Second Sunday of Advent, Year B

Letting God find Us

Isaiah 40: 1-11

2 Pet 3:8-15

Mark 1:1-8

Today we have the theme of preparation running prominently throughout the readings especially in the First Reading (Isaiah 40:1-5.9-11) and the Gospel Reading (Mark 1:1-8). In the First Reading, God told the prophet Isaiah to comfort His people and to assure them that the period of warfare has ended. This simply means that God is coming back to the people after a period of their separation from him. To this end, the prophet went further to tell the people to prepare for God’s coming.

The aforementioned preparation according to the oracle of the prophet is expected to take place in the form of a road construction: Every valley shall be filled in; every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain and the rough country made a broad valley. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.” Isaiah was speaking God’s word to Israel, His people who had been driven from their homeland and who were living in captivity in Babylon.  And Isaiah speaks to us as well, in our time.

In physical road construction, three important activities are premeditated: levelling, filling and making plain. Translated to spiritual life, similar activities are recommended. The road is our heart that is now marred by mountains and hills of sin and disobedience otherwise seen as obstacles; the road represents our hearts filled with valleys and potholes of absence of love, knowledge of God and other Christian virtues. The road presents our hearts made rough by the paths we have chosen that simply lead us away from God.

The readings today, urge us to use our religious imagination and look forward to the future with hope, faith, humility, practice of justice, righteousness, pursuit of peace, and courage no matter the challenges that we encounter daily in life. Watchfulness, alertness and some sense of eagerness and urgency for compassion are also required on every believer’s journey!

The Second Reading (2 Peter 3:8-14) builds on the message of  Isaiah.  As a way of preparing for Christmas, it emphasizes devotion, sense of urgency, justice, righteousness and peace. Mark’s Gospel also makes a direct reference to the prophet Isaiah saying, “behold I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way, a voice of one crying out in the desert, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths (Mark 1:3//Isaiah 40:3).

In the case of Mark, John the Baptist is the servant not Isaiah. But what Isaiah announced thousands of years ago is what John the Baptist proclaimed from the desert, during his time. It is the same, but renewed message of preparedness for the Lord, through repentance, baptism, conversion, humility, justice and faith in the one mightier than him!

In a pluralistic world of today, with its various socio-cultural, and political challenges, including threats of war, ISIS, Boko Haram,  terrorism, poverty, the gap between the "haves" and the have-nots," there are still many other ways we can prepare for Christmas. But what have been suggested in today's scriptures are achievable provided we place our faith and trust in God’s fidelity. Once we become fully convinced of God’s faithfulness, then our lives take on a new spirit of hope and optimism, as we prepare for Christmas!

In our world which is, unfortunately, marked by so much craving for material possession, John the Baptist herein recommends detachment from material wealth through his wardrobe and menu. We are told that he wore animal skin for clothing and for his diet he lived on locust and honey (one can observe that the things are not only unusual they are also rare). It is worthwhile to inquire why that aspect of his personality was added in the gospel as if what he wore or ate were very important to his message. In fact, they are not only important they are also part of the message. The recommendation is that we should be modest with material things with which we often get so much saturated and overwhelmed that we have no time and space to prepare the way for the Lord. That was why our Lord would ask us not to worry about food or what we are to wear considering the life of helpless birds (Matt.6:25-26).

The Second Reading (2 Pet.3:8-14) tells us to assume the attitude of waiting but that will be after making the critical spiritual road construction. This form of waiting should not be based on our human way of reckoning time. God’s timing is quite different from our own timing. Often many people fix dates for the time of the coming of the Lord but they have also failed several times. God expects us at this time to be concerned about preparing a way for Him not to come to Bethlehem but into our hearts. We are expected to devote our time and disposition to preparing our mountains of prejudice that still need to be lowered, the deep valleys of poverty that require to be filled in. 

These mountains and valleys exist in our own hearts, homes and neighborhoods.  Advent calls us to be more reliant on God’s providence than on our popular cultures, political affiliations or social status to tell us what is right.  Advent invites us to enter into the desert of our hearts, as it were, and rid our feelings and thoughts of anything that does not flow from God or lead us to God. To go into the desert is to leave behind the normal props of life on which we tend to depend.  Such life props we often find in our jobs, in our relationships and in routine religious practices.  God cannot do much with us as long as we hope and trust in these things as the first things that give meaning to our lives. When the heart is full, no one can come into it, not even God. You have first to let go of what your heart is holding onto before you can embrace God.  This letting go is symbolized by a journey into the barren desert.

In the Bible, the desert has come to be associated with a place of encounter with God.  It was in the desert that the people of Israel met God and learnt the ways of God. It was in the desert that they become God’s own people and the Lord became their God.  But first, they had to give up all the things that make them for the good life that they were enjoying in Egypt: “the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the onions and the garlic” (Num 11;5). Jesus, before, beginning his public ministry, spent forty days and nights in the desert.  It was a time of discovering and deepening his personal relationship with God.  By calling the people into the desert, John was calling them to let go of their false hopes and securities and learn to hope and trust in God alone.

John lived what he preached.  By his lifestyle, his dressing and eating habits, he showed that the meaning of life is not to be found in the abundance of material possessions but in relationship with God. To go into the desert is the first step in true repentance. It means abandoning our usual hiding places and putting ourselves in a situation where God can easily reach us. It is the leveling of those hills and the filling of those valleys that make it difficult for God to reach us and save us. In the season of Advent, the Church extends to us the call of John the Baptist to repent and confess our sins in preparation for the one who is to come.  It is an opportunity to rediscover our total dependence on God. God has made us for Himself as St Augustine discovered and our hearts are restless till, they rest in God. When we realize this and make room for God in our lives then we are on the way to true repentance after the example of John the Baptist.

Advent does not only recall the coming of Jesus 2000 years ago, but more importantly reminds us that Jesus will come again. Will it be this Year? Will it be today? We do not know. While waiting, we must live by faith and do all we can to prepare ourselves and our world for Jesus when he returns to us as promised. Advent is calling us to look to ourselves. Perhaps someone has mistreated us. We were innocent and that person attacked us.  May be it was a parent who constantly belittled us.  May be it was someone at work or at school who really enjoyed making our life difficult. Perhaps it was someone who we barely know who took it upon himself or herself to criticize us. How have we responded? Sadly, many times you and I have responded by matching nastiness with nastiness. How can we expect there to be peace in the world when we respond to hate with hate? If we want the world to change we need to change.

John the Baptist knew that he was striking a chord with people as he saw them responding to his preaching, The Gospel of Luke says that the crowds asked him “what shall we do?” He said, “if you have two cloaks give one to someone who has none.  Share your food with the Hungry.” When the dregs of the Jewish society, the tax collectors sincerely asked him, what shall we do?” He told them to stop cheating people.  Even soldiers asked John what they should do? He responded that they stop bullying people and acting unjustly. John wants to make one thing clear though, that people should not be changing just because they were drawn to his words.  He was merely preparing them for the one whose words would be the words of God. “One mightier that me is coming after me.” “I am not worthy to even take off his shoes. What I do is earth bound.  I am baptizing with water.  What he will do is infinitely beyond the earth. He will baptize with the Holy Spirit.”  Our examination to reform ourselves, to change ourselves so that we can change the world is not merely based on humanitarian needs, but on the spiritual.  We belong to Jesus Christ.  We are His people.  He has called us to make his presence real throughout the world.  For us, love is not merely the opposite of hate. Love is the presence of Jesus Christ within us and among us.  For us, charity is not just the opposite of greed.  Charity is the Lord working through us to care for others.