2nd Sunday in Advent 2025

John the Baptist was a fiery preacher of repentance;there is no doubt about it. If we imagine him shouting, there is good reason to believe he shouted. If we believe he did not pull any punches, there is ample proof in our Gospel Reading that he did not mince words. “You brood of vipers,” he spoke to the religious leaders of the day. And he warned that in the failure of true repentance one could, like a dead tree, be cut down and thrown into the fire! Frightening stuff! But on this Second Sunday in Advent we don’t want to lose sight that above all else John the Baptist was the bearer of glad tidings. “The kingdom of heaven is at hand!” In the words of the first stanza of the Hymn of the Day: “On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry Announces that the Lord is nigh; Awake and hearken, for he brings  Glad tiding of the King of kings!”