ADVENT II – year A
In 1911 captain Robert Scott
and four other British explorers
set out on foot for the South Pole.
They travelled 800 miles
through deep snow and bitter cold.
A year later they reached the South Pole.
But on their return journey,
their glorious victory turned into bitter defeat.
Two men died along the way.
The other three froze to death
just a few miles from safety.
When the bodies of the men were found,
the last words that each had written
were still readable.
One of the men was Bill Wilson,
the doctor of the expedition.
Twenty years before,
Bill had attended Cambridge University.
His classmates nicknamed him “the cynic.”
He had a mean personality
and an even meaner tongue.
He once wrote these words to a friend:
“I know I am…proud…bitter…
insulting…and always selfish.”
On the polar expedition, “Bill the cynic”
Became “Bill the peacemaker.”
And just before he died,
Captain Scott wrote to a friend:
“If this letter reaches you,
Bill and I have gone on together.
We are very near it now;
and I should like you to know
how splendid Bill was…everlastingly cheerful
and ready to sacrifice himself for others.
His eyes have a comfortable blue look of hope
and his mind is peaceful.”
Meanwhile, in his last hours Bill Wilson wrote:
“So I live now,
knowing that I am in God’s hands
to be used to bring others to him,
if he wills a long life…
or if I die tomorrow.
“We must do what we can
and leave the rest to him…
my trust is in God,
so that it matters not what I do
or where I go.”
The story of Bill Wilson illustrates
what today’s scripture exhorts us to do.
First, the gospel reading asks us
to take top heart the words of John the Baptist:
“Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!”
And second, Paul exhorts us
to live according to the spirit of Jesus, saying:
“May the God of endurance and encouragement
grant you to think in harmony with one another,
in keeping with Christ Jesus,
that with one accord
you may, with one voice glorify…God.”
Bill Wilson’s remarkable change
illustrates what the church urges us to do
during the season of Advent.
It urges us to “repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
When Bill Wilson was at Cambridge University,
he never dreamed
how close the kingdom of God was for him.
He never dreamed that in 20 short years
he would be called by God
to give an account of his life.
And Bill Wilson’s classmates
never dreamed how much he would change
in those 20 short years.
The man who was proud, bitter and selfish
became a man
who was splendid, cheerful and self-giving.
The man who was known as “the cynic”
became the man
who was known as “the peacemaker.”
History is filled
with men and women like Bill Wilson –
men and women
who began life as selfish individuals
and ended life as loving, generous people.
The lives of these people
remind us
that we to can turn from our sins
and become loving, generous people.
The lives of these people
remind us
that God wants to do for us
what he did for them.
The lives of these people
remind us
that God wants to give us the same grace
that he gave them.
Advent is a time
when we recall
what God had in mind for us
when he created us.
Advent is a time
when we recall
what God wants us to become.
Advent is a time
when we recall that God wants us
to make something beautiful of our lives.
Advent is a time
when we try to respond to God’s plan for us
as generously
as did men and women like Bill Wilson.
This is what advent is all about.
It’s the season that invites us to
take to heart,
the words of John the Baptist
in today’s gospel:
“Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand!”
It’s the season that invites us
to take to heart Paul’s prayer for us
in today’s second reading.
Let’s close by repeating it:
“May the God of endurance and encouragement
grant you to think in harmony with one another,
in keeping with Christ Jesus,
that with one accord
you may with one voice
glorify the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Welcome one another, then,
as Christ welcomed you,
for the glory of God.”
