Second Sunday of Advent: Year- B
1st Reading: Is. 40: 1-5. 9-11: Prepare a Way for the Lord
2nd Reading: 2 Pet. 3: 8-14: We are waiting for
the New Heavens & New Earth.
Gospel: Mk. 1: 1-8: Make His Paths Straight.
Jesus Christ and John the Baptist:
The Good News & the Messenger of God:
Mark
begins his writing with “The beginning of the Good News (Gospel) of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God.” Genesis 1: 1 “In the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth...” John 1: 1 “In the beginning was the Word...”The birth
of the Son of God is from the very beginning of the creation story. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the
Beginning and the End (Rev 22: 13).
Mark
wastes no time in sharing the Good News about the coming of God’s Son into
human history. He jumps right to the subject of God’s messenger whom God sent
to prepare the way for His Son.
In
today’s reading we find three messengers telling three different communities to
prepare the way for the Lord who is about to come.
The
first, prophet Isaiah was sent to the people of Israel still in exile.
The
second, John the Baptist to the people of Palestine.
The
third, the apostle Peter to a group of Christian communities living some forty
years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
1. The message conveyed by the prophet
Isaiah.
The
prophet was not speaking of a material but of a spiritual road to be built in
the hearts of the Jews, which is at the time of looked like a desert indeed,
most of them having abandoned the law of Yahweh. The advice of the prophet to
his people was:
a. Level the mountain of your pride.
b. Fill the valleys, that is, start
observing the Law of Yahweh which you have abandoned.
But
it took another five hundred years for this prophecy to be fully realized, as
it will be made clear in the explanation of the Gospel which follows.
2. The message conveyed by John the
Baptist.
The
prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled when John the Baptist started his preaching as
a messenger of Jesus. In fact, the messenger of John the Baptist repeats that
of Isaiah.
3. We must enable Jesus to save us;
only the humble of heart will be saved.
Not
everyone is going to welcome Jesus because of pride, self-sufficiency and disobedience. The humble ones such as sinners, gentiles, out castes and simple
ones welcome Jesus.
4. A message of Peter for his
Christians and for us all.
His
message coincides with that of Isaiah and of John the Baptist.
a. Peter tells his Christians that the
Lord is coming.
b. Peter explains to them the reason
for the Lord’s delay.
God
wants everyone saved; he gives people ample time for repentance. God is never
in a hurry: for him a thousand years are like a day and he can accomplish in a
single day the work that would take people a thousand years to carry out. God
is patient because he is both powerful and compassionate.
c. But Christians on their part, says
Peter, should put every moment in their lives to the best use, as they wait for
Christ to come.
That
is, keep on waiting for the Lord who will certainly come; but let your waiting be an active one, doing his will
joyfully at all times like the five wise virgins waiting for the bridegroom
with lamps filled with oil of faith,
hope, love, obedience and humility.
Thought: John
knew that life was more than food, clothing and housing. He knew that he must
not allow anything to distract him or the people from God…
·
Not living in extravagant
luxury.
·
Not being dressed in the
latest and most expensive fashion.
·
Not eating the most tasty
dainties.
Therefore he denied himself and practised
self-denial. What a lesson for all believers, preachers and laypeople alike!
(Rom 14:17)
The mission
of God’s messenger is to prepare the way of the Lord, to baptise and to preach
repentance and forgiveness of sins.
The Old
Testament & the New Testament point toward “The Gospel” about Jesus Christ.
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