As I was thinking this week about the Mass readings for tomorrow, the second Sunday of Advent, it seemed to me that there are two themes that run through them - through Isaiah's prophecy, and St. Paul's words, and St. John the Baptists's preaching. First, God promises his people eventual restoration of holiness and justice and peace (after times of chastisement and other difficulty), and Christ comes to fulfill this promise. Second, God's call and promises to his people are not for their sake only, but also for the sake of the whole world. Or, put differently, God wants to unite all people to his chosen people.

Taken together, then, these points indicate that God is coming to renew us. We are Gentiles, not Jews. Yet the many promises of the Old Testament, and their fulfillment in Christ, are for us, too. Of course, just because God can make us children of his chosen people - can make us his own people - does not mean that we can presume upon his mercy and salvation. As no Jew is guaranteed salvation, so no Gentile is guaranteed salvation. We, too, if we are to experience salvation, need to cooperate with God's saving plan, through true repentance and conversion.

And these points also indicate that part of our cooperation in God's plan must be our efforts to show and even speak of Christ to others. There are many who have not heard the Gospel - who have not heard it at all, or who have not heard it effectively. There are many who have not seen Christ. We are not accountable for how many converts we make, of course. But we are accountable for doing all that we can to make God's saving love in Jesus Christ known to the world.

Let us, then, actively welcome Christ into the world and into our lives, so that we might all come to live together on God's holy mountain, in the new Zion, in the Kingdom of Heaven.