2nd Sunday of Advent [A]
December 4, 2022
Matthew 3:1-12
Rome 15:4-9<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the second Sunday of Advent, the Church has chosen for us a text from St. Paul as our second reading. It is the last part of St. Paul\u2019s letter to the Romans. In a simple sentence, Paul gave an essential purpose of the scriptures. He wrote, \u201cFor whatever was written previously was written for our instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope (Rom 15:4).\u201d Let us unpack together this verse as we journey through the Advent season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time of Paul, 27 books of New Testament as we know now has not yet come to existence. Thus, when Paul mentioned \u2018scriptures\u2019 or \u2018what was written previously\u2019, he was referring to the books of the Old Testament. These books were originally part of Hebrew Bible, but also accepted, used, and considered sacred by the early Church. Why so? This is because Jesus read, preached, and fulfilled these books. Jesus handed down these scriptures to the apostles and gave them the authority to teach them in His name. This is the reason that we do not throw away the books of the Old Testament, even though, they do not speak directly about Jesus Christ. Yet, it is also important that though we keep and read the Old Testament, we must read them not as a Jewish person, but as followers of Christ and the members of the Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, Paul explained two fundamental functions of the Scriptures: for instructions and encouragements. The first is instructions, and the Greek word here is \u2018\u03b4\u03b9\u03b4\u03b1\u03c3\u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03af\u03b1\u2019 (didaskalia), and its literal meaning is \u2018teaching\u2019. Thus, through the words of the Scriptures, God teaches us. When a teacher teaches his students, the aim is that the students may have wider and deeper knowledge. As we read and study the scriptures through the guidance of our shepherds, we know God better and deeper, who He is, what His plans for us, and what is His relationship to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second is the encouragement. Paul believed that the words of the God in the scriptures do not only teach, but also encourage us. The original word used by Paul is \u2018\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03ac\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2\u2019 (paraklesis), and it has a range of meanings, but the basic meaning is something or someone that assists us in facing difficulty. Through the words of the Scriptures, God is supporting, encouraging, consoling us in time of trials. From here, we know one of the best things to do in troubled moments is reading and meditating the scriptures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, these two goals, instruction, and encouragement, are leading us into a bigger purpose: \u2018hope in Christ\u2019. Without hope, the Bible are simply object of research and studies, but it will not bring closer and more intimate friendship with Jesus. Without hope, the bible only contains an encouraging and sweet words, but it never makes us persevere and grow in trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Advent season gives us time to listen to various texts of the Old Testament (both in Sunday and weekly readings) and how these readings are eventually fulfilled in the coming of Christ. And once again, I would like to invite all of us, to spend more time to listen to the words of God this Advent season as our spiritual practice. Aside reading from the Gospel of Matthew, I recommend reading the book of Isaiah for this advent Season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rome
Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2nd Sunday of Advent [A]
\nDecember 4, 2022
\nMatthew 3:1-12
\nRome 15:4-9<\/p>\n
For the second Sunday of Advent, the Church has chosen for us a text from St. Paul as our second reading. It is the last part of St. Paul\u2019s letter to the Romans. In a simple sentence, Paul gave an essential purpose of the scriptures. He wrote, \u201cFor whatever was written previously was written for our instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope (Rom 15:4).\u201d Let us unpack together this verse as we journey through the Advent season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[57,58,67],"class_list":["post-11615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-renungan","tag-english","tag-sunday-reflection","tag-valentinus-bayuhadi-ruseno"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11616,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11615\/revisions\/11616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}