Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent. Gospel: Mark 1:1-8. Theme: Caution: Spiritual Roadwork Ahead!
The sights and sounds of Christmas are all around us these days. And a plethora of holiday characters, both fact and fiction, can be found decorating our homes and stores, or featured in holiday movies as well as being displayed in the front yards in our neighborhoods. Among all these figures we will surely find Mary and Joseph, of course, along with the whole retinue of stable animals, shepherds and kings. But there are many other characters as well, completely foreign to the original Nativity Story that have made their way into our holiday hearts and minds: Santa and his elves, Rudolph and his reindeer gang, Frosty, Grinch and even old Mr. Scrooge.
But amidst all this Christmas crowding there’s one figure who, though vital, is completely missing. You won't find this person in the holiday section of any store nor featured in a Nativity scene. There are no inflatable likenesses of him for your lawn and he is utterly absent from every single holiday greeting card. Yet he is crucial to helping us experience the whole reason for the season. The great missing person of Christmas is St. John the Baptist!
For millennia, the Church has placed John the Baptist front and center in our liturgy during Advent because he embodies its very spirit. He is the carrier of the Christmas message that the Messiah comes to transform our lives and restore our lost spiritual fortunes. Both the Old Testament reading from Isaiah and the Gospel from St. Mark in today’s Mass emphasize that he is the one whose voice cries out in the wilderness to us saying, “Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!”
But these directives will make no sense to us unless we step back in time to learn how people of those days prepared for the arrival of nobility. When news of an upcoming imperial visit came to a village certain indispensable steps of cultural protocol had to be followed. And so the entire village, from the youngest able-bodied person to the oldest, got busy with literally filling in low spots in the road and leveling off uneven terrain. In this way they could show their respect for the royal entourage and give it a proper welcome. And this is the way our Christian tradition interprets Isaiah’s prophecy and John's Christmas message. In other words, if there was a construction warning sign flashing purple and pink lights to announce Advent it would read: “Caution – Spiritual Roadwork Ahead!” We are to get busy and give it all we got in making smooth and straight the Lord’s pathway into our hearts and clearing away the garbage that has accumulated in the wasteland of our lives, Then when the King arrives He will bless those who prepared so diligently.
St. Mark’s Gospel opens by recalling the prophecy from Isaiah and then showing us that it’s being fulfilled in the person and ministry of St. John the Baptist. He is the voice of one crying out in the desert calling us to make a way for the Lord into our hearts by straightening out the inconsistencies and crookedness in our lives. In other words, he is challenging us to repent, which means to have a change of heart, a change of mind, a change of attitude and set our sights on the Lord’s Kingdom. He is calling us to recognize that we need to allow God to be actively present in our lives, He promises that Jesus the Messiah will make our personal transformation possible through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit Whom He pours into us.
Both Isaiah and St. Mark are asking if we are willing to do the site preparation and accomplish some serious personal construction for this to really happen. Do we have a blueprint, a plan in mind as to how we will proceed? Are we aware of the spiritual tools of prayerfulness and mercy that we will need to repair the broken bridges in our lives so as to reconnect with others and with God? They are asking us to make room, in the midst of our very crowded Christmas season, for St. John the Baptist as our Advent Voice of Preparation. He’s calling us to get ready for much more than just another festive holiday. He’s reminding us that it’s never too late to change so as to experience God’s love, grace and power which will lead us to a new way of thinking, a new way of looking at life, and a new way of living that will be so much better than how we have lived up till now.
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