Second Sunday of Advent, December 10, 2023

There was and is good news in our lives; how are we good news for others?

Mark 1:1–8

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ [the Son of God].

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths,’” John [the] Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.

John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey.

And this is what he 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.”

Music Meditations

• “Come Lord Jesus” (Chris De Silva) [YouTube]
• “Prepare the Way of the Lord” (Taizé) (sung by Choir of Grace Lutheran Church) [YouTube]
• “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (sung by Enya) [YouTube]

Opening Prayer

From the liturgy for the Second Sunday of Advent:

Oh God, whose will is social justice for the poor and peace for the afflicted,
let your herald’s urgent voice pierce our hardened hearts and announce the dawn of your kingdom.
Before the advent of the one who baptizes with the fire of the Holy Spirit, let our complacency give way to conversion, oppression to justice, and conflict to acceptance of one another in Christ.
We ask this through him whose coming is certain, whose day draws near:
Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever
Amen.

Companions for the Journey

Adapted from First Impressions, a service of the Southern Dominican Province, 2002 and 2008:

The gospel tells us that it’s in the desert where the messenger and message are to be found. And there in the desert the voice is “crying out”—trying to get our attention. A woman at the door of a church said to me recently, “Please say a prayer for me, I’m going through a desert time in my life.” She didn’t have to say much more than that; the expression on her face and the term she used to describe what she was experiencing, were enough. Life had taken an unexpected turn in the road; it had taken her out to the desert. Not a trip she wanted to take; nor would I! Was it her advanced age and its subsequent ailments; had she lost her husband; was she alienated from any of her children; was her prayer dry and without consolation? Has covid-19 been devastation for her and her family? Deserts don’t come in any “one-size-fits-all.” Some desert sojourns last a long time; others may be very intense and mercifully brief. Some are inner spiritual desolations, when faith seems to offer no solace. Others are outer struggles when life’s sureties collapse and the old supports fail us. But, as difficult as desert periods are, the scriptures today suggest they may also be the place we meet the messenger from God, with a message we need to hear. Somehow and somewhere, Isaiah says, God will come to us and lead us through our current deserts. As difficult as the desert is for us, the prophet promises that there the “glory of the Lord shall be revealed.” Where we are most vulnerable, there God’s power will be felt. Perhaps God won’t provide a quick escape hatch, instant relief, but the tender God the prophet describes is concerned about exiles and refugees who see a long desert journey ahead of them.

Today’s selection from Mark is the Prologue to the gospel. Notice what is missing in the opening of Mark’s gospel: no Annunciation, no journey to Bethlehem, no stable, no angels, no Herod, no Kings! Mark’s gospel starts with John the Baptist signaling the beginning of Jesus’ public career. Before the story gets going and a cast of characters enters the scene, Mark gives the reader an inside piece of information. We learn a lot about Jesus in these first eight verses and are immediately told that Jesus is “the Son of God.” He is empowered with the Holy Spirit and ready to give it to those who accept him. He is not just a shadow or echo from the past for us. This Jesus is God’s way of opening a whole new future for us. God the Creator is ready to start again with us; to remake us. We don’t have to be stuck in our old selves for, while John baptized with water, Jesus will bring God’s Spirit and recreate us from within. Strange place for the crowds to go to hear a message of renewal—the desert. There was a temple in Jerusalem that could have been the place for people to meet their God and be renewed. Instead, the renewal and fiery encounter (for that is what God’s Spirit provides) comes in the desert, the place the slaves fleeing Egyptian bondage first met and got to know their God. It is where God still wants to meet us, in the place where we are stripped of distractions and ready and anxious to listen. In the desert all our facades are removed.

Mark tells us today that the desert places may very well be a suitable place to hear God speaking to us—and what we hear there is good news for desert travelers. He links us to Deutero-Isaiah’s words as he evokes the Israelite desert times. In the desert, the Israelites were asked to believe that God was going to bring them home, to a permanent place of security and intimacy with God. John the Baptist’s voice announces that now the time is at hand when God will fulfill the ancient promises to Israel. Those who heed his voice are to repent, turn from their self-delusions and thoughts that they can make it on their own. John says that God has noticed their plight and that One is coming who will be powerful, where they are weak. This One will pour God’s Spirit into them, to revive their own drooping, discouraged and road-weary spirits. A new road is being cut thought the desert and it is Jesus who will walk with us along it; help us deal with hills and valleys that would make it impossible for us to travel them on our own.

