2nd Sunday of Advent (07/12/2025): Almighty and merciful God, may no earthly undertaking hinder those who set out in haste to meet your Son, but may our learning of heaven wisdom grain us admittance to his company. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

Commentary on the Mass Readings for the 2nd Sunday of Advent, Cycle A:

The First Reading is from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah 11:1-10. To help us prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas, the Church recalls the prophecies of the great Isaiah on each of the four Sundays of Advent. To encourage the Chosen People who, because of the bad example of their worldly leaders, were wavering in their loyalty to Yahweh their true God, the prophet reminds them of him who is to come. This was 700 years before Christ came, but it was a reminder that God, who had called Abraham and had made him the father and founder of the Chosen People some thousand years previously, had not forgotten his promises. He would fulfill his word. He would one day send them a ruler, a king, who would rule and judge with justice because he would have the true spirit of the Lord. He who was to come would set up a kingdom of peace, not only for the Chosen People but for all men. The kingdom he was to establish would be for Jew and Gentile.

The Second Reading is from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans 15:4-9. St. Paul is telling newly converted Christians, converted Christians of Rome, many of whom were Jews, that the sacred Scriptures of the Old Testament are still a source of instruction, encouragement, and hope. The call of Abraham and the promises made to him, and to his descendants, were fulfilled in the coming of Christ. Christ was the glory of the Chosen People—the fruit of centuries of preparation and expectation—but he brought the knowledge and blessings of the true God to the Gentile pagans also. Henceforth, all men are brothers of Christ.

Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction. Add to this what has been written concerning Christ’s coming among us, with his teaching and promises, and we Christians surely have an inexhaustible source of encouragement and hope. To help us prepare ourselves to welcome Christ at Christmas, the Church brings before our minds sections of the Old and New Testaments, which should inspire us with new faith, hope and charity. Faith in God, who always fulfills his promises, hope for our eventual salvation, and charity, or love for God, who has done, and is still doing. such wonderful things for us unworthy men. This charity and love of God must spill over on our neighbor, if it is sincere, for as St. John tells us, the man who says he loves God and yet hates his neighbor is a liar (2 Jn. 4:20).

The Gospel is from the Gospel of Matthew 3:1-12, an angel announced to Zechariah, a priest of the temple, that he would have a son (even though his wife Elizabeth was barren and advanced in years). This son was destined to be the Precursor who would announce the proximate arrival of the long-expected Messiah. John, the name given him by the angel even before his conception, spent his youth and early manhood as a hermit in the desert of Judea, preparing himself for his exalted office. When God revealed to him that the Messiah was soon to begin his public life, John set out for the bank of the Jordan, where he began to preach repentance, in order to prepare the people for “him who was to come.”

In this holy season of Advent, as we prepare to welcome Christ at Christmas. John the Baptist has words of advice and warnings for each one of us. He advises us to “prepare the way of the Lord,” by true repentance of our past sins and a firm resolution to straighten “the ways of the Lord,” that is, not to deviate from the true Christian way of life in the future.

Excerpted from The Sunday Readings by Fr. Kevin O’Sullivan, O.F.M.