Caution: Spiritual Roadwork Ahead!

The Catholic Liturgy for the Second Sunday of Advent, Dec. 9, 2018. First Reading - Baruch 5:1-9; Gospel – Luke 3:1-6.  Caution: Roadwork Ahead.

As the liturgy starts the second week of Advent, it places before us a key figure in the coming of Christ: St. John the Baptist, who is going to remain the voice of Advent for the next 2 weeks. He was such an important prophet sent to prepare the way for Jesus, that his words and example take up one-half of the Advent Sundays. So, the strong emphasis that the Church had placed on St. John the Baptist consistently for 2,000 years should make us stop and truly ponder what God wants to tell us through this prophet.

I think we might get a clue as to what this might be if we look back to biblical times, and recall that when a king was coming to pay a visit, a Herald was sent ahead to announce his coming, to help the people prepare for his visit. The message of this herald was never ignored because it had great implications for their lives.

If the people wanted to get the best outcome from the royal visit, they put much of their time and energy into preparing his way. They literally did a lot of construction work to beautify the landscape and smooth out the roadways as we heard in today’s readings because they wanted the King to see how much he meant to them.  They wanted him to see how hard they worked to make his visit pleasant. In return, they hoped for many benefits and rewards.

Today’s Gospel recalls this custom and informs us that St. John the Baptist is the herald of Jesus, telling us to get ready, to get busy, to get to work in preparing the way for his arrival. And how are we supposed to do this?  By making crooked roads straight…filling in the ditches…leveling the highland...smoothing out the pathway.  But of course, what today’s liturgy is doing is using this familiar example of physical roadwork and telling us to apply it metaphorically to the pathways that lead to our hearts. 

In other words, if there was a flashing construction sign announcing Advent it would read: Caution – Spiritual Roadwork Ahead!  We have to work hard on actually preparing the way, just like the people did in ancient times for the arrival of their King. And I think to do this we need to honestly ask ourselves some hard questions:

·       What in my life needs to be leveled out and made straight?

• What obstacles to the Lord in my heart need to be removed? 
• Are there bad habits needing discipline?  Addictions needing recovery?
• When was the last time I received the Sacrament of Reconciliation and made a good thorough confession?
• Do times for prayer and reading the Gospel need some of the time spent on social media or television?

Let’s ask for the intercession of St. John the Baptist to help us do what is needed to level the road and make straight the pathway of Christ to our hearts. 

Let’s ask for the grace to straighten out whatever is wrong, to fill-in whatever is lacking in our relationships with God and others, to smooth out the rough edges in our lives.

And let’s really listen to St. John’s Advent-voice crying out and calling us to take on a new way of thinking, a new way of looking at life, and a new way of living as we prepare the way for Jesus, the One-Who-Is-To-Come.