Second Sunday of Advent
Today's Mass Readings
I am going to begin this sermon by giving you an activity to do. First I am going to ask you to spend half a minute in silence and ask yourself, One week in Advent is over. How did I prepare last week for the coming of your God? In a minute share with someone if you are happy on dissatisfied with your preparation. The theme of today’s readings is, “Prepare the way of the Lord…” Last Sunday we reflected on how the people of Israel, because they were unfaithful to the Covenant they made with God, were led into exile. We then said that the people evaluated their lives, they confessed their sin and they surrendered their lives to God. Their act of surrender was epitomized in their prayer, “We are the clay and you are the potter” (Is 64:7). In many ways, today’s first reading is a continuation of the story. Finally, the Babylonian exile is about to end. There will be a second "Exodus." God will lead his people back to the promised land. I am suggesting that in today’s readings, God presents to the people three things. First, he offers them comfort; second, he offers them a challenge; and third, he offers them a responsibility.
I would like the present the three dimension of today’s reading. And at the end of each of these points, I will offer the practical implication:
1. First, God offers comfort. God declares the end of the exile in these words: “Comfort, give comfort to my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at and end…indeed she has received double for all her sins” (Is 40: 1-2). For the people in exile the comfort came from the awareness that, after all, God had not forgotten them. Once again, the people experience God in their midst. As I look back at my ministry this week, I know the comfort that God brought to his people. I was in the hospital to visit sick parishioners. I gave someone the last rites at the hospice. I was the confessional three days this week. I listened to and prayed with numerous people. In all these instances, none of them expected me to solve their problems or to say something extraordinary. They were just reaching out to God. And God was there comforting, healing, brining to new life, and simply being there for these people. The greatest act of comfort is God taking his place with us and ‘being there for us.” We have a presence to count on, we have a name to call upon, and we have a God to rely on. This week simply take the time to become aware of God’s presence.
2. Second, God presents a challenge. For the people of Israel in the first reading there begins a second exodus. From Babylon, the people begin their journey back to the Promised Land. Isaiah, with regard to the exiles and John the Baptist with regard the later generation of Israelites cry out and say, “Make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Is 40:3, Mk 1:3). The desert is a very special place in the history of the people of Israel. It is a place of denial; it is a place of discipline; it is a place of dependence. It is a place of preparation. Advent season too is a time of preparation. The real preparation for Christmas is one that calls for rooting out sin from our lives. And that requires denial, that requires discipline, and that requires dependence on God. This advent root out most dominant sin in your life.
3. Third, God presents a responsibility. After their second exodus, after they have disciplined themselves, and learned dependence, the Lord entrusts them a great responsibility: the nation of Israel itself is called the “herald of good tidings; herald of good news.” Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: here is your God.” They themselves are called to become the sign of the presence of God. By the kind of lives they live, they will make real, the presence of the Lord. This Christmas can we reach a stage where because of the birth of the Lord in our hearts we can say to the people we meet, “Here is your God?” We ourselves are given the responsibility to become the manger that carried the saviour. We as individuals are to become the heralds of the good tidings; heralds of good news. Become the bearer of forgiveness, of compassion to someone who needs help, pray with someone who is lonely, assist someone who needs your help. Become the manger that carried the Saviour.
Let me conclude by saying that, the same Jesus whose arrival the Baptist announced will come to us in bread and wine. Even as we prepare for his coming during Christmas, today, right now Christ will come to us to comfort us, to challenge us and to entrust to us his good news. Let us be prepared to be comforted, to be challenged, and to take up our responsibility. Amen.
Fr. Satish Joseph