What is dependable and sure are not the events, but the surprising ways God finds to come back into our lives again and again. Can you hear the promise of John the Baptist today; his voice in barrenness and in the empty places? He calls out to us from what feels like desolation, the desert places in our lives. Accustomed to its harshness, he sees our need and makes a promise to us. One is coming (at this moment? This Eucharist? This period of our lives?) who comes with power to breathe a Spirit of God over us and transform us. Who or what else will be our surety, our journey companion in what lies ahead? The events of our lives are not dependable; God is. Here is a desert experience: a woman, who just went through a terrible losing battle with her husband’s cancer, said that through it all she felt the most profound experience of the intimacy, the presence of God, each step of the way. It wasn’t a feeling of warmth, it wasn’t cozy, but it was God, she is sure of it. “A voice cries out in the desert, prepare the way of the Lord.”

The dependable One is reaching out to us today through John the Baptist, inviting us to repent. John is preaching to the “chosen people” the very message they preached to others. None of us is superior to the others, there is no room for smugness, no room to look at others we consider inferior. Here is John’s invitation to repent of our useless patterns of living, to be honest about ourselves, to stop maintaining an illusion of innocence. Doing this welcomes in the God of this Advent, the God who will be our dependable source for our newly-born life. If we are ever going to the manger, get to experience the “Spirit of Christmas,” we need to pass through this deserted place, free ourselves of distractions, so that we can hear his call to put aside our guises of respectability and independence and claim our dependable God.

This Gospel begins in a desert, stripped of noise and distractions. John the Baptist touches into their hungers. God has noticed them and sends a powerful prophet to speak to them and invite them to a new way to live with new choices and new goals. John asks for repentance. Hardly sounds like an attractive “sales pitch.” But they come out in droves to hear him and accept his invitation to repent. That’s what they need, a chance to admit they are feeling the forces of other powers. The good news for them is that they can admit their need, ask for repentance and be forgiven. The passage puts it in the right order: first repentance, then, “for the forgiveness of sin.” One follows the other, no doubt about that. The Jesuit biblical scholar John Kavanaugh says that repentance means we have hope. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Things don’t have to be this way forever, they can change, I can start over again. The presence of the Savior also means the rebirth of my fatigued and bloated spirit. That is the joy of Advent.

Further reflection:

• Reflections on the Second Sunday of Advent from “First Impressions” >>
• Commentary on the Second Sunday of Advent from “Living Space” >>

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight His paths

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• From Barbara Reid, O.P. in America Magazine:
  What is God speaking to your heart in the hollowed-out spaces of these Advent days?
  What are the signs of a dawning “new creation” that you perceive?
  What obstacles need to be removed to make the way straight for the present coming of our God?
• From Jude Siciliano, O.P.
  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?
• The setting of this Prologue to Mark’s gospel is the desert. What is metaphorical about this setting?
• Can you recall an experience of waiting for someone important in your life to arrive?
  How did you prepare?
  How did you feel?
• The actual translation of the Greek word Mark uses when he metanoia is not repentance, but conversion or a changing of our mind, or a change of the direction of our life. How is advent a call to metanoia?
• What are the signs of a dawning “new creation” that you perceive?
• What obstacles need to be removed to make the way straight for the present coming of our God?
• Advent is a time for dreaming big dreams, and so I ask myself: 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?
• The site of the beginning of this gospel is the desert. What desert am I experiencing right now?
  Is it internal or external?
  Can I fix this desert space it myself?
  Where does God fit in?
  What is God speaking to my heart in the hollowed-out spaces of these Advent days?
• Recall a time when an important event changed your life. Did you know about it ahead of time?
  If so, how did you prepare?
  If not, how did you respond?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

As I reflect on this gospel, I try to imagine John the Baptist preaching to the crowds about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry: I see a small, wiry man, dressed in rags and tatters. His clothes are dirty and hang off his too-thin frame. They say he eats little—locusts and honey gathered from the parched land he and the other Essene inhabit in the hills. Stranger and stranger. But there is something about the man that forces me to stay and listen to what he has to say. His voice, his eyes, speak eloquently of the passion which drives hiim… The conviction that time is short and the kingdom of Heaven is near rings out over the crowd. He makes us feel that we and the world we inhabit are at a crossroads. Something momentous is upon us. His name is Jesus. We must repent. Repent.
Repentance—Metanoia—more than a confession of sins.
More than guilt and anxiety.
More than fear of the Lord’s wrath.
Metanoia.
A complete change of heart.
To turn one’s very soul around.
Away from self-centeredness, selfishness and self-aggrandizement.
Away from meanness, from sniping at others to make myself more secure.
Away from greed, clutching frantically at what I have, holding it close because of anxiety that there might not be enough.
Enough time, enough money, enough attention, enough love.
We are called to turn our minds and hearts
Away from evil.
From envy of what others have achieved or acquired,
Envy fostered by the fear that someone might just have more of something than I do.
Metanoia.
A turning around.
A turning back.
Back to goodness.
Back to kindness.
Back to loving.
Back to God.

How would I respond to John the Baptist if I were sitting listening to him? What does his life and message say to me?
Would my heart be touched by the Spirit and would I experience the deep conviction that I must, MUST realign my will to God’s and live my life accordingly?
Do I realize the hardships this might entail?
Pleasures I might have to forgo or defenses I might have to abandon in order to be open to God’s call, to God’s living presence?
I sit with this story, trying to integrate it into my own circumstances, my own life. I speak to Jesus about by my desire to change my heart, to forgive, to let go of resentments, to align my heart with his. I give thanks for this time together with him…..

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

God was present all the time and I did not recognize him. I thought it was darkness but it was light… As excessive light of the sun blinds the human eye, so the excessive light of God plunges man into thick darkness. And God is approached in darkness and emptiness and nothingness simply because He is the mystery of mysteries.

—William Johnston, The Inner Eye of Love: Mysticism and Religion

I think of a dark time in my life when I experienced loss, pain, guilt, confusion, even the absence of God. How long did the period last? Is there any growth in my relationship with God that I am aware of that resulted from this terrible experience? I speak of this time with Jesus who knows so well what it means to suffer. Is there some life issue or relationship issue that is leading me into the “dark night of the soul” at this moment? I take the time to explore this with the Spirit of Light and try to discern what God seems to be asking of me at this time.

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions

From Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

The attraction of John the Baptist is mysterious. People flocked to him, not to be flattered but to be told the truth. They listened because of what they saw, a man who was indifferent to the world’s prizes, a man of minimal needs, who could not be bought by pleasures, comforts or money, but passionate about God. They recognized holiness. Show me, Lord, what there is about my life that takes from the value of my words and makes me less convincing.

John the Baptist preached forgiveness. This is one of the special gifts of God, and one of the big celebrations of Advent. We are a forgiven people, and we welcome the forgiveness of God in our repentance. This means we are firstly grateful for forgiveness—that we do not have to carry forever the burden of our sin, meanness, faults and failings. God covers them over in mercy.

The second step of welcoming forgiveness is to try to do better in life—to move on from this sinfulness and meanness to a life of care, compassion, love and joy, and to make steps to forgive others.

Poetic Reflection:

Psalms are songs of our call to God out of our individual experiences. The psalms of lament are particularly poignant. In this kind of psalm, we reveal ourselves the way we really are, bringing our questions about injustice and wickedness, our fears about the future. Psalms 17, 10 and 22, for example, are a plea for help when things get overwhelming, and Psalm 51, a true penitential psalm, asks for conversion. We stand before our God, bearing our pain, naked in our wretchedness. This is real prayer. Read one of the psalms of lament then read this poem by Father Ed Ingebretzen in Psalms of the Still Country:

“You Are Hungry”

Father
you are hungry
and we may be nothing in your hands

but let us at least
taste your fire:
let us be ash,
be dross, be waste
in the heat of your desire.

Let us at least
need, and want, and learn
that it is impossible
to want you too much,
to want you too long.

May the heat of our thirst
for you
dry the rivers
reduce the mountains to dust,
thin the air.

God, you who want us
more than we want you,
be a fan to our flame,
the end to our need,
the ocean we seek to drain.

Closing Prayer

Take time to call to mind all those you know who are experiencing particular deserts in their lives right now, reciting after each name you say aloud: “Lord, comfort your people”, or “Lord, give hope to the hopeless”.

Take time to call to mind several people you need to forgive or who need to forgive you, reciting after each name: “Lord, give me patience, understanding and the grace to forgive”, or “Lord, help me in my desire to do better”.

Recite the Lord’s Prayer.

Commentary on the Second Sunday of Advent from “Living Space”

2 SUNDAY ADVENT

LIVING SPACE

A service of the Irish Jesuits

Commentary on Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8

The central figure in today’s Mass is John the Baptist. And the overall theme of the readings is the announcement and preparation for the coming of the Lord. As we saw last week, that coming needs to be understood on more than one level and that is made clear especially in the Second Reading today.

The Gospel today is the opening of the gospel according to Mark. He sets the theme for his gospel in his opening sentence:

The beginning of the good news [Greek, euangelion or ‘go[d]spel’] of Jesus Christ.

That is the story he wants to tell, or rather, the good news he wants to proclaim. Unlike John’s gospel, where the full identity of Jesus is put in the very first chapter, Mark’s presentation is one of a gradually unfolding identity of the man Jesus. It reaches its climax and completion when – surprisingly, not a disciple but – a pagan soldier at the foot of the cross says in awe: 

Truly this man was God’s Son! (Mark 15:39)

John the Baptist

The story proper then begins with the appearance of John the Baptist. His role is to announce and to prepare people for the coming of Jesus. The Gospel describes him as fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy. Mark attributes this prophecy to Isaiah but in fact it also combines phrases from the Exodus and the prophet Malachi. It is clear that the “voice crying in the wilderness” is that of John the Baptist and that Jesus is the “Lord” whose coming is being prepared for.

The original text in Isaiah spoke of the Israelites’ return from exile in Babylon and was a classic text of God’s comfort and salvation for his people. But here John is preparing the people for the coming of Jesus.

There is no doubt that John was a prominent and charismatic figure who drew large crowds of people. His whole lifestyle spoke of a prophetic figure in the image of Elijah. John’s clothing is similar to Elijah’s. His unorthodox diet speaks of severe asceticism or ritual purity. And he lives in the “wilderness” or the desert.

The desert always has a special significance in Scripture. It is a holy place, a place where God is specially to be found. It is also a place of struggle. It was in the desert that the Israelites spent 40 years on their way to the Promised Land. It was in the desert that Jesus had his tussle with the Evil One. It was in the desert that Jesus often went to pray and in the desert that he fed the people.

Only a fore-runner

We are told that:

…all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him [i.e. to hear John]

Jerusalem was in Judea, the southern province. John performed a washing ceremony as a symbol of people’s repentance for their sins and their desire to change their lives in preparation for the coming of God’s Kingdom. When Jesus arrives on the scene he will announce that that Kingdom, through his presence, is “close at hand”.

John makes it clear that, despite his popularity and influence, he is only God’s “messenger”. And, he will say:

The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals.

This is describing a task given only to slaves. And, of course we know that as a sign of special significance and symbolism, this is exactly what Jesus himself will do for his disciples at the Last Supper. John’s role was to serve Jesus and to serve the people. Elsewhere John says:

He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30)

His whole life points to Jesus as Lord and Messiah.

Time for reflection and renewal

We read these texts today in the context of preparing for Christmas and the coming of the Lord into our own lives. Christmas, as was pointed out in last week’s reflections, is not simply the commemoration of a historic event in the distant past. It is a time for reflection and personal renewal about the coming of Jesus into my life, into the life of our Christian communities and into our wider society.

The Second Reading, from the Second Letter of Peter, reminds us, on the one hand, of God’s great desire to come into our lives and, on the other, of the need to be prepared for that coming when it happens. Although people sometimes complain that God seems oblivious to their needs, the Letter reminds us that:

The Lord is not slow about his promise [to come again], as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

He wants no one to be lost and everyone to be brought to change his ways. Perhaps that is where the problem can lie. People want God’s help and comfort, but they are not prepared to change their ways, not prepared for a genuine conversion. For God to come to us, we also need to go to him.

Peter also speaks of the “day of the Lord”, that final coming when God will call us all to account. Elsewhere we are told:

…you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. (2 Thess 5:2)

The only sensible way to prepare for that Day is by:

…leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God…to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish…

It is clear from the author’s words that some Christians at the time were expecting the Lord to return imminently and wondering why he was so long in coming. At the same time, they waited in fear and trepidation for the judgement. But he did not come then, nor has he come yet. Although in another sense, he has come for everyone who has left this life. And he will certainly be coming for us – sooner or later. But there is no need to be filled with fear and anxiety.

On the other hand, those who are constantly in the company of their Lord will be at peace in spite of storms raging around them. For them, the Day of the Lord holds no fears. For them every day is Christmas and that is what makes Christmas so special to them. For them, every day is a Day of the Lord.

John’s role – a model for us

There is a further reflection we might make today concerning the role of John the Baptist. For he should help us to reflect that there have been many John the Baptists in our own lives, many people who have helped us to find Jesus, to know, love and serve him better. If we are born Catholic, then we have our parents who had us baptized and led us into our first understandings of our faith. Some of us have had wonderfully Christian parents; others may not have been so blessed. 

If we become Christians as adults, there are those people who were instrumental in our coming to believe and follow Jesus. In addition, there are all the sermons and talks we have heard, the books we have read, the retreats we have done, the people who have been a real inspiration to us. Today would be a very good day to say a special ‘Thank you!’ to them, if not directly, then at least through our prayers for them.

A second point is that John the Baptist reminds us that we, too, have a responsibility to proclaim the Good News of the coming of Jesus, and to help people know and love him and experience his love in their lives just as other people have brought us to where we are. 

It is not easy in our society to find Jesus and to accept his values and vision of life. People need people who can help “make straight…a highway for our God” to enter their lives so that: 

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.

And when this happens:

Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

A joyful message

We have a responsibility as Christians not only to ourselves, but to bring the Good News of God’s love to others as well. We need to present a message that is full of joy, a joy that is clearly mirrored in our own behavior, because it flows out from an inner core of wisdom and peace. We have to present our faith, not as something formidable, and repressive, and difficult, but as bringing true liberation into people’s lives. We need to present a picture of our God who will:

…will feed his flock like a shepherd; she will gather the lambs in his arms
and carry them in his bosom…

People are longing to hear a message that brings trust and hope, truth and integrity, peace and security, justice and compassion. This message will not just drop from the skies. People are not normally granted private revelations. It depends on us to “prepare a way for the Lord” and be voices crying in the affluent wildernesses of our cities because:

How are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?…So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. (Rom 10:14-15,17)

We have been blessed by all the people who have brought Jesus to us. The least that can be expected of us is to do the same for others. What better Christmas gift could we give to anyone than to help them know and love Jesus our Lord as the Way for their lives?

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.

First Sunday of Advent, December 3, 2023

We are called to discernment and watchfulness

Mark 13:33–37

Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.

It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.

Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning.

May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.

What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”

Music Meditations

• “In Every Age” (by Janèt Sullivan Whitaker) [YouTube]
• “Wait for the Lord” (Taizé) [YouTube]
• “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (sung by Enya) [YouTube]
• Dona Nobis Pacem by Mozart

Opening Prayer

“To Keep from Singing” by Ed Ingebretzen, S.J.:

To us who live in darkness
a great grace
passes through the night
like a star

the valleys and the mountains
are one land
the lion and the young lamb
are one heart
darkness and light
are one life:

Peace shall find a home in us;
He shall walk with us
the long day
the great climb

Let us reflect on and name what we are waiting for in this dark time, either for ourselves or someone else, what graces we are keeping watch for during this advent. After each petition, pray: “Come Spirit of Hope.”

Companions for the Journey

From “First Impressions” a service of the Southern Dominican Province 2020

Even if you are only live streaming Mass these Sundays have you noticed the changes today? Not just the cooler weather. Not the vestments from green to violet. It is the first Sunday of Advent and we have shifted to Mark for the Sunday gospel readings. Mark is the earliest of the four Gospels and the shortest.  It is only 16 chapters long, but it had a profound effect on the others. There is a great deal of emphasis in Mark on the suffering and death of Jesus and the call for disciples to follow him by taking up their cross. In the other Gospels Jesus promises blessings for those who give up houses and family for his sake. Only in Mark does Jesus indicate that with blessings there will also be persecutions (e.g. 10:30). Mark wrote his gospel around 70 A.D. and the consensus is that he wrote it for the church in Rome during Nero’s persecution. Like Mark’s first readers we find strength in God’s Word and the Eucharist to follow the way of our Master, denying self and taking up his cross of self-giving love.

During Advent and Lent the Scripture readings are more thematic. Today’s emphasize watching and waiting. Especially during these pandemic-threatened days, as we wait for a vaccine, we call out, “When are you coming to rescue us O Lord? Where are you? Why do you delay?”

Jesus directs us, “Be watchful! Be alert!” For what? He urges us not to get discouraged in the overwhelming details and questions raised by these days, but to be ready to welcome him. How can we do that? We are doing that already as we try to prayerfully be attentive to the Word, respond to what we hear and watch for his entrance into our lives as we wait for his final return?

Do the powers around us really have our best interests at heart? If these crisis days have taught us anything they have shown us the debilitating effects of political wrangling and selfish interests. Those powers seem demonic with intentions to rip apart the ties that should bind us to one another like: compassion, understanding, forgiveness and communal interests. Jesus urges us to keep awake lest we let those evil-intentioned powers break into our “house.” What can we do this Advent to be faithful servants who have the responsibility for the household Jesus has left in our care?

A big handicap to our spiritual growth is that we “doze off,” that is, we live almost unconsciously. We are preoccupied by our routine and habitual lives and don’t notice opportunities to grow in awareness of what is happening in our world and immediately around us. If the pandemic has any good side-effects, and who wants to admit anything good can come from this horror (!), it might have awakened us and made us more watchful for how and when the Lord is coming to us throughout the day—“whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cock crow, or in the morning.”

A while back I took a friar to the hospital emergency room. We checked in and were told to take a seat and wait for an available doctor. There was quite an assortment of sick and needy people waiting with us. Some of their needs were plainly visible, bleeding wounds, a smashed wrist, etc. Others had ailments that were not obvious, but there we all were in the emergency room waiting for a skilled doctor to come to help us.

I think Advent is a waiting room like that. Some of us need help for visible ailments, other needs lie below the surface, but affect others. Here we are waiting, not sure when help will come. But he did promise he would and that gives us hope. While we wait we’ll pray for ourselves and each other that we don’t give up and remain watchful and hopeful.

During Advent those able to gather in church will sing, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” The prayer goes back to the late fifth, or early sixth century. It was a time of marauding Vandals, Huns and other barbarians who were pillaging, killing and also “vandalizing” the great libraries of Europe. It was a prayer for the millions forced into exile—the hymn names them—“lonely exiles.”  Today another pillaging pandemic has invaded every country, race and class of people. We yearn to return to our Advent warm and comfortable churches. But instead these days we are joined to our ancestors in faith pleading, like them, for deliverance. Vikings are not at our gates coming to wreak havoc. Instead, the virus has forced its way into the very inner sanctums of our homes evoking fear and a sense of impotence. What shall we do? We pray as our ancestors in faith prayed, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”

I am sure at this time of the year we have heard more than one warning about commercialism and consumerism. Let’s presume most of the readers of these reflections are trying to avoid the secular pitfalls the season presents. Let’s also presume we are already looking for ways to preserve, even nourish, the spiritual aspects of the coming Christmas season. That is what Advent can do for us, be a time of reflection on our lives and show us changes we must make. The scripture readings through this season can help us along our path of self examination and readiness for the Lord’s coming.

We have also been told by medical experts to: be alert, wear masks, wash our hands, keep social distance, etc. Now Jesus is giving a similar kind of advice, “Be watchful! Be alert!” Many of us are very busy trying to keep our jobs, or find new ones; teach the kids at home; shop safely for food. For what else do we need to watch and be vigilant?

Advent can seem like the “same old, same old.” We’ve heard the stories and sung these hymns before. Maybe that is why the first gospel of this new season calls us to wake up. We will need help to do that. Today’s Psalm response can word our prayer for the beginning of Advent, “Lord make us turn to you: let us see your face and we shall be saved.”

Further reflection:

• The Gospel of Mark >>

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Stay awake!

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• Someone said that when we get on the good train heading to hope, this is where we are more apt to see Jesus.
  How do we do this?
  How can I help dispel the darkness of fear, isolation, anger or self-pity the surrounds us all?
  How can I be a true sign of light and hope to others?
• At the moment, if the darkness is to be called back, I’ve got to do it. How can I be a small sign of light for someone?
• How does denial pay out in our spiritual lives?
• What is “active waiting”?
• What does God want to reshape in my life this Advent?
• What gifts has God given me to be shared in this time of watching and waiting?
• Walter Burghardt, S.J., once said “If you want to Live Advent, BE Advent.” How can we be a sign of hope to the hopeless this Advent season?
• From Jude Siciliano, O.P.:
  In what place in my life am I waiting for God to act?
  How do I feel during this time of waiting?
  What enables me to wait in patience?
• Has there ever been a time when you were wrestling with a spiritual question?
  Did others dismiss the question or offer facile answers?
  What eventually helped bring you peace or resolution?
• Life has a way of catching us off-guard. Have there ever been moments that have thrown you off-balance?
  How do we live our lives so that daily care and attentiveness can sustain us somewhat when life plays its tricks on us?
• Have I ever had someone or something that I was willing to wait for?
  How did I deal with my impatience?
  Was I willing to sit with the process or did I jump into a quick fix?
• Have I ever tried to get out of a bad place by doing something, anything, to get out of the discomfort of where I was emotionally or physically?
  How did that work out?
• Often, we think of waiting as a desert between where we are and where we want to be. Am I awaiting a time when all of my problems will be solved?
  What will solve them?
• Saint Augustine, who finally converted to Christianity, was said to have prayed: “God give me the virtue of chastity, but not yet…” Is there any behavioral change I have been putting off until “the time is right”?
• Is there something in my own life that I am unwilling to deal with?
  What is it, and what is the source of my unwillingness?
  What are my denial mechanisms?
  Are they helpful for me in the long term?
• The Greek word Parousia (the return of Christ in glory) is Adventus in Latin. Is Advent only about the Parousia?
  If not, then what IS it about?
• What are some real-life attention-getters that we sometimes do not recognize as a visitation of the Holy Spirit?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Examen:

The message of today seems to be that we must be alert to the presence of God in our lives, or we may miss it in the busyness and illusion that invades our consciousness and sometimes controls us. Some signs of God’s light might be so subtle that we miss them. Hence the advice to watch, to pay attention, and remember that we are not in charge, God is.
Pay attention! When did I notice God’s presence in the good times, the simple good things I experienced this week?
Pay attention! When did I notice God’s presence in the painful times this week?

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Adapted from When Christ Meets Christ by Walter Burghardt, S.J.

We need to remember Christ is here.
Christ is present in the Eucharist
Christ’s real presence is in the world, although it requires us to pay attention and notice His presence.
Christ is here in the love we have for Him, and our obeying His commandment to love one another.
Christ is alive in others, including the most annoying and the most needy as well as the most lovable.
Christ is alive in all creation, in the glory of the mountains and seas, the beauty of trees and plains, the exquisite animal kingdom.

So, how do I bring Christ to others?
So, how do I radiate the presence of Christ in me?
So, how to I care for and nurture the earth and all its creatures instead of destroying nature for economic gain?

I resolve to pay attention and notice God’s presence in the world around me this week, and pray for gentleness and courage to be Christ in the world.

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

Reading: Psalm 10: 13-14, 16-18

Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless.
Why does the wicked man revile God? Why does he say to himself: ”He won’t call me to account”?
But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.
The Lord is King for ever and ever; the nations will perish from his land.
You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror.

Reflection adapted from Wm. Bausch in Once upon a Gospel:

Yes, there are terrible things going on in the world. But faith people like health workers and faith agencies like Catholic worker House remind us that the hidden Lord is among us: unsung, unannounced, unreported by the media, but here. Be alert for him. Watch!

Finally, this truth is our challenge. Our deeds of charity, our acts of forgiveness, our compassion, our morally lived lives, like pinpoints of light in a morally dark world, must show a weary and anxious people that the Lord really has come and is here, and if there is any watching to be done to detect Him, it is to watch us.

If others watch us, if others watch me, what signs of the Lord’s presence in this world will they see?

This Advent, I invite you to make a special effort to notice those around you who are struggling, albeit silently, and to offer help where you can. I challenge you to donate something to a charity of your choice: in this area, we have Catholic Worker House, the Giving Tree, the Red Cross, St. Elizabeth Seton School, Catholic Relief services, and the guy begging on the corner near the shopping center, (just for starters…)

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style:

I read Psalm 62. What am I worried about, or what do I feel threatened by at this moment? How real are my worries? When have I relied on God for comfort? When Have I relied instead on myself, on others, on wealth, on talent or on social position for comfort? I write my own version of Psalm 62.
—Anne Greenfield: Songs of Life, Psalm Meditations from the Catholic Community at Stanford

Poetic Reflection:

This is how one woman stays aware and stays awake until whatever comes her way. A novel way of “waiting” by “not waiting”:

“Advent at Midlife”

I am no longer waiting for
A special occasion;
I burn the best candles ordinary
days.

I am no longer waiting for
The house to be clean;
I fill it with people who understand that
Even dust is sacred.

I am no longer waiting for
Everyone to understand me;
it’s just not their task.

I am no longer waiting for
The perfect children;
My children have their own names
That burn as brightly as any star.

I am no longer waiting for
The other shoe to drop;
It already did, and I survived.

I am no longer waiting for
The time to be right;
The time is always now.

