6 December 2020 - Second Sunday in Advent - CYCLE B - 2 Peter 3:8-14, Isaiah 40:1-5 and 9-11, Mark 1:1-8

     Last Sunday, on the first Sunday of Advent, Jesus advised us to be alert and to be watchful.  This Sunday, we hear from John the Baptist, who prepared the people to welcome the coming of Jesus, as Jesus begins his public ministry and his mission.  John the Baptist was already very admired by the people; they trusted him as a prophet of holiness and integrity; they responded to his calls to repentance.  But repentance does not just mean being sorry for what we have done in the past. Repentance is a call to change our ways and to be radically transformed and converted.  

     John provides us with an important lesson today: just as he prepared for the coming of Christ, we also need to prepare our hearts and our minds for Christ’s coming into the world.  We prepare our lives for the coming of Christ at Christmas. We also prepare for his second coming.  The second letter of Peter advises us that one day for the Lord could be like 1,000 years, so as we wait for the Lord to come again, what seems like a long time for us, is not so for the Lord.  Yet, the coming of the Lord can come quickly as well, like a thief in the night.  Thus, Peter tells us to live holy lives as we wait for the day of the Lord to come, to live our best so that the Lord will find us at peace.  The Lord does not want us to live in anxiety or fear, but in joy and peace, having faith in his promise to us.   So, we might ask ourselves: what changes is God calling us to make, not just now, but in the year to come. What kind of person is God calling us to be? What kind of person would God like us to be? 

      John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus to come into the lives of the people, to come into our lives.  In the first reading today, Isaiah tells us to prepare the way of the Lord by filling in valleys, by smoothing out mountains and hills, and by making the rough country smooth. In these poetic words, Jesus is calling us to remove the obstacles that are keeping us from Jesus.  

       As Christ’s disciples, we give example to others in our words and our actions.  So many of the people we know, perhaps the people we work with and members of our own family, face many obstacles in having a relationship with Jesus.  What can we do to increase our faith and to bring others to Christ?  

        I have two suggestions for us to think about this week in light of John the Baptist’s message of repentance and preparing a way for the Lord.  These also were discussed in the Ignite Your Parish Advent program that we are using.  First, is to go to the sacrament of reconciliation during Advent.  We don’t have our normal Advent Penance Service this year due to the pandemic, but we are having opportunities to go to this sacrament after any of the weekend Masses during Advent.  This is a great way to prepare our hearts and our lives for the coming our Savior.  

      In addition, the Ignite Your Pastor program asked us to reflect upon whom we need to make space for in our hearts during this Advent season.  It may be mending or forgiving a past hurt with a family member of friend, reaching out to someone who is hurting or in need, or being more understanding of that person who annoys you or gets on your nerves.  In our humanity, I don’t that it would take long to think of one of or more people who fit in those categories in our lives.  Reaching out to that person might be a good assignment this week.  We continue these days of waiting and preparation during Advent.  The important thing is to use them constructively.  

December 10 2017 – Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent - Cycle B – Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11, Mark 1:1-8

        The prophets cry out to us today on this 2nd Sunday of Advent.  Yet, we have to make space for the voices of John the Baptist and Isaiah in our lives, in the midst of our cell phone calls, text messages, and emails.  Our modern world is full of many voices, many messages, a lot of noise.  There are many so-called prophets out there, many voices calling out, but what are we to believe, and how is God going to get his message through in the midst of all of this? 

         Several years ago, I read an article in The Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper, bemoaning the fact that so few Canadian college students have knowledge of the Bible.  College professors in Canada used to take for granted that their students had such knowledge, that it united them together, that the Bible was a natural part of the general conversation of society.  But that's no longer true.  The professors can make a comment about the Bible, or there can be symbolism or a storyline in a work of literature that connects to a biblical reference, but nowadays, most students would not recognize that. This shows that often the message of Christianity in our world can get lost in the midst of everything else.

         We hear the voice of John the Baptist each year during Advent.  Today, his cry comes from the first verses of Mark's Gospel.  John is the messenger that foreshadows Jesus’ coming into the world.  John cries out in the desert wilderness as a strange figure wearing clothing made out of camel’s hair, eating locusts and honey.  He calls the people to repent and to be baptized in the river Jordan in acknowledgement of their sins.  If we met John the Baptist today in Pearl, we’d probably label him a crazy person.  We probably wouldn’t listen to his message.

         Advent is a very unique time of the year.  The purple color of this season tells us that it is a time of repentance and renewal.  While we hear Christmas carols on the radio already this time of the year, and while we see Christmas trees and lights all over the place, we don’t see Christmas decorations up yet in our church.  John the Baptist tells us that the journey through Advent is a stark journey through the desert that recalls the real encounter that the Israelites had with God as they journeyed through the desert to the promised land.  The desert is a difficult, forbidding place that recalls the brokenness and the lack of faith that the Israelites had on their journey.  However, John the Baptist isn’t wanting to scare us.  It’s the opposite.  We’re led into the desert as a place of renewal and hope, where cleansing, reflection and conversion can take place.  We are to be comforted by this message in the midst of our struggles and brokenness.

          As we listen to the voices of John and Isaiah this morning, we're also called to listen to the message of the modern prophets that God sends to the world today.  I recently stumbled upon an article telling the story of a nun in the country of India named Sister Valsa John.  She’d been working in a small village in India where a coal mining company forced the poor off their land, giving them little compensation in return.  The Indian government's eagerness to promote jobs and income ignored the rights of the poor. This nun in fact helped fight for compensation for the poor who were fighting for their rights, but the company failed to adhere to the agreement they reached. She removed herself from this community for several years due to death threats made against her. When she finally visited the village again, she was beaten to death by a group of men who invaded the home where she was staying.  For me, Sister Valsa John is a true prophet in our modern world. She proclaims Christ's Gospel with her life and her work, making a path for the Lord in our secular world.  We need to listen to the prophets that God sends to the world, to heed their call for justice and peace, to practice the values that they teach us in our own lives. 

         Just how are we making a path for the Lord in our own lives in this busy season of preparation?  How and we listening to the prophets?  And how are we being prophetic ourselves?