December 15, 2008

                From Fr. Joe's Homilies - Cycle B

2nd Sunday of Advent

December 7, 2008

INTRODUCTION - (Isaiah 40, 1-5.9-11; II Peter 3, 8-14; Mark 1, 1-8) Our first reading today begins a section of Isaiah known as the “Book of Consolation.” This section of Isaiah is composed of 15 chapters that were addressed to God’s people who for 50 years had been refugees and slaves in Babylon (Iraq today). Isaiah announces God is ready to set them free and bring them back home. The route by which the Lord would lead his people home is referred to as “the way of the Lord.” Attention must be given to preparing the way. The route would take them through mountains and desert, a passage most likely through the land that is today Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The images in today’s reading are beautiful, especially the image of God leading his people like a shepherd, but the key idea for today is to prepare the way of the Lord, a theme that John the Baptist takes up 500 years later to call the people of his own day to prepare for the Messiah. The liturgy uses these Scriptures to call us to prepare not only for Christmas but also for the day when Christ will call us into his eternal kingdom.

HOMILY: I was impressed with the directness and simplicity of how St. Mark begins his gospel. “This is the gospel (the good news) of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” We say it so glibly and so quickly we might miss the importance of these words, so I want to give them some special emphasis. What could be more basic to our faith than our belief that Jesus is not only Messiah and Savior, but that he is Son of God and everything about him is good news for us. That Jesus is Son of God is one of the things that is unique about our faith and different from all other religions. Moses, Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius, whomever, are all revered as prophets who spoke for God or wise and holy people who taught the path to God, but none are honored as God. Jesus is proclaimed in the gospels as God (not “a” God, but “the” God, the only God, one in being with the Father and the Holy Spirit). So Mark gets right to the essence of our faith as he begins his gospel: “This is the good news (the gospel) of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

Except for two brief references to Mary his mother, St. Mark doesn’t spend time telling us anything about Jesus’ birth or about his parents. We thank St. Matthew and St. Luke for those beautiful stories which we love to hear again and again about what took place at the time of his birth. In order to stress another concept that is essential for us if we are going to experience the gospel as the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Mark begins his gospel by telling us about John the Baptist.

It was important for St. Mark to talk about John the Baptist as he began his gospel for two reasons. First of all, many people thought he was the messiah, the savior of God’s people. Mark makes it clear in John’s own words, “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie his sandals.” The second reason it is important to bring up John the Baptist as Mark begins his gospel is the message of the Baptist: prepare.

John the Baptist is not talking about preparing our house, or our gifts, or our meals, or our celebrations, which we always do at this time of year and are delightful traditions. He’s talking about preparing our heart. Can we open our hearts to Jesus or to others any more than we already have? Can we say we love God perfectly and completely, our neighbor perfectly and completely? In preparing the way of the Lord, there may not be any mountains or hills of pride that have to come down in our lives. There may not be valleys of spiritual laziness that need to be filled in or rugged land and rough country of serious sin that need to be eliminated to prepare the way for Jesus’ coming. But if we think hard, we might discover little spots here and there where we could love God or others more. “Prepare the way of the Lord” was the message of the Baptist and the message of the gospels. We do not enter into God’s kingdom by accident or by default. It’s like anything else in life, if we want something worthwhile or to accomplish anything worth accomplishing, we need to prepare. Many people assume God’s kingdom will be somehow different than everything else in life, that it will take little or no effort on our part to be part of it, that somehow it will come to everyone automatically. The gospels do not tell us that. With St. Mark and with John the Baptist they tell us quite simply and directly: Prepare!

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