By the Light of His Glory

By the Light of His Glory

December 9, 2012

Second Sunday of Advent 2012 B

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

For God has commanded that every lofty mountain be made low, and that the age-old depths and gorges be filled to level ground, that Israel may advance secure in the glory of God.  The forests and every fragrant kind of tree have overshadowed Israel at God's command; for God is leading Israel in joy by the light of his glory, with his mercy and justice for company.  Baruch 5:7-9

And this is my prayer: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.  Philippians 1:9-11

The word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.  John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  Luke 3:2b-3

Piety

Our piety celebrates the great events in the life of Christ.  Our eyes turn toward Bethlehem at the time of Christ’s coming into our world so that God could be one of us in the coming of his son to us.  We celebrate wedding and births on the day itself.  Christmas is a major event in the history of the human race.  We watch in our prayer God becoming one of us.  We celebrate four weeks of preparation because God has done great thing for us and our celebrations of his love for us fill us with great joy.  The word of God comes to John in the desert to prepare the way of the Lord.  Our piety is how we prepare the way of the Lord in our lives.

Study

The names of the great people of that time locate Christ’s birth for us in history.  They are the people that will be there at his death and they connect his dying to his coming into our world to save us.  Four weeks of preparation tell us how important what we are celebrating is.  How we enter into the preparation for Christmas is the work of a lifetime.  Each year of our lives adds to the preparation for the coming.  Christ comes to us in each least person of our lives.  How we learn to recognize him in the hungry, thirsty, sick, naked and prisoners of our lives is part of the preparation for our own dying.  Christmas speaks God’s connection to the human race.  Our connection to the least persons of our lives speaks our connection to the Christ of Nativity.  Christ comes into our world as one of the last, lowest and least.

Action

The work of preparing the way of the Lord is seen in what we do for the poor and the helpless of our lives.  We work for the coming of Christ in how we straighten the paths of those lost.  We fill in the emptiness of the valleys of despair in the lives of the poor with our gifts.   Every valley shall be filled.  The mountains and the hills that block the road to Bethlehem we must try to make low.  The winding roads that slow the approach to the Lord we shall try to make straight.  The rough ways that surround the poor we shall try to make smooth.  We must work at giving all the people in our lives the chance to see the salvation of the Lord.  Thus we will put on the glory of the Lord.  We will be ready for his coming.