2nd Sunday of Advent – Dec 6, 2015

Bar 5:1-9; Phil 1:4-6, 8-11; Lk 3:1-6      

When the president or prime minister of a country is  scheduled to make a public appearance, his staff prepares weeks and even months in advance to make certain that the proper protocol will be observed and the leader’ security will be assured. Similarly, detailed preparations precede the appearance of religious leaders like the Pope. Programs are scheduled, choral presentations are practiced, gifts are bought and special persons are chosen to present them in the most gracious manner possible, so that the honored one is duly recognized and appreciated. Careful planning also accompanies the appearances of other political figures, celebrity entertainers and rock singers. In fact, one wonders if today’s gospel about John the Baptist proclaiming the coming of Jesus applies more to modern day celebrities than it does to the true Messiah. Only when we put the same care and commitment into our spiritual Christmas preparations will “all mankind begin to see the salvation of God.”

Introduction: The Advent season challenges us to prepare for the celebration of Jesus’ first coming. We are also to prepare for his present “coming” to us in his Word, in the Eucharist, in our neighbors and the Christian community and in the abiding presence of his Holy Spirit in our souls. Finally, we are asked to be ready to meet him as our judge on his Second Coming, at the end of our lives and at the end of the world when he will come with power and great glory on the clouds of heaven, bringing our waiting for his coming to its completion.  The readings today invite us to recall God's saving deeds in the history of Israel, culminating with the coming of the promised Messiah. Baruch, in the first reading, asks the grieving Jerusalem to stand on the heights in order to see her scattered children coming home, with God in the lead.  This reminds us that all of us, like Israel in her exile, have been led into the captivity of sin.  Hence, we are in need of restoration and conversion by the Word of the Holy One.  Psalm 126 is a joyous song of ascent, sung by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem.  In writing to his favorite community at Philippi, Paul, in today’s second reading, prays that they be filled with joy as they await the day of Christ.  Paul reminds us that our remembrance of God’s saving deeds during the Advent season is meant to stir our faith and to fill us with confidence so that, "the One who began a good work in us will continue to complete it," until he comes again in glory.  In the gospel, John the Baptist challenges us to prepare the way for the salvation of "all flesh,” including our own, by a true repentance leading to the renewal of our lives.  Quoting Isaiah, John declares that he has come to prepare a royal road in our hearts for our Savior, a way out of the wilderness of sin and alienation, to God.

First reading, Baruch 5:1-9: Enemies practically destroyed Jerusalem in 587 BC and deported many Jews to Babylon.  Almost fifty years later, Cyrus, the Persian emperor, defeated Babylon and decreed that the exiles could return to their homelands.  Many Jews returned to Judah and Jerusalem, but some stayed behind among the pagans.  These people became known as the Diaspora ("dispersion"), Jews.  Although they were cut off from the Temple and the sacrifices of the community, most of them remained faithful to their ancestral religion. They nourished their faith with the teaching of God's word by prophets, scribes, and priests, primarily in their synagogue gatherings.  They continued to feel their kinship with Judah's Jews and to express longing for Jerusalem and its Temple in their writings.  The book from which we read today is ascribed to Baruch, the secretary of the prophet Jeremiah who accompanied the Jews to Babylon in their exile. The book voices a hope for release from exile and oppression by portraying “Lady Jerusalem,” who, like a priest, takes off the robes of mourning and puts on the cloak of God’s justice and the miter that displays the glory of God’s name.  Baruch declares that the restored exiles will have a new name: "Peace of righteousness and glory of godliness."  Then he shares with Isaiah 40:3ff this comforting image: Between the land of the Captivity and Jerusalem, the desert will be leveled, its mountains smoothed down and its valleys filled up, so that the returning exiles can travel with ease.  In the original Isaiahian setting, the people exiled in Babylon were told that their God would lead them home, just as He had led their ancestors through the wilderness to the Promised Land.  They were assured that all obstacles would be removed so that this could be accomplished. Isaiah's version is familiar to us in the form quoted by John the Baptist in today’s gospel.  [Some modern scholars believe that the Book of Baruch was probably written, not by Jeremiah’s secretary, but in Alexandria around 200 BC, to give a vision of hope and optimism to the Jews living there who had difficulty keeping their faith. ]

Second Reading, Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11: This is another Pauline passage that warns the early Christians of the second coming of Jesus, referring to it as "the day of Christ" and "the day of Christ Jesus.”  The passage stresses everyone’s need for that perpetual readiness to be found in leading a righteous life.  Paul was very fond of the Philippian Christians, and was very pleased with their spiritual progress and maturity.  So he assured them that their Heavenly Father, Who had given them the gift of conversion, would continue to bring that "good work" to fruition.  He would complete His work “at the day of Jesus Christ,” when Jesus would come in glory to judge the whole world, provided that the Philippians had done their part by “approving what is excellent” and remaining “pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruits of righteousness.”  Paul’s advice echoes the words of John the Baptist found in today’s gospel, inviting the Jews to repent and renew their lives to welcome the Messiah. 

Exegesis: The historical context: Each year, the second and the third Sundays in Advent center on John the Baptist, reminding us that if we want to prepare properly for the coming of Jesus we need to listen to the Baptizer’s message.  The evangelists realized the importance of John’s message. Hence, all four of them wrote about John’s preaching, while only two of them described the nativity of Christ.  Following the style of ancient historians, Luke dates the appearance of John according to the ruling powers.  He begins by setting the emergence of John against a world background, the background of the Roman Empire.  After referring to the world situation and the Palestinian political situation, he turns to the religious situation and reports John's emergence as a herald of the Messiah during the religious leadership of Annas and Caiaphas.  Although Caiaphas was the reigning High-priest, it was Annas, his father-in-law and the retired High Priest, who was the religious power behind the throne of Galilee’s ruler at that time, Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great.  The “coming of the word of God” to someone is a standard formula for a prophetic call.  In this case, the prophet was John, as he prepared the way for Jesus.  The Baptizer proclaimed the coming of God’s Kingdom and preached a ceremony (a baptism), of immersion, as a response that was to symbolize the interior repentance that leads to forgiveness.  The general consensus of Biblical scholars today is that John the Baptist began to preach in AD 28 or 29, and that Christ’s public ministry began that same year.

