SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT "A"
John the Baptist was "the voice crying in the wilderness" announcing the immediate coming of the Lord Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah. John serves as a bridge between the Old and the New Testaments. He brought to a close the long list of great prophets of the Old Testament like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezechiel who pointed the way to Jesus, and John was the first to acknowledge Jesus as the "Lamb of God" Who had come to take away the sins of the world. Jesus once referred to John as the greatest person ever born of woman, and yet Jesus added, the least person in the Kingdom of Heaven was greater than John. John baptized people in the river Jordan calling them to repent of sin, but his baptism did not confer anything on people that they did not already have, it was a symbolic act of repentance. On the other hand, Jesus' baptism of us by water and the Holy Spirit changes us interiorly as we become members of God’s own family, chosen by God, and given the status of adopted sons and daughters of God. “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near” was John the Baptist’s message to the people then and for us today. He summons us to prepare ourselves well so we can recognize the Presence of Jesus in our midst and fittingly celebrate His birthday this Christmas.
A popular preacher had a favourite Advent story which he would tell each year at this time. It goes like this: a woman boarded a train for the first time in her life. She walked up and down the aisle several times trying to decide which of the many empty seats she would take. After finally selecting one, she fussed over her baggage until she was satisfied that it was placed exactly right in the luggage rack overhead. Then she began fumbling with the window to be sure that exactly the right amount of air would flow in. She pulled the window shade up and down until she was satisfied that the light was exactly right. She tinkered with the linen cloth on the head-rest until it was positioned exactly in the middle of the seat. Finally, after taking off her hat and agonizing over the exact spot to place it so that it wouldn’t get crushed, the conductor announced that the train was pulling into her destination. As she got off the train, she said to herself, “If I had known the trip was so short, I wouldn’t have spent the whole time fussing over such trivial details.” A simple story, but a good one for us as its sums up for us the message of this Advent season. “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near,” we are reminded by John. He was telling his followers to turn their lives around, to stop fussing over trivial things and to start paying strict attention to the most important thing in life, namely, that Jesus has come, He is in our midst and we must pay attention to Him now.
At dinner one night a father asked his teenage son: “How was school today?” The son replied: “It was awful; the computers broke down and we all had to think.” So maybe its time we turned off our computers for awhile, turned off our T.Vs, cell phones and I-pods and tuned out the trivia in our lives so that we can have some serious quiet time in which to think about what changes we need to make in our lives so we can focus on what is really important - our relationship with God, with Jesus our Lord and Saviour. There is nothing wrong with our using computers, T.Vs, even cell phones and I-pods but they must never become all-absorbing of our time and be the centre, pushing God to the perimeter of our lives. We cannot serve two masters. God must be first in our hearts so that we can experience the wonderful and infinite love God has for each one of us.
A group of college students went on retreat in a desert area of Colorado for one month. The place was called “Nada” meaning “Nothing” in Spanish to remind those on retreat that apart from God they are nothing. When the month was over the students said that their first week of silence was a crisis week for them. They were so used to constant noise in their lives that they believed they couldn’t possibly live without their stereos, T.Vs, telephones etc., and just be still and reflective. However, all said, that before the month was over they experienced the healing and life-enrichment that comes when in silence you hear the Voice of God tenderly speaking to your heart. Sacred Scripture teaches us this when it says: “Be still and know that I am God” says the Lord.
Mary, the Mother of Jesus, certainly knew how to do that. From her earliest days she was in constant communion with God and ready to do His Will in her life. We celebrated yesterday the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and I believe it to be significant that this feast comes at the beginning of Advent, because Mary can help us to prepare our hearts for Jesus just as she prepared her heart for His first coming at Bethlehem. Mary was a peasant girl of about fifteen years of age when the Angel Gabriel appeared to her with God’s message of salvation. Can we possible imagine what this event was like for this young woman from the village of Nazareth? She must have been overwhelmed by it all. However when she understood that it would be by the power of God that she would conceive in her womb His divine Son, she gave her beautiful response to God: “Let it be done to me according to your word.” This total acceptance of God’s Will for her released the full power of God’s love that was in her. So Mary, who is our spiritual mother, given to us by Jesus from the Cross, wants to help us receive Jesus anew in our lives this Advent. We do that by repenting of sin, renouncing sin and choosing to follow Jesus each day.
In a Broadway play of ths sixties, a young man who has dropped out of school, is hooked on drugs, and is estranged from his parents sees himself in a hopeless situation and cries out: “How I wish life was like a notebook so that you could tear out the part where you’ve made all the mistakes and start over again with a page that is fresh and clean.” A new start, a new page, a new opportunity, a new tomorrow - that is exactly what Jesus offer us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
What a gift He gives us. When we repent of sin and receive His forgiveness we turn a new page and begin a new life with Jesus, our Saviour and our Friend.During this second week of Advent, then, we look to Mary as she waited in prayer and with joy in her heart for the birth of her Son, Jesus. We pray to her with confidence that she will help us know Jesus her Son better, listen to His Word in the quiet of our hearts on a regular basis, as we prepare to celebrate His birthday this year.