SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT - YEAR B

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT – YEAR B
(Is 40:1-5, 9-11; Ps 84:9-14; 2Pt 3:8-14; Mk 1:1-8)

Theme: we await and hurry up for the day of the Lord preparing our hearts for him

Reflection:

- Last Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, we have reflected on the theme “Let us promise to the Lord that we do not go astray from his house” and thus we have decided to be ‘awake’ and ‘ready’ for his return and thus safeguarding and protecting ‘with the responsibility and love’ the house and the property that he has entrusted us with.
- In this week, the second Sunday of Advent, let us reflect, with the eagerness of nearing the celebration of the coming of the Lord, on the theme that ‘we await’ and ‘hurry up’ for his coming preparing our hearts for him as his shelter and tent.
- In this way we continue from where we have started last week: we have started from ‘being awake and ready’ and let us go ahead enlarging the theme that we are ‘not only awake’ but, more than anything, we are ‘to hurry up’ to meet him. therefore, the time of waiting is getting to the end and our readiness in mind and in thought has to be put into action by getting up and walk ahead – this is the meaning of being hurry up – in order to embrace his coming and be with him.
- Last week we had one personage for our reflection: the prophet Isaiah who was the prophet of hope and salvation: he reminds and proclaims to the desperate and dispersed people of Israel in Babylonian captivity that ‘the God in whom they believed and promised to practice his laws, is above all a Father to them’ and as a Father gives everything and guides to the good pastures to his children, He too will provide them his ways of mercy and justice and do everything for those who confides in him.
- This week we have another personage for our walk and encouragement: John the Baptist, the last prophet of the Promise who is the prophet of ‘preparing and showing’ the way of the Lord/His coming to meet his people. Let us observe and meditate on this personality so that ‘taking his example’ we can also hurry up to prepared ourselves to receive the Lord.

First Reading:

- The story of Israel is a ‘preparation’ for the day of the Lord:
o Isaiah as we have already seen in the last week is a prophet of good news of life and joy for the people who were desperately in need of God’s hand and help. This is the theme of today’s first reading in which the prophet calls for the ‘advent of salvation’ in the life of his people.
o ‘Be consoled’ is the voice of the prophet (v.1) and he reminds them that Now is the time for the consolation and salvation because ‘the expiation is terminated and the gift of liberation is initiated’ (v.2): no more slavery, no more tears, no more fears; now there is only one thing ahead: ‘returning to the Jerusalem with the joy’ (v.9) and therefore, it is a way of victory they have to pave from now on.
o ‘Return’ to the mother land on the part of Israel is not their own merit or their victorious deed but it is the Lord who willed it and made it happen before their eyes and in this way ‘the glory of the Lord is revealed’ and every human being sees it. So it is an act ‘in the story’ of Israel which has been extended to all the humanity and even cosmos because God is ‘not only God of power’ but ‘a Shepherd’ who gathers and lead all who are away from him carrying them on his shoulder and chest – “as a pastor he feeds the sheep and with his hand he gathers them; on his chest he carries the small sheep and lead the mother sheep slowly” (v. 11).
o The chapter of the sinfulness and its consequence is closed: “the slavery is finished; the iniquity is paid off, because it has received from the Lord the double punishment for her sins” (v.2).
o Now God comes along with them ‘as the shepherd’ to be with them and thus becomes ‘Immanuel’ – God with the Zion. But when He comes his way should be prepared and it is the joyful announcement of the prophet: a voice cries out: “in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level and the rough places a plain” (vv.3-4). So there is a need to make a way – holy and clean.
o The prophet is the one who is place on the top of the mountain (v.9) and from there he has to announce his good news and ‘his gospel is to reach and touch his people so that they will prepare themselves for the Lord that is coming.
- The way is the constant renovation of life and renewal of attitude:
o On one part, they have to listen to the voice and the word of the prophet who calls them to prepare themselves to receive the Lord; they are to return from the slavery of the Babylon to the liberation of Jerusalem in the day already appointed and announced; and therefore, it is their responsibility to be ready and hurry up in their walk.
o On the other part they have to prepared their hearts and life by ‘making straight their crooked ways of indifference towards their Lord’, ‘by lifting up their infidelity into faithfulness to their Savior’, ‘by making low every mountain of their pride and arrogance to the humility and docility to their Shepherd’, ‘by making every even and rough ground of their rebellious behavior into the plain ground of total commitment to their Father’ and thus they have to constantly renew themselves so that they become worthy of meeting their Lord, Savior, Shepherd and Father.
o They have to realize the origin and destiny of their life and return to be always with the Lord who makes them his own: therefore, their history is the preparation for the day of the Lord and their journey is the walk towards meeting of their savior and finally their life is to embrace the salvation prepared and offered to them by their Lord still awaiting and hurrying up to the joyful and gracious day announced.

