Reflections on the Second Sunday of Advent from “First Impressions”

By Father Jude Siciliano, O.P., from “First Impressions”, a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

I’m dating myself here.. When I was young breaking news, fires, 
earthquakes, war, etc., came by interruptions in our radio, or TV 
programs. Big news also made the front pages of newspapers (which left 
ink-stained fingers). Now we have apps that bring the latest news to our 
phone as it is happening.  We can get it almost anywhere and anytime, 
even while we are out strolling in the park, or eating at a hamburger joint.

We are reminded by our gospel today that our faith began with breaking 
news. The medium for the message was John the Baptist. It started with a 
news event: God’s Word entered our world and took flesh. The gospel 
passage was not an advice column, or instructions for self-improvement. 
It was a newsworthy event, big news. If our Christianity has mellowed 
out and been reduced to habit, familiar patterns, bland expressions of 
faith and rote prayers, then we have forgotten our good-news-origins. 
Good news bring celebration, joy and changes everything. Are our words 
and actions marked by joy? If routine has taken over we need what Advent 
offers us. The Scriptures today point us in the right direction.

Today’s reading from Isaiah is from the section called Deutero-Isaiah 
(chapters 40-55), “Second Isaiah.” The prophet announced the “breaking 
news” that the people’s exile was coming to an end. They had hoped for a 
new beginning and God was coming to fulfill their hopes. There is an 
Advent message in that for us, isn’t there? God would come out to help 
them and bring them home. The good news comes to them in the desert. 
Just when we are stuck in our own desert of fixed habits, 
discouragement, failed plans and “bad-news days,” God sees our 
predicament. The prophet cries out, “Get Ready!” We aren’t left on our 
own after all. Isaiah has a message of consolation for us and a promise 
of a new start.

The people Isaiah is addressing had been ripped away from their homeland 
and more; they feel a sense of alienation from God. The first part of 
Isaiah made that message loud and clear: their sin brought on their 
suffering and exile.  Like them, no matter what we have done and how 
distant we feel from God, we are not forgotten. The prophet is reminding 
the people that just as God once freed them from Egyptian slavery and 
led them through the desert, so God is going to do that again. What must 
they do? “Prepare the way of the Lord… Make straight in the wasteland a 
highway for our God”.”

But we modern, first-world readers, may not be feeling the same 
desperation and hopelessness those Jewish exiles felt.  Quite the 
contrary. We may be quite comfortable and established in our modern 
Babylon. Still, the exile motif may apply. Our faith tells us we belong 
to a different reign. If we have conformed to the world in perspective 
and behavior then, in fact, we too are exiles. We are wanderers, 
comfortable in this world, but not at home in the reign of God.

This Advent can we hear the word that is addressed to us today? Do we 
see and can we name our exile: how we view that the world revolves 
around us --  my needs and wants; my plans for the future? The world 
certainly enforces this self-centered way of thinking, but it is Advent. 
We are invited to repentance.  Time to open our eyes and ears and shift 
away from our self-centered ways to God.

John the Baptist announces news we may have stopped hearing: Jesus is to 
be the center of our lives. Advent is our time to refocus. John was 
preaching a message of hope that would bring joy to his downcast 
listeners. But did you notice what he was wearing and eating? “John was 
clothed in camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist.  He fed on 
locusts and wild honey.” (Ugh!) There is a message for us in his clothes 
and food. To accept the coming Christ into our world we need to refocus 
and trim our lives; less for ourselves, more for those in need. What 
trimming down must we do to be open to Christ’s coming and accept the 
broader world view he offers us?

The Romans built good roads. The military could go to scenes of trouble 
quickly. Their rulers also found those roads useful for moving around 
the Empire to establish, or maintain, their authority. The Roman 
authorities were preceded on those roads by messengers to alert the 
population to prepare to welcome the coming dignitary. John was that 
kind of messenger sent, not to announce the coming of a worldly power, 
but of One more powerful and important. John was a powerful preacher who 
drew crowds out to the wilderness to hear his mighty and hope-building 
preaching. But John was announcing the coming of One greater than he, or 
any worldly power.

