SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT
“John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Notice where John is preaching: not in downtown Jerusalem but in the desert. That’s a place where God often is found to form his people. Remember, God called Abraham from his ancestral lands where he was a prosperous farmer and merchant, to dwell in the Negev, a desert region on the shores of the Dead Sea. God called the people Israel to leave Egypt, where they could grow their own crops and herd their sheep and cattle, to wander in the desert where they had to rely on God to provide water from a rock and manna and quail from the sky. Even Jesus spent 40 days in the desert before he began his public ministry. And, notice that his first words when Jesus came out of the desert were very similar to those of John the Baptist. Like John, Jesus announced “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.” You see, the desert is quiet, barren, uncluttered. It is a place where noise dies down and the heart can begin to hear again. It was in the silence of the desert where Abraham, Moses, John and Jesus came to hear God’s voice. Advent is the time for us to go to the desert.
The weeks before Christmas can be some of the noisiest of the year, filled with so many things to do and the clamor of so many parties and get togethers. But God speaks most clearly in the stillness. As we continue this sacred Advent Season, I invite you – in fact, I strongly encourage – you to carve out your own “desert time” whether it is with a few quiet moments of prayer each morning or evening, a pause for a visit in church in the middle of the day, or a few minutes of reading Sacred Scripture about the events that are unfolding as Christmas approaches. It is in the quiet that we can realize what truly matters and it is in the silence that we can hear the gentle footsteps of our God approaching.
The desert is not only a place of listening; it is also a place of preparation. Just as Abraham prepared to become the father of a host of nations and Moses prepared his people to enter into the Promised Land and Jesus prepared for his public ministry in the desert, in today’s gospel passage, we hear John the Baptist in the desert call his fellow Jews to prepare for the coming of their Messiah by preparing the way of the Lord and making straight his paths. In today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah, we hear that we are to be a signal for the nations that the Lord was coming in our midst.
This is the work of each of us every day, and especially during this Advent Season. We need to make straight the way to the Lord for ourselves and those around us by removing all of the obstacles in our lives that prevent us from being a straight path to God. What are these obstacles. Do we still harbor resentment towards someone who has hurt us? Have we engaged in gossip, slandering others for our satisfaction? Have we avoided going to confession so we don’t have to face the truth of our sinfulness. Advent gives us the opportunity every year to make space for God in our lives and make ourselves a straighter road for others so they can find God themselves.
All of this preparation during Advent is rooted in an eternal truth of great importance. Our Lord has come to bring us salvation and is, indeed, coming again to judge the living and the dead. John the Baptist’s final words remind us that one mightier than he was coming. And he came to gather his wheat – that is, those of us who are the good fruit of God’s work – into his barn.
May this Advent be a time when the quiet of the desert – wherever we find that desert quiet – opens our ears, where honest preparation clears our hearts and where hope for our salvation grows as we remember that the Lord is already in our midst. He is here right now in our church, among us, his beloved brothers and sisters in faith. And, he is truly on his way to gather his faithful to present them to God. Let us prepare the way!