Second Sunday Of Advent
Christmas is coming! If you are not already busy preparing, I am sure you will have people telling you it is time you started getting ready and that is what John the Baptist is telling us this weekend as he tells us to prepare the way for the Lord. As the people of faith we need to start thinking about welcoming Jesus and the preparations that we are have to make as his followers. We must prepare the way for the Lord to enter our lives, to enter the lives of those around us, and to enter into our world with his word of peace and forgiveness. This weekend we recall the ministry of St John the Baptist. Jesus said about John: among those born of women no one has been greater than John the Baptist (Mt 11:11) his mission was to prepare a people who would receive the Lord when he came.
We see John as the culmination of the work of the prophets, and now on the brink of the coming of the Christ he announces: ‘repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. John’s task was to announce the coming of Jesus and to point to him when he came. He was called to reawaken a sense of expectation among a people that had grown tired and distant from God as many have done in our present generation. John attracted thousands to come to see him and be baptized by him. Tradition sees the desert as the place where God speaks to the heart of his people. It is from this solitary place of spiritual combat, the desert bordering the Jordan, that John appears “with the spirit and the power of Elijah” (Luke 7:17). By his word and his baptism with water, john called the children of the covenant back to the Lord their God as he calls us today to come back to the Lord our God.
The figure of John serves as a warning, to all believers, that we need to draw our strength from God alone, rather than going with the Fads and fashions of the time. The Church is here in the present as it has been in past times to proclaim and live the message of Jesus in every generation in order to prepare the way of the Lord whether people like it or not. The Church in every age must become like John the Baptist, who was an uncomfortable reminder of how we must allow the truth of Jesus to break into our lives to lighten the darkness that is there. As our Advent journey continues, John the Baptist’s call to conversion sounds out in our communities. It is a pressing invitation to open our hearts and minds to welcome the Son of God who comes among us to make the kingdom of God manifest. As we continue our personal Advent Journeys let us hear the call of John the Baptist to prepare the way for the Lord and put it into action in our lives in our preparations for Christmas.
Fullerton T 