The people didn’t have to do any physical road preparations for the 
coming of the One John was announcing. Rather, they were to smooth the 
road --  the way to their hearts. Faith was the welcome sign for the One 
who was coming. Hearts were to turn away from all else and to God and 
the One coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit.

John redirects people’s attention away from himself to Jesus. There is 
an Advent practice for us: be less self-centered and more focused on 
Jesus and what his promised Spirit is calling us to be and do. Prayer 
will help us learn what change and re-emphasis Jesus is asking of us. 
That’s what this Advent can mean for us: prayer and listening -- in a 
manner of speaking, a re-baptism with the Holy Spirit who will make us 
Advent people who have prepared a straight road for the coming Christ.

And Advent is the time we turn our weary soul to the One who can refresh 
us with the Holy Spirit. And who can’t use a reviving spirit these days 
as we look out at our war-drained world; diminished church 
participation; straying young people; political stalemates and 
rivalries, etc. John speaks to us who want to hope in God and have our 
spiritual hungers fed.

    FAITH BOOK
Mini-reflections on the Sunday scripture readings designed for persons 
on the run.  “Faith Book” is also brief enough to be posted in the 
Sunday parish bulletins people take home.

 From today’s Gospel reading:
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God....

[This is what John the Baptist proclaimed]: “One mightier than I is 
coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his 
sandals.  I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the 
Holy Spirit.

Reflection:
John the Baptist announces that the promises God made through the 
prophets are being fulfilled.  It is, the Baptist tells us, “the 
beginning of the Good News.”  Jesus is coming to baptize with the Holy 
Spirit and a new way of life is being offered to people stuck in their 
sin and old patterns of living. While the gospel has a beginning, it has 
no ending, for it continues to be good news in each generation, offering 
those who hear it a new way of living, empowered by Jesus’ gift of the 
Holy Spirit to us

Advent is a time for dreaming big dreams, and so we ask ourselves:
What changes must I make in my ways of acting and my ways of thinking as 
I prepare for the Lord’s coming?

In what new places will I look for the arrival of the Lord this Advent?

JUSTICE BULLETIN BOARD

Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS, Director,
Office of Human Life, Dignity, and Justice Ministries
Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral Raleigh, NC

“. . .what sort of persons ought you to be”
. . .2 Peter 3: 11

There are strong words in today’s readings of the need to prepare. Both 
Isaiah and Mark speak of “preparing” for God’s coming. Indeed, Advent is 
the season of preparation. Our secular world seems to think that getting 
ready for Christmas means lining up your parties, preparing your home 
for company, dusting off a multitude of Christmas decorations, and 
shopping until exhaustion strikes. Our religious life seems squeezed.

In the Vatican II document, “Church in the Modern World” (#43), it is 
written: It is no less mistaken to think that we may immerse ourselves 
in earthly activities as if these latter were utterly foreign to 
religion, and religion were nothing more than the fulfillment of acts of 
worship and the observance of a few moral obligations. One of the 
gravest errors of our time is the dichotomy between the faith which many 
profess and their day-to-day conduct. As far back as the Old Testament 
the prophets vehemently denounced this scandal, and in the New Testament 
Christ himself even more forcibly threatened it with severe punishment. 
Let there, then, be no such pernicious opposition between professional 
and social activity on the one hand and religious life on the other.”

Let’s contrast December’s frenetic activity with the last month of a 
pregnancy when a woman moves considerably slower, withdraws from 
unnecessary activity, and gives herself time to ponder what the child 
will be like who has made her belly so big. And so it should be for the 
growth of our spiritual lives in this month of expectation of the Lord’s 
coming.

So, how do we weave this special time and, ultimately, our lives into a 
seamless whole? For the laity, this season is a special challenge. Even 
our acts of social concern can become one more obligation on the 
checklist of things to do. Let us revisit that pregnant woman. Like the 
Mona Lisa, she has a secret. Eternal life is within her and she must 
nurture its presence. Imagine going through the month of December, where 
every activity is viewed as a nurturing encounter with the Divine---the 
things we do, the people we meet, the thoughts we have. Ponder this for 
a while and you will know the best way to deepen your Advent and life 
journey and what sort of person you ought to be.