Penance to confess and receive absolution for our sins.

This is humanly appropriate.  If someone offends us we prefer him to apologise personally and it is not enough for the offender to feel guilty about it.  Confession enables us to be sure our repentance is real, confirmed in a human ritual.  Forgiveness from Christ’s representative in the Church is real and powerful.  Many, many times in confession, not only relief and consolation are received, but real healing commences.

Every one of us, as part of our Advent preparation of Christmas, should go to the sacrament of reconciliation to received pardon and penance.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen