Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Advent
6 December 2015
6 December 2015
This Second Sunday of Advent often focuses upon
the person and ministry of Saint John the Baptist. We know of the eccentric
clothes that he wore and the strange, restricted diet he subjected himself to.
But we often limit John’s existence to shouting, “Prepare the way of the Lord!”
and dumping water on people’s heads.
John the Baptist was the greatest of the prophets.
As a prophet, he would had to have entered into his vocation of calling the
people of Israel back to right relationship with God. However, as the greatest
of the prophets – and, it should be noted, the last of the prophets – John had
the great distinction of being charged with preparing the people for the
immanent coming of the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. He had already
pointed Christ out while still in the womb of Elizabeth, his mother. He pointed
the Lamb of God out to Andrew and John, the brother of James. He acknowledged
the Person and authority of Jesus when the Son of God come to be baptized.
Yet,
as “the voice . . . crying out in the desert,” John the Baptist follows the
great example of the prophet Baruch in proclaiming what the Lord’s coming
ultimately brings: a radical change of life. While the mountains will be
leveled and the valleys be filled and raised, the Lord continues to call us to
see beyond our normal understanding and comprehension of what is and to
envision what could be, and even what should be.
Baruch
and John the Baptist, in calling us to prepare a way for the Lord, are also
calling us to recognize how to discern, using the word of Saint Paul, the
radical change of life that the Lord brings us, and to proclaim that change
with joy. In recognizing that radical change in life for ourselves and for the
whole world, we see what good things the Lord has done for us, and we are
filled with joy.
As
we prepare our hearts and lives for the Day of the Lord, we gather in this
place in the here and now becoming more familiar moment by moment of how the
Lord has already radically changed our lives through our encounters with Jesus
Christ in the Word, the Sacraments, and our participation in the life of the
Church. Our lives, then, not only proclaim the works of the Lord, but also
prepare in the lives of others and of the world a way for the Lord. We take on
that prophetic role given to us at our baptism.
Yes,
a life in Christ calls us to a radical change in our own lives.
The
mountains in our lives need to be made low; the valleys in our lives need to be
raised. Just as Baruch called Jerusalem to do, just as John the Baptist
preached repentance, so must our lives – our thoughts, words and deeds – call others
to reform their lives so that they, too, can enjoy that radical change in their
lives as they encounter Jesus Christ.
This
season of Advent, when taken to heart, truly prepares us to accept and live out
this radical change of life. This doesn’t mean that we become as eccentric as
John the Baptist; this doesn’t mean that we become a “holy roller”. This radical
change ultimately opens us up to go out and prepare the world for the impending
Day of the Lord. This radical change empowers us, by the grace of the Holy
Spirit, to become some of the greatest prophets of our time.
As
we prepare for the coming of the Lord, we ought to allow our encounter today
with Jesus Christ – in Word, in Sacrament, and through the community gathered –
to change us in the most radical of ways. Just as Baruch and John called others
to reform their lives for the glory of God, so must we prophecy through our own
lives how the Lord has called us to that deeper intimacy with Him. As we
prepare a way for the Lord, as we become that voice crying out in the desert of
society, we enter into a life of radical change so that the glory of the Lord
will be revealed.
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Enjoy the journey . . .
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