Second Advent Sunday, Year A
Theme: What Fire is Unquenchable? 甚麼火會不滅？
Last Sunday, Isaiah painted a future world of justice and peace where peoples and nations do not engage in battles against each other anymore (Isaiah 2:4). Today, he elaborates further how peoples celebrate plurality together. “The wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat. The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall graze, together their young shall lie down; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the viper’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair” (11:6-8). You might disagree and argue that if wolves do not devour lambs, they are no wolves! Let me assure you. Wolves are still wolves and leopards are still leopards even though they no longer harm the lambs or the goats. How can it be possible? Perhaps the lions and bears are able to give us some clues. They are still lions and bears but they have changed their eating habits (11:7)! Those predators have changed from carnivores to herbivores! How is it possible? What science fiction is this?
Actually, those predators are restored to their original state because when God first created the animals, He gave them green plants for food (Genesis 1:30). That is to say, there was a time when wolves did not prey on lambs and leopards on goats. The story of the fall of our First Parents hints that the ground became cursed because of our sins (3:17). The story of the murder of Abel vividly depicts how “the ground opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand” (4:11). The author seems to suggest that the scent of blood had triggered the evolution of animals with stronger jaws and sharper claws into carnivores. Now, how will the end of the world turn those predatory carnivores back into herbivores? Isaiah explains, “For the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord, as water covers the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9)
Prophets speak in images and enigmas. So, let’s assume that those predators are symbols of tyrants, bullies and evil people while goats, lambs and cows are symbols of the mild and the weak. At the end of the world, righteousness and peace will prevail when the earth is filled with knowledge of the Lord. Then tyrants, bullies and evil people will no longer prey on the mild and the weak. Let’s imagine what this could possibly mean in the world today. Leaders of all nations, some of whom are strong while some are weak, sit together in peace, viz. Anwar, Biden, Kim, Putin, Salman, Sogavare, Sunak, Tsai, von der Leyen, Xi and Zelenskyy etc. They coexist in peace because the knowledge of the Lord has transformed them. For the Jews, “knowledge” means “intimate union”. Therefore, the wicked will no longer exploit or prey on the disadvantaged, not because they are afraid of the punishments from the Lord. Instead, they are so filled with the Lord’s love that they are hungry and thirsty to exploit no more!
How are we able to obtain the knowledge of the Lord unless He reveals Himself? Therefore, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity incarnated as the Jesus of Nazareth to show us the way and the truth and the life (John 14:6). Before His public ministry, John the Baptist prepared the hearts of the Jews, exhorting them to repent and turn to the Lord. His tone was urgent and harsh. He was harsh towards the Pharisees and Sadducees, calling them “brood of vipers!” (Matthew 3:7) But don’t feel offended. Doesn’t Isaiah’s prophecy mention that “the baby shall play by the viper’s den” (Isaiah 11:8)? Doesn’t Jesus commission the seventy-two disciples, saying “Behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves” (Luke 10:3)? So, don’t be surprised by the imagery!
The Baptist’s vocabulary was urgent: “coming wrath” (Matthew 3:7), “Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees” (3:10) But our distorted sense of justice will easily mislead us to misunderstand his message. When John the Baptist describes what the coming Messiah does, he says, “His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (3:12). The unquenchable fire will easily conjure up the image of hell in the audience. Then, we’ll easily associate the wheat with the righteous who will go to heaven and the chaff with the wicked who will go to the unquenchable fire in hell at the end of the world. However, I opine that this logic is too simplistic!
I agree that the wheat is the righteous, but only after the chaff has been removed. Before that happens, the wheat and the chaff form the whole grain, a unity of opposites. The chaff is simply the crust of the wheat which is the image of God (Genesis 1:26). When St. Paul preaches the theology of justification by faith, he says, “All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). All humanity is contaminated by sins which form a crust to block our communion with the Lord. All of us need to repent and to turn to the Lord in order to have this outer crust removed. The crust is not the core and thus repentance is possible. While some cultures bind sinners and sins together, Christian morality insists on the separation of sins from sinners. While sinful actions are deplorable, sinners are redeemable. I believe the imagery of wheat and chaff demonstrates this ethical truth.
Let’s come back to the Baptist’s urgent message. It clearly states that after the chaff has been removed from the wheat, the Son of Man will burn it with unquenchable fire. But I opine that this time dimension is misleading. It is because the Son of Man exists beyond the time dimension. He is eternal and time is meaningless to Him! When we remove the time dimension, the Baptist’s message clearly states that the Son of Man cherishes and treasures the core which is the image of God. He puts the core in heaven while He burns away the chaff with unquenchable fire. So, what should this “unquenchable fire” be? I speculate that it is the furnace of divine love of God instead of hell! “For Love is strong as Death, longing is fierce as Sheol. Its arrows are arrows of fire, flames of the divine” (Songs 8:6). It is mystical and challenging when we put love and death together. Perhaps our concept of hell is more accurately a concept of purgatory. The unquenchable fire of divine love will purify us and rid us of our sinful crust that prevents us from total surrender and communion with the Lord.
Brethren! The issue is not completely settled because without time, repentance becomes not so urgent after all! Then on what ground does the Lord exhort us to stay awake? On one hand, He warns that nobody knows the hour of His second coming. He would appear at the most unexpected moment! That’s why we should always stay awake. But hasn’t He already come, accompanying us until the end of the age in the Eucharist and in our prayers because He is not constrained in the time dimension? Perhaps urgency is also an illusion. Seize the moment and repent because nobody knows at which moment our lives would be cut short. “You have folded up my life, like a weaver who severs me from the last thread. From morning to night, you make an end of me” (Isaiah 38:12). God bless!
2019 Reflection
Picture Credit: thewayofbeauty.org
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