Theme of John’s preaching:  the baptism of repentance:  John's baptism was not a proselyte baptism, converting Gentiles into Jews.  Instead, it was a baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and it required repentance (metanoeo, a change of being), which implied a turning around to proceed in a new direction.  Baptism itself is a purification ritual, and John was inviting people to be purified of the unholy elements in their lives.  Quoting the prophet Isaiah, John the Baptist declared, “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth” (Lk 3:5).  The quotation John used is from Isaiah 40:3-5, where the prophet was calling the people to prepare for the Lord's visitation.  If a king were planning to travel, work crews would be dispatched to repair the roads.  Ideally, the roads for the king's journey would be straight, level, and smooth.  John considered himself as the courier of the king.  But the preparation on which he insisted was a preparation of heart and of life.  "The king is coming," he said in effect.  “Mend, not your roads, but your lives.”  The quotation, “making straight the paths of the Lord,” means clearing the path of sin, which is the major obstacle preventing the Lord from coming into our lives.

John called people to repent as a way of preparing their hearts and lives for the Lord's visit.  He is calling us, too, to get ready for something so great that it fills our emptiness with expectation.  A smooth road means nothing to God, but a repentant heart means a great deal.  Hence, the truly important goal for us is to prepare our hearts to receive the Lord.  By emphasizing the last line of the quotation "All flesh will see the salvation of God," Luke stresses the universal aspect of God's salvation.  Having begun the section with a list of rulers who did not bring wholeness or salvation, Luke ends with the expectation of a true Lord Who can bring these about.  We don't live in a perfect world, and we don't look to this world to see God's salvation.  For salvation, we have to look to Jesus -- Jesus present in Scripture, Jesus present in the sacraments, Jesus present in our coming together in his name, Jesus present in the lives of his followers.  Perhaps if we began to see Jesus in each other and in ourselves, and started to treat one another (and ourselves), as we would treat Jesus, more of the world might come to see God's salvation. 

The symbolism of John’s preaching at the Jordan: The Jordan River was the place that represented the eastern border of the Promised Land, separating it from the desert — where the Jews had wandered aimlessly for 40 years after centuries of slavery in Egypt.  By preaching his message there, John was inviting the Jews of his day to come out of the bondage of slavery, to leave their faults, their wandering and their sinful lives behind, and to enter into the Promised Land full of God’s blessings.  The Fathers of the Church have called the Sacrament of Reconciliation our “second baptism,” in which we’re brought back to the Jordan and cleansed interiorly as we were on the day of our Christening.  Advent, like Lent, is a season given to us so that we may repent of our sins and be reconciled with God and His Church by receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  It was for this purpose that the Sacrament was instituted by Jesus after His Resurrection: “Receive the Holy Spirit: Those whose sins you forgive are forgiven; those whose sins you retain are retained” (Jn 20:18-22).  It is for this on-going reconciliation, then, not just to “preach repentance and forgiveness of sins … to all nations beginning from Jerusalem” (Lk 24:47), that Jesus sent His apostles and their successors out to the ends of the world.

 Life messages: 1: We need to prepare the way for the Messiah in our hearts: We have to fill in the “valleys” of our souls which have resulted from our  shallow prayer life and a minimalist way of living our faith.  We have to straighten out whatever crooked paths we’ve been walking, like involvement in some secret or habitual sins or in a sinful relationship.  If we have been involved in some dishonest practices at work or at home, we are called to straighten them out and make restitution.  If we have been harboring grudges or hatred, or failing to be reconciled with others, now is the time to clear away all the debris.  If we have been pushing God off to the side of our road, if we have been saying to Him that we don’t really have the time for Him, now is the time for us to get our priorities straight.  As individuals, we might have to overcome deep-seated resentment, persistent fault-finding, unwillingness to forgive, dishonesty in our dealings with others, or a bullying attitude.  And we all have to level the “mountains” of our pride and egocentrism.  As a society we might have to dismantle unfair housing policies, employment disparity, economic injustice, or racial and ethnic biases.

2: We need to repent and seek forgiveness from God and fellow-human beings: John's message calls us to confront and confess our sins. We have to turn away from them in sincere repentance and receive God's forgiveness.  There are basically two reasons why people who have recognized their sins fail to receive forgiveness for them.  The first is that they fail to repent.  But the second is that they fail to forgive.  Jesus is very explicit about this in Matthew 6:14 and 15. He says, "For if you forgive men their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions."  Is there someone I need to forgive today?  We must not let what others have done destroy our lives.  We can't be forgiven unless we forgive.  We must release our bitterness if we are to be able to allow God to do His healing work in our lives.

In the earliest baptismal liturgies, after the person had been baptized, he or she appeared before the bishop. The bishop embraced the new Christian then did something of great significance – the bishop dipped his finger into oil and made the sign of the cross on the Christian’s forehead. This was known as the signation, the signature. The sign of the cross upon a person’s forehead was like a brand to show ownership. As sheep are marked to show ownership, so Christians are marked by baptism to show Who owns them and to what flock they belong. By baptism, Christians are branded to show Who chose them and Who now owns them. Remember your baptism.

(Source: Homilies of Fr. Tony Kadavil)