I am no longer waiting for
The mate who will complete me;
I am grateful to be so
Warmly, tenderly held.

I am no longer waiting for
A quiet moment;
My heart can be stilled whenever it is
called.

I am no longer waiting for
The world to be at peace;
I unclench my grasp and
Breathe peace in and out.

I am no longer waiting to
Do something great;
Being awake to carry my
Grain of sand is enough.

I am no longer waiting to be recognized;
I know that I dance in a holy circle.

I am no longer waiting for
Forgiveness.
I believe, I believe.

—by Mary Anne Perrone (National Catholic Reporter, 12/15/06)

Poetic Reflection:

This excerpt from the Fifties Beat Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti is a lighthearted introduction to the central issue of Advent: Advent is a time of waiting. But what are we waiting for, and how are we waiting?

“I Am Waiting”

I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waiting for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting for someone to really discover America
and wail
and I am waiting for the American Eagle
to really spread its wings and straighten up and fly right
and I am waiting for the Age of Anxiety to drop dead
and I am waiting for the war to be fought
which will make the world safe for anarchy
I am waiting for the Second Coming
and I am waiting for a religious revival to sweep thru the state of Arizona
and I am waiting for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored
and I am waiting for them to prove that God is really American
and I am seriously waiting for Billy Graham and Elvis Presley
to exchange roles seriously
and I am waiting to see God on television piped onto church altars
if only they can find the right channel to tune in on
and I am waiting for the Last Supper to be served again
with a strange new appetizer
and I am perpetually awaiting a rebirth of wonder

and I am waiting for the meek to be blessed
and inherit the earth without taxes
and I am waiting for forests and animals
to reclaim the earth as theirs
and I am anxiously waiting for the secret of eternal life to be discovered
by an obscure general practitioner and save me forever from certain death
and I am waiting for life to begin
and I am waiting for the storms of life to be over
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder

Closing Prayer

From Isaiah and Psalm 80:

Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
We are the clay and you the potter;
We are all the work of your hands.
Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we will be saved.
Amen.

The Gospel of Mark

Analysis from A History of the New Testament by Father Raymond Brown, S.S. and Invitation to Mark, by Paul J Achtemeier

DATE: 65-70 CE

AUTHOR BY TRADITIOAL 20TH CENTURY ATTRIBUTION:
Mark, the follower and “interpreter” of Peter, usually identified as the John Mark of acts, whose mother had a house in Jerusalem. He accompanied Barabas and Paul on the “First Missionary Journey” and may have helped Peter and Paul in Rome in the 60’s. Some who reject this attribution allow that the author may have been an otherwise unknown Christian named Mark

AUTHOR DETECTABLE FROM CONTENT:
A Greek speaker, who was not an eyewitness of Jesus’ ministry and made inexact statements about Palestinian geography. He drew on pre-shaped traditions about Jesus (oral and probably written as well) and addressed himself to a community that seemingly had undergone persecution and failure.

LOCALITY INVOLVED:
Traditionally Rome (where Christians were persecuted by Nero). Other suggestions: Syria, the north Transjordan, the Decapolis and Galilee.

UNITY:
No reason to believe there was more than one author,

INTEGRITY:
Mark invented the art form of the Gospel . No small feat. About 97% of Mark is found in Matthew and Luke, although they reorder the materials and sometimes use it in different way, to suit their individual purposes.

STYLE:
There are no infancy narratives; the gospel jumps right into the beginning of Jesus’ adult ministry. It is a gospel that centers on the passion and death of Jesus. Jesus is portrayed as a man in a hurry; the gospel is very episodic as Jess heals, cures and teaches. It probably ended with MK 16:8. Which is the death of Jesus. The longer version (16:9-20) was likely added, even by another, as an epilogue.

A key part of Mark is chapter 13, which is known as the “Little Apocalypse”. (Two other bible “apocalypses” are the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation.) It is part of his farewell discourse before the passion. It is also a message to the Markan community who find themselves at odds with the authorities and sometimes with each other. This chapter is both comfort and warning…

Outline:
1:1-8:6 Ministry of Healing and Preaching to Galilee
8:27-16:8 Suffering predicted, travel to Jerusalem, Death in Jerusalem
16:9-10 (epilogue) Resurrection

According to those who know such things, the Greek is not as polished as that of Luke, for example. Mark is sloppy about some details and about geography. We see a great deal of criticism of the Apostles, especially Peter. It is a gospel that constantly reinforces the belief that there is no crown with a cross…