Second Reading:

- God is great in patience with us:
o The second letter of Peter is written very lately and most probably the last writing of the New Testament and Peter calls for our attention towards the final and definitive intervention of God and he uses the same terminology of the prophet: ‘the day of the Lord’ which is the resolute event of the human history with which God will establish his reign of justice and peace in the renewed mode. The new heavens and the new earth which are to be manifested are the final events to which we have to wait with the purification and transformation of our life into that of God’s and time of awaiting – season of advent – is like a painful delivery which gives a place for the birth of the new creature. We are on a journey towards being born again as the new creature of God.
o Peter recalls the grandness of God in waiting patiently for the return of his people walked away from him; as he says many people may think that God is not acting immediately or that He is not sending his punishment instantly for the wrong committed; it is our human thought and our human want that make judgment on the ‘action of the Lord’; humans are impatient and intolerable and they want to take an immediate revenge; and as human we want to ‘frame’ up God into our images; how shameful idea and cheap mentality that we have of God and towards God; our God, from the beginning of the history of mankind, is very much patience and understanding and more than anything He is faithful to his word and to his promise; we see this in the story of the Old Testament People: how often they have manifested their infidelity and God instead has gone out to meet them and to bring them back to himself showing his mercy and forgiveness?
o Patience of God should not be mistaken nor neglected or overlooked; He is patient with us bearing all our ‘continuous wrong doings’ just because He is Our God and He does not want that we perish in our sins and bring on to ourselves a severe judgment; His will is that all of us share in his life and participate in his glory.
- We are to everything to be found in peace without fault and spot:
o Preparation with the Christian attitude: As we are preparing for the coming of the day of the Lord we have to do everything that is demanded of us: our firm faith in the Lord, our unwavering hope in his promises and our testimony of charity transformed into the deeds of mercy and love to the needy;
o Preparation with the Christian action: we are the people on the move; people on the journey; therefore, we should keep awake and eagerly step out towards the meeting of the Lord; our journey should be ‘FROM US TO HIM’ and at the end all of us ARE ONE WITH HIM AND IN HIM.
o In this way we are called in this season of advent to await and hurry up towards the new heavens and new earth: the new life in Christ who has died and risen again; meanwhile, we have to do our best as the Christians who are not for themselves but for others and for the glory of the Lord.

Gospel:

