A few weeks ago, we neared the end of Luke’s Gospel with Jesus using apocalyptic language when speaking about the destruction of the Temple. As we transition into Matthew, we begin also with apocalyptic language, this time through John the Baptist. John the Baptist marks the transition between the Old Testament commitment to God, and announces the arrival of an era that will require a new commitment to God.

Announcing the end of one era and the beginning of a new one using apocalyptic language was done to emphasize the victory of the power of God over corrupt human powers in history, powers that often lead to oppression, slavery, and extreme poverty.

Matthew’s point is that the religious institution had become a kingdom of corrupt human power, and John the Baptist announces its destruction and the beginning of the Kingdom of Heaven where those who had become victims of human power, especially the poor and lowly, they would be uplifted and those who abused their human power would eventually fail unless they repented. This is what John the Baptist means when he says: “Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down.”

What the gospel does is give us a choice. God’s judgment is not based on condemning the bad and rewarding the good, it is based on giving us an invitation to life freely, and then given the choice to accept it or not. In Matthew, this choice can be formulated in the following way: In what kingdom do you want to live? The kingdom of Satan, or the kingdom of heaven? And if our choice is to live in the kingdom of heaven, then that will require a new commitment to allow the liberating power of God to work in our lives.

Submitting to the kingdom of heaven is not easy, we want to maintain the kingdoms we have built. We see that with the Pharisees and the Sadducees today. Normally they did not mingle much less work together, they had major disagreements on matters of faith, so the fact that they are together here tells you something is up.

Their coming out to witness John’s baptism together indicates they were worried that people were actually interested in the message of John’s preaching about the Messiah. They had worked hard to build their religious kingdom, and it worked for their benefit. They kept people in fear: pay, pray and obey. People listened to them. If John’s preaching is successful, it will challenge their power and status.

John says that change in our commitment to God will begin with baptism and clarifies the difference. John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance, a ritual washing that expressed sorrow for sin and the desire to sincerely seek God. But Jesus’ baptism will be a baptism of transformation, a baptism in the Holy Spirit described through the symbol of fire.

Fire was the Old Testament image of the powerful presence of God. Yahweh revealed his name to Moses from the fire of the burning bush. The cloud of fire accompanied Israel through their wilderness journey out of oppression in Egypt. When Israel was finally established in the promised land, the fire of the Spirit came down to dwell in the inner sanctum of the Temple.

Now, the presence of God will dwell in each person among the people of God, which is why Pentecost is described in the same way, tongues of fire over those who believe. This is the fire that affirms the dignity of every person. If God is pleased to dwell in us, then that means every single one of us has value, we are made for more than just earth, we are destined for heaven, and the new commitment as a new people of God is to be missionaries, to spread God’s dwelling through us in whom He dwells.

This has always been the call from the beginning. Back in Deuteronomy, chapter 4, it says:

“Observe the decrees and laws I have taught you, as the Lord my God commanded me, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations. They will hear about all these decrees and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ What other nation is so great as to have their gods so near to them, the way the Lord our God is to us whenever we call upon him? And what other nation is so great as to have such just decrees and laws, as the laws I set before you today?”

The Pharisees and Sadducees had drifted away from this vision. By the time of Jesus, the missionary vision in Israel had been essentially lost. Jews who were Jews by birth claimed to be favored by God simply because of their nationality and culture. That is still the case today, the Jewish faith does not seek converts, it does not seek to evangelize.

John the Baptist says to the leaders of the people of God: “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’” Meaning, just because you are born into the chosen people of God doesn’t mean you have it made. You have a new mission. In this new covenant, you must at some point embrace the teachings of Jesus for yourself, and you must make a personal covenant commitment with God to be part of the new phase of mission that God is opening up.

The prophet Isaiah longed for the people of God to return to this vision and understanding of their mission: “On that day, the root of Jesse will be set up as a signal for the nations, that the Gentiles shall seek out.”

Paul talks about the fulfillment of the missionary vision through Christ, the opening up of the covenant to all people. He says: “Christ became a minister of the circumcised to confirm the promises to the patriarchs, but also so that the Gentiles might glorify God.” This is the vision of the mission of the Church as sacrament of the unity of humanity.

We are not immune to losing our missionary spirit as a Church. More than once, we have been close, and the Holy Spirit has had to call us back. As the Roman Empire became Christian, the Church drifted into cultural Catholicism, just like many people today who don’t think of themselves as Catholic for any other reason than, “That’s the culture I was born in.”

Many who are born into culturally Catholic homes, like I was, find difficulties in their faith when they begin to ask complicated questions that come with adulting — questions of meaning, existence, direction, purpose, and relationship. Despite growing up in a Church that has had 2,000 years of deep intellectual and spiritual reflection on these matters, many simply went through the motions of receiving the sacraments, only to stop practicing their faith because it just didn’t make sense.

As cradle Catholics, it can be more difficult for our faith to go beyond culture and family customs. Transmission of the faith through Catholic culture began to erode back in the 1960s, and that was the moment when the Second Vatican Council convened as a prophetic council. The Second Vatican Council called all Catholic Christians to renewed commitment. It said: “The renewal in the Eucharist of the covenant between the Lord and humanity draws the faithful into the compelling love of Christ and sets them on fire.”

The Eucharist is supposed to be a moment in which we renew our covenant with the Lord and are set on fire by the presence of God coming into us.

This Advent is a perfect time for asking ourselves where we really stand in our covenant commitments. We wait and hope for the power of God to come into our lives, but we have to commit ourselves to respond to it. The power of God will not work in passive people who are going through the motions of the spiritual life.

A good reminder, especially for those of us who grew up Catholic: our faith commitment goes beyond checking things off in our sacramental records. There is a deep history of thought, of knowledge, of revelation through Scripture and sacred Tradition, that has been transforming the world, making the Kingdom of Heaven more and more visible in every generation.

In our generation, we must grow in our ability to see God’s vision of a united humanity. That means growing in our willingness to live for the common good, and not only for our own interests. It means making the poorest and most afflicted of the land a real priority. It means learning to use artificial intelligence responsibly, as a tool for unity, and not division.

Friends, we are in the mission of making heaven visible on earth, in our commitment to God and to each other, to justice, and our worship around the Eucharist.

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we ask the Lord for the renewed desire to live our covenant with him. And as we move deeper into Advent, we ask the Lord to set our hearts on fire, to live as missionary disciples of Jesus.