2nd Week of Advent '97

(Second Sunday of Advent (C): This homily was given on December 7, 1997 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Luke 3: 1-6.)

"The Second Sunday of Advent: A day to confront the Baptist."

Wilt Thou forgive that sin where I begun,
Which was my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin through which I run,
And do run still, though still I do deplore?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,
For I have more.

Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won
Others to sin? and made my sin their door?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun
A year or two, but wallowed in a score?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,
For I have more.

Those words are taken from John Donne’s "Hymn to God the Father." I share them with you today because this is the Second Sunday of Advent, and on this particular Sunday of the liturgical year we come face to face with John the Baptist. Always. It doesn’t matter whether we’re in year A, B or C of the cycle of readings--the gospel on the Second Sunday of Advent always concerns the life and ministry of John. Why? Simple: it’s because John the Baptist teaches us how much we need Jesus. When he preached and taught on the banks of the Jordan River two thousand years ago, John challenged people to take an honest look at their lives and face their sins. That’s because he wanted them to be ready to receive Jesus; he wanted them to understand the need they had for Jesus. Lest we forget, the name Jesus means "Savior". That’s why he came into the world on Christmas day; that’s why he died on the Cross: in order to save us from our sins! But many people at the time of John the Baptist weren’t in touch with their sins. The Pharisees, for example, didn’t recognize their pride and self-righteousness--which is one of the biggest reasons why they ended up rejecting our Lord. they didn’t accept John the Baptist’s message and admit their sins--consequently they didn’t think they needed a savior. The same problem, not surprisingly, exists today: some people aren’t willing to admit that what they’re doing is wrong; consequently they think that Jesus is irrelevant. For example, imagine a man who tells his wife that he’s having an affair and feels no guilt whatsoever about it. (I use this example because I know of situations where this kind of thing has actually happened.) That man, without a doubt, needs Jesus, but he doesn’t think that he does! Which constitutes a major problem; because, until he admits his sin, he can’t receive the forgiveness of the savior--the forgiveness Jesus died to give him.

And so the Church encourages us today to face John the Baptist and heed his call to repentance, as many did in the first century. Which brings us back to John Donne’s poem: I would say that these are the words of a person who was beginning to take the message of the Baptist seriously. This individual was struggling with his sin, and also with the issue of forgiveness. he wanted to know: would God, could God, possibly wash away his guilt? We can learn a great deal, I believe, from his reflections.

He begins by saying, "Wilt Thou forgive that sin where I begun, which was my sin, though it were done before?" Here the person is thinking of the sins of his distant past: like most of us he probably faced the temptation to ignore them and sweep them under the rug, hoping that they would just ‘go away’ magically. The problem is, they don’t just ‘go away’. They need to be acknowledged and repented of, or they will continue to have a negative affect on our life. That’s because the unrepented sins of the distant past, like it or not, have helped to make us the person we are right now. This is why I always commend people when they come to Confession and say, "Father, here’s something I’ve never confessed before; I knew it was wrong when I did it, but I wasn’t willing to face that fact. Now I realize how this sin has damaged my personality and my relationships with others, so I want to get rid of it." Bravo! Now, admittedly, this is not the perspective of many of the ‘experts’ in our society. They tell us not to worry about our sins--past or present. They tell us to focus only on the feelings of guilt that we have. "Get rid of your guilty feelings,’ they tell us, ‘and everything will be all right." Well, it’s not quite that simple. In fact, my brothers and sisters, if that were true: if the only thing that mattered in life was eliminating feelings of guilt, then we’d have to say that the healthiest person in the world right now, psychologically speaking is Charles Manson! Because this man feels no guilt whatsoever for murdering Sharon Tate and six of her friends back in 1969 out in California. He thinks his behavior was perfectly acceptable! He’s said so publicly many times! Now I won’t take a poll, but most of us would probably not want to say that Charles Manson is the healthiest person in the world at the present moment. I sure wouldn’t!

John Donne’s poem continues, "Wilt Thou forgive that sin through which I run, and do run still, though still I do deplore?" Every once in a while someone will come to Confession and say, in utter frustration, "Bless me father, for I have sinned--my sins are the same as last time, and the time before, and the time before that. Do you think God will be able to forgive me again for all this stuff?" Well, that’s the very same question John Donne asks in this line of his poem; and the answer is "Yes." If we have at least imperfect contrition and a firm purpose of amendment, the Lord will forgive any sin--even if we’ve confessed it 1,000 times before.

"Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won others to sin? and made my sin their door?" Here we encounter an important, but sometimes forgotten, truth: we are personally responsible not only for our own sins, but also for the sins that we’ve encouraged or enabled others to commit! I know of some teenage girls, for example, who have had abortions, not because they wanted to (they did not want to), but rather because their parents forced them to! Those parents bear the guilt of that sin, even though neither of them had the abortion. We hear often of young people who encourage their friends to steal or commit acts of violence. The ones who encourage the sin are as guilty as the ones who actually do the deed.

"Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun a year or two, but wallowed in a score?" Sometimes people will avoid a sin for a long period of time--a year, or two, or longer--and then, sadly, fall back into it. That’s usually the time when Satan speaks to their subconscious and tries to convince them to throw in the towel: "See, you blew it again! It was only a matter of time! I knew it! Why bother repenting now? You know that sooner or later you’ll fall into it again; so give up." Those are words, of course, that we should tune out, because Jesus Christ is faithful. He has promised us forgiveness, and he will give us forgiveness, if we come to him with repentant hearts. This is something, praise God, that John Donne came to realize, as he makes clear in the closing lines of his "Hymn to God the Father". I didn’t read those lines at the beginning of the homily, but I’ll read them now at the end, in the context of the entire work. May these words inspire us all to seek the Lord’s forgiveness soon in the sacrament of Confession:

I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun my last thread,
I shall perish on the shore;
But swear by Thy self, that at my death Thy Son
Shall shine as he shines now and heretofore;
And, having done that, Thou hast done, I fear no more.