- We have two points as examples for us to build our own spiritually renewed life in this season of Advent: A Place: the Desert – and – A Person: John the Baptist. We will meditate on these two realities so that we prepare well our hearts to meet the Lord.
- A Place: The Desert: the place of experiencing God’s providence
o The desert is the place of our meeting; in the readings of today we are given a place of experiencing the life in the Lord: “In the desert prepare the way of the Lord” is the voice of the prophet in the first reading (Is 40:3) and “A voice cries out in the desert” is the place of proclamation of John the Baptist in the Gospel (Mk 1:3): in both of these we have the common place, that is the desert;
o When we imagine desert immediately we recall the reality of desolation, dryness and lack of life; the desert is the symbol/place of ‘lack of water and lack of food’ and thus in a word, absence of life;
o This image of desert sends us back to think of our own life – our heart which is many times found with discouragement, depression, lonely and lack of joy and peace; life without spirit;
o Though, on the one hand, we find ourselves in the midst of attractive and beautiful world, in the middle of the life with rumors and busy schedules, as flying in the sky with the wonderful things happening in life, we have, on the other hand, many a time in which we feel bored up, we feel ignored and rejected, we feel insulted and hurt, we feel losing whole life and finally we find ourselves with the heavy words and sighs saying ‘enough! I am not able to bear with this life anymore’; and ‘I wish that God takes me away immediately because I do not want to see life destroyed’ and the similar sayings that flow from ‘the dryness of our life’. This is the ‘desert experience’ we have very often in life because of the same reasons of ‘world and its attractions’ which we are enjoying now.
o In the ‘middle’ of life and lifelessness we lead our life; one moment we are overfilled with joy and the next moment the tears run down from the eyes; one moment we feel flying in the skies and the next moment our head is drowned in the ground; one moment we feel very powerful and capable of doing anything and the next moment we are helpless and lifeless. This is the contradiction of our life and this is the ‘desert experience’ of our daily living.
o We have the desire to come out of this and to be joyful always, but who can refill our deserted lives with the joy and peace? No one except our Lord himself. That’s why rightly sings the Psalmist: “O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirst for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (63:1).
o Only God will satisfy our heart’s desire with the joy and spirit. Therefore we have to keep our deserted hearts open for the coming of the Lord; the Lord makes us walk towards him with the hearts bewildered and emptied.
o This was the experience of the people of Israel in their journey towards the Promised Land; when we talk of the desert of the Old Testament the attention that recalls our mind is that of ‘Desert of the Exodus’. The people have travelled a long way and for many years, as far as forty years, in the desert to reach the land promised by God.
o It was in the desert that they are put to the test of their fidelity and their trust in God who lead them out of the slavery of Egypt and it was the desert in which they have to experience the providence of God; on the one hand, they have put the Lord to the test in the desert failing in their committed confidence in him when they have grumbled against His and his elected leader Moses for the food and water; on the other hand, God, who is always faithful to his promise and word, has provided them, in spite of their disobedience and indifference, with the food in the form of Manna and the water from the rock.
o The desert, therefore, is the place of test of our faith and confidence in the Lord and at the same time, is the place in which He comes to the aid of His people and thus it becomes the place of meeting of the Lord and His people.
o At the end, it is through the desert that they have travelled and entered into the Promised Land in which flow not only water but also honey and milk, which spiritually means, God will take care of them and fill them to the full and satisfy every need of them.
o With this trust in Him we can offer our hearts and our life which have become desert through the daily troubles and difficulties with the same trust that He would refill it with his mercy and love.
o Advent is the time ‘to offer to him our deserted life’ and be filled with his presence because He is the Lord who is with his people.
- A Person: John the Baptist: man of mission and of vocation of showing the Savior
o In the gospel of today we meet one personage important for our reflection and for our guidance and he is John the Baptist;
 As for as the verses read out, he is a:
• Messenger who walks before the Lord
• Voice that:
o Shouts for the preparation of the way of the Lord
o Proclaims the baptism of conversion and forgiveness of sins
 He as the last of the prophets of the Old Testament and First and the only one of the New Testament and thus He stands between those who have announced his coming and the one who has actually come in the Name of Lord; he links both the word-spoken and word-come/entered.
 Just like him, as we take him as our model for this advent of ours, we have to the messenger walking with the testimony of life and we have to also the voice that speaks out the life-giving word.
o We have to also think of the ‘appearance’ of John the Baptist: the gospel passage could have been very easily ended with the verse 5 because everything is announced of the John the Baptist as the messenger and as a voice, but the Church asks us also ‘reflect’ over the ‘actual appearance’ and the ‘inner attitude’ of John the Baptist:
 His simple appearance in being vested in the cloths of camel’s hair and with the leather belt and eating locusts and honey (v.6) is the testimony of his life ‘offered in totality’ to the call that God has elected him. His appearance in the simplicity of life is also a testimony that ‘it is food and clothes’ that is more important but the call for which we are sent into the world: it is here we can also remember the same words of Jesus: “therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink or about your body, what you will wear” (Mt 6:25) and continue to end the discourse with another admonition, “But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (v.33). This is exactly what is seen ‘in the appearance’ of John the Baptist.
 His proclamation and His message being the ‘voice’ of the Lord manifest his commitment to the mission and vocation he is called for. Without worrying much about himself and what he has own (even the basic needs like food and clothing) – with the exterior appearance - walks ahead firmly and steady – with the inner attitude - only with one purpose and one destiny: that is, to be the voice that calls all to prepare to meet the coming Messiah.
o Just like him we too have to give priority to the call we are given and walk straight in the proper vocation of our life: not only with the exterior appearance of our well being and also, in fact more importantly, with the inner attitude of being for the Lord.

Conclusion:

- Let us be the people of conversion:
o John the Baptist gives the baptism of conversion and let us participate in it so that we are one with the design and will of God;
o We shall understand well the true meaning of conversion:
 In Hebrew: being converted means ‘to change the way’: therefore, conversion means leave the way/path the one is in and take another way;
 In Greek: being converted means ‘to change the mind’: therefore, conversion means to have change in our thoughts and in our mentality; we leave aside how we think and instead follow the mind of the other and St. Paul asks to ‘keep ourselves firm and fixed in the same mentality of Christ’ (Phil 2:5).
 In Latin: being converted means ‘to turn towards’: therefore, conversion means ‘turning towards someone’ and turning towards the Lord;
 Let us, for our betting and comprehensive understanding, combine all of them and have the true meaning of conversion for our Advent: let us turn towards Christ and “let the same mind be in that was in Him” and thus change the way/path that we are in and we are walking so that we will be able to meet the Lord who is coming in his way.
o As the first reading helps us to understand: let us accept and offer our deserted hearts with the trust and confidence that it is in the desert that our faith is proved – as the gold is trialed by the fire – and that it is in the same desert that we receive the providence of the Lord – as He is the one who provides the food for the birds and growth for the lilies (Mt 6:26-30).
o We will learn from the ‘simple personality’ and ‘profound attitude’ of John the Baptist and thus give priority and first preference always for the glory of the Lord and for the true living of our vocation and mission as Christians.
o And finally, as the second reading guides us since our theme is also from the same reading, we shall lead the “lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God” (2Pt 3:11-12). Therefore, let us while still waiting hurry up for the advent of the Lord preparing our hearts for him.