Second Sunday of Advent: Year- B

1^st Reading: Is. 40: 1-5. 9-11: Prepare a Way for the Lord

2^nd 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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