2nd Sunday of Advent

Leonardo, the noted Italian artist painted the Last Supper. It took seven years for him to complete it. The figures representing the twelve Apostles and Christ himself were painted from living persons. The life-model for the painting of the figure of Jesus was chosen first.  When it was decided that Leonardo would paint this great picture, hundreds and hundreds of young men were carefully viewed in an endeavor to find a face and personality exhibiting innocence and beauty, free from the scars and signs of dissipation caused by sin.  Finally, after weeks of laborious search, a young man nineteen years of age was selected as a model for the portrayal of Christ. For six months Leonardo worked on the production of this leading character of his famous painting. During the next six years Leonardo continued his labors on this sublime work of art. One by one fitting persons were chosen to represent each of the eleven Apostles -- with space being left for the painting of the figure representing Judas Iscariot as the final task of this masterpiece.  This was the Apostle, you remember, who betrayed his Lord for thirty pieces of silver. For weeks Leonardo searched for a man with a hard, callous face, with a countenance marked by scars of avarice, deceit, hypocrisy, and crime. A face that would delineate a character who would betray his best friend.  After many discouraging experiences in searching for the type of person required to represent Judas, word came to Leonardo that a man whose appearance fully met his requirements had been found in a dungeon in Rome, sentenced to die for a life of crime and murder. Leonardo made the trip to Rome at once, and this man was brought out from his imprisonment in the dungeon and led out into the light of the sun. There Leonardo saw before him a dark, swarthy man his long shaggy and unkempt hair sprawled over his face, which betrayed a character of viciousness and complete ruin. At last the famous painter had found the person he wanted to represent the character of Judas in his painting. By special permission from the king, this prisoner was carried to Milan where the picture was being painted. For months he sat before Leonardo at appointed hours each day as the gifted artist diligently continued his task of transmitting, to his painting, this base character representing the traitor and betrayer of our Savior.  As he finished his last stroke, he turned to the guards and said, I have finished. You may take the prisoner away. As the guards were leading their prisoner away, he suddenly broke loose from their control and rushed up to Leonardo, crying as he did so, "Leonardo, look at me. Do you not know who I am?" Leonardo, with the trained eyes of a great character student, carefully scrutinized the man upon whose face he had constantly gazed for six months and replied, "No, I have never seen you in my life until you were brought before me out of the dungeon in Rome."  Then, lifting his eyes toward heaven, the prisoner said, "Oh God, have I fallen so low?" Then turning his face to the painter he cried, "Leonardo, look at me again for I am the same man you painted just seven years ago as the figure of Christ." My dear friends, all of us are created by God who is good and here it follows that we are all His good creation. However, all of us fall into sin. We become bad then by our own choice. We set aside our goodness as we cling to our sinfulness. But God reminds us that we are not meant to be bad or remain in sin. We are called to claim the good which is ours even before the fall of man. In our Scripture passage for today which is taken from Matthew 3: 8, we hear John the Baptizer saying, "Bear fruit that befits repentance!" He means to say, we have to claim what we have lost -the goodness which God instilled in us. Today, we shall remember, if some good people became bad by choice; bad people can become good by choice through repentance.