Advent 2nd Sunday, December 7
Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8
The coming of Jesus is our Good News
After the surgery for leg amputation, a patient was slowly regaining his consciousness, when the doctor said to him. I have news for you. First the bad news, I have amputated your wrong leg. But the good news is that your other leg has improved much. Much of the news every day we receive seems to be like this. We have good news, fantastic bargains, irresistible offers and once in your life time chances. But if we believe these words in advertisements, and invest your money often the end result could be feeling of being cheated or taken for a ride or of being exploited.
In this context the word of God tries to induce us with the message of good news. In the first reading the prophet proclaims the good news of impending liberation from the land of exile. The people were exhorted to prepare the way for the lord: fill up the valleys, remove sinfulness or low state of mind frustration, hopelessness, helplessness and depression, level up the mountains or remove mountains of pride, self righteousness, self seeking , and straighten the path way straighten our ways of crookedness, deceitfulness and make it a high way. The same message is also repeated by John the Baptist in the Gospel passage. He was the forerunner of Christ the Messiah.
Bad News:
It is said that today we live in God-less world, a God forsaken world. People who have no time for prayer and other spiritual excercises, consider God as a liability. In their life very often God is displaced by money, mammon and the world. On the other hand those who are poor feel wretched and miserable and complain that even God has abandoned them. When there is no experience of God, when there is no room for God, we experience the hell. This is the present experience of Exile. In life we may have our experience of brokenness, misunderstanding and suffering. These experiences deprive us of our joy and happiness and peace.
Good News:
But there is good news. The good news is Jesus and what he is able to do for us. In Jesus God is coming to visit us. The Gospel today is the opening of the gospel according to Mark. He sets the theme for his gospel in his opening sentence: “The beginning of the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” That is the story he wants to tell, or rather, the good news he wants to proclaim. Unlike John’s gospel, where the full identity of Jesus is put in the very first chapter, Mark’s presentation is one of a gradually unfolding identity of the man Jesus. In the Gospel we heard today that John the Baptist was the messenger who preached ahead of the Lord Jesus to prepare his way. When John the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness, Jesus had not begun His public ministry yet. John the Baptist echoes the words of prophet Isaiah, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight.’ The moment has come and the time of waiting is over. Through the baptism of repentance that John the Baptist preached, the people were forgiven of their sins. Here we hear of the people confessing their sins. The people were transforming their lives, becoming righteous in preparation to receive the Lord Jesus.
The Second Reading, from the Second Letter of Peter, reminds us, on the one hand, of God’s great desire to come into our lives and, on the other, of the need to be prepared for that coming when it happens. Although people sometimes complain that God seems oblivious to their needs, the Letter reminds us that “the Lord is not being slow to carry out his promises”. On the contrary, “he is being patient with you all, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to change his ways”. Peter also speaks of the “Day of the Lord”, that final coming when God will call us all to account.
Advent is a time of waiting and we need to decide how we approach towards it. We have here the example of John the Baptist an outstanding personality, who invited people to prepare for the coming of the Lord by acknowledging their sins and asking forgiveness from God. He called them to change and never spoke of God or anything else. Once repentance took place he knew they would find the God. Through Isaiah, God told the people to prepare the way for His coming. They were not told when He would come, if it would be in a year, ten years or a hundred years. As Biblical history reveals to us, many generations went by before the Lord Jesus was born, in fact, about seven hundred years. God speaks to them symbolically in what follows. The people were told that every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low. The uneven ground shall become level and the rough places a plain.
We have a responsibility as Christians not only to ourselves but bring the Good News of God’s love to others. John makes it clear that, despite his popularity and influence, he is only God’s “messenger”. Someone far more important is on the way. “I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals,” says John, describing a task given only to slaves. John’s role was to serve Jesus and to serve the people. “He must increase, I must decrease,” he says elsewhere (John 3:30). His whole life points to Jesus as Lord and Messiah. A second point is that John the Baptist reminds us that we, too, have a responsibility to proclaim the Good News of the coming of Jesus and to help people know and love him and experience his love in their lives just as other people have brought us to where we are. It is not easy in our society to find Jesus and to accept his values and vision of life.
We need to present a message that is full of joy, a joy that is clearly mirrored in our own behavior, because it flows out from an inner core of wisdom and peace. We have to present our faith not as something formidable and repressive and difficult but as bringing true liberation into people’s lives. We need to present a picture of God “like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering the lambs in his arms, holding them against his breast”. People are longing to hear a message that brings trust and hope, truth and integrity, peace and security, justice and compassion. Live in the light of the gospel. Then Christ will be our good news.
