As we enter our 2nd week of Advent, we prepare for the coming of Christ's birth in the world as we await his arrival with vigilance and prayer. The voice of John the Baptist cries out to us in the desert. Even though the Gospel today names the governmental leaders of the region and the high priests of the Temple, they are not the ones who prepare the way of the Lord. Rather, it falls to an eccentric wilderness prophet to get us ready for the coming of Christ.
We are called to wait during Advent, but it is a waiting accompanied by prayers, devotion, and activity, a waiting that renews us and transforms us.. While we wait, we hear John’s voice crying out to us from the desert wilderness. We must realize, however, that the desert is more than just the location where John the Baptist's public ministry took place. In modern American, we probably think of the desert as arid and desolate, but in the eyes of the Hebrew prophets, the desert was the place where the Israelites first encountered God and where they faithfully responded to God on their way to the promised land. John the Baptist crying out in the desert calls Israel to return to this metaphorical desert, to return to faithfulness, to respond to God's grace as it had done long ago. This desert metaphor juxtaposes God's grace with the response of the people as they remember how God led them out of Egypt into the desert on their way to the promised land, as they responded to God's call for them as his favored nation.
In the middle of our Advent time of preparation, it is good for us to look at the image of the desert that Pope Benedict XVI is his writings as well. Benedict XVI notes that when the Second Vatican Council started in the early 1960s, it was already possible to see in our human history what a world without God would look like. The world was still trying to recover from the tragedy of two huge wars: WWII and the Korean War. The tumult that shook the institutions of Western Society in the 1960s was just beginning. Now, in our world today, we can see how secularism has spread and has created a desert and a void where God is not present in much of our world. Benedict encourages us to use this desert environment as a starting point to bring the joy of journeying as disciples of Christ to the entire world. In the desert of our world today, we can rediscover the value of what is essential in life. There are a lot of signs in our world today of people who are thirsting for God, even though these signs are often expressed negatively. People are searching for meaning and are in need of those who can point them to the promised land, to hope, forgiveness, and mercy. The living faith that we are to bring to the world as Advent people is based on the way we wait and prepare with hope and expectation. As Advent people, our living faith can open the hearts of others to the grace of God. We are to help bring a message that is so different from the revenge and pessimism so many in our world embrace.
Bringing the message of hope as we actively await and prepare for the coming of Christ and his kingdom is a good message for us to hear during Advent, but it goes beyond that. Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis have called all of us Christians to a new evangelization. These three popes have stated that this new evangelization begins with us growing, developing, and transformation ourselves before we begin to evangelize others. You are hearing about the Alpha program we are starting here at St Jude in January. We are really excited about this program, about how it can reinvigorate our community here at St Jude, and how it can be a springboard to our evangelization efforts. You will hear about Alpha throughout Advent. I hope all of your prayerfully consider the way God is calling us to look at this program as a way to enrich our own lives, the lives of our community, and the lives of others.
May Advent not only be a time of renewal and conversion in our lives and in the life of our parish, but may we also see it as a time when we can reach out and encourage others, helping them in discerning their call from God and in their journey of faith.
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