Homily for the Week of December 4, 2011

Second Sunday of Advent, 2011

Is. 40:1–5, 9–11; 2 Pt 3:8–14; Mk 1:1–8

A man used to go down to the river every day to put in a fishing line, but at the end of the line was not a fishing hook but a straight pin. Many who saw him at the river were puzzled. They would ask him what kind of fish does you think you will catch with this straight pin? The man turned around and said: I thought I might catch you.

Our Gospel reading for today is about a man whom many Jewish persons thought had lost his fishing hook. He is John the Baptism. John the Baptist lived in the wilderness and he, too, wanted to catch people. John left the village and went to the desert of Judea to live as a hermit. John was dressed in loud clothes, and ate strange food, John the Baptist was the son of Zachary and his wife Elizabeth, a cousin of Mary, the mother of Jesus which made Jesus his cousin. When John was thirty he began to preach on the banks of the Jordan River and invited people to be baptized. He attracted large crowds. In fact many thought that John the Baptist was Jesus.

John baptized his cousin Jesus in the waters of the Jordan River. John attracted large crowds. The political authorities were suspicious of John. John got into serious trouble, however, when he criticized King Herod of adultery. Herod was annoyed and had John the Baptist killed.

But many, including Jesus, came to talk with John the Baptist and get some help from him. John lived a time when the Jewish people were slaves of the corrupt Roman rulers. Into this environment John brought a word of hope. He announced that God was coming. He said we must prepare a road for God who is coming in a person named Jesus.

The first job in building a new road is to clear the right of way. There may be trees to cut down and stumps to pull up. Sometimes buildings must be torn down or moved. The right of way then is ready for rough grading. Our first reading today gives us a hint of road construction about 4000 years ago. There were no earth movers or Bull dozers, but somehow the valleys were filled in and the mountains were cut down so that the crooked ways might be made straight and a road for the lord be built.

John inspired many of his followers to follow Jesus. Among these were Andrew and his brother John. He became convinced that his cousin Jesus was really the Savior and Son of God, and wanted everyone to prepare the way for Jesus.

Some people went to John because they were spiritually bankrupt. They were empty, and they hoped that John could fill the empty place. Others went to John because they had it all, but it wasn't enough. They had money and homes, but they wanted more. But then, when they got more, they still felt that they did not have enough. Nothing made them happy. They went to John hoping that he could pull together the broken pieces of their lives, and make them whole.

These reasons for coming to John sound like some of the reasons that people turn to Jesus today. Each of us for various reasons feel within us a need for change or conversion.

All of us have experienced someone telling us how to change our lives. This call to change our lives may be the only one that some of us have ever heard. Like with John the Baptist we may have been invited to think about a new way of life, or to return to a time in our life when we were happier. I recently read an interesting fact that the today the largest number of American Christians are those who no longer practice their Catholic religion. Like the people talked about in our first reading, these persons are in exile. In a sense they have left home and are wandering.

But Advent is a time for each of us to experience our restlessness and emptiness. As Christians, we have the role of preparing the way of the Lord, not only for ourselves but for others. Before we help prepare others, we must be conscious as to how we experience our exile, our own sins and seek forgiveness. Bad habits can make us a person we do not want to be, or they can make us blind to ourselves and to others. Advent is a time for our renewal. John the Baptist came to straighten out the road for Jesus, to prepare his way. We too may need to get the road of our lives straightened and the interstate highways of our hearts ready so that we take the right road or be able to get out of the ruts of our life.

This Advent let us welcome back into our lives someone whom we have not related with for a long time; and on the other hand, let us also welcome into our lives someone who comes to us to renew a relationship. And finally, each one of us in this church today knows of a Catholic who is right now inactive. In kindness reach out to that person, inviting that person to return. If you and I do not prepare the way for the Lord, who will?