SUNDAY DECEMBER 10, 2023
SUNDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT B
Isaiah 40: 1-5.9-11
2 Peter 3:8-14
Mark 1:1-8
OUR PREPARATIONS AND HOW TO AWAIT JESUS’ COMING
The anxiety created in man at the coming of Christ sometimes puts a lot of pressure on him. The pressure seems to demand what precise things or actions we must engage in as preparations for the coming of Christ? What does his coming urge us to do?
Of what value and importance is the coming of Jesus? And what is our expectation of him as we await his coming? What is he coming to do for us? In answer to these important questions, the prophet Isaiah gives a message of hope and comfort to the people of the southern Kingdom at a time when they had lost all hopes. Isaiah restores their hope and comforts them to begin to rejoice that what they valued most in life, that is, the priesthood and the temple will soon be restored to them and their return to their land will be actualized, since they were in exile in Babylon
For the people who received such message of hope and great promises, their initial reaction will be, what next? How are we going to act? And the prophet continues by telling them the how, “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.”
This seems to be the focus, the what to prepare. Making straight the desert, filling every valley, making plain every rough places and leveling the mountains. Invariably, the prophet urges concrete actions that are very physical. Yes, physical but not too external but more internal. These are figurative ways of talking. It is better spiritual than physical. It has to do with their lives than the physical highways.
In the gospel, the fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah is found in the person of John the baptist who is the one sent to bring about the preparation of the coming of the saviour of the World. John the baptist, by his life and teaching points the way on how we must prepare for the coming of our saviour Jesus Christ.
By his lifestyle, John demonstrates to us the way to conquer the world, and the attitude towards preparing for the coming of Christ. He was auster in outlook and life pattern, eating only wild honey and locust, living in the wilderness and wearing a camels skin and belt. John’s life depicts the whole disposition we must have in life. It depicts detachment from worldly encumbrances, the lure of pleasure and possessions
John’s task was preaching and baptising. He preaches repentance, turning away from evil, bad life and anything inimical to God and injurious to the soul. John baptised, washed the people with water, cleansing them of faults, iniquities and errors and declaring for a new life, a better way of living, that looks towards God and his ways.
The whole anxiety in expecting the Lord must not keep us guessing on what to do and how to expect the Lord. And we must not be put on the spot as to when or begin to clamour for the time of his coming as in the second reading admonishes us. But we must go on striving to live the ideal life of detachment as John did, and practice virtues that enhances great spiritual life.
These are the ways to prepare for the coming of the Lord. Even though prayerful vigilance and watchfulness is prime and indeed animates all action, yet John’s life of witnessing and preaching gives us the ideal actions and mode of living in anticipation of the coming of Christ.
God our Father, you sent John to baptize and prepare your people for the coming of your Son, our saviour. Father, grant us the same spirit to prepare ourselves. Quicken our spirits to accept the discipline of this season by making us humble as John, detached from the world, austere and active in virtueous life as we undertake true repentance, reparation, prayer and the renewal of our lives through Christ our Lord.
Fr Norbert Uchuno
