“Prepare the Way” by Rev. Paul Berghout (@FatherPB)

“Prepare the Way” by Rev. Paul Berghout (@FatherPB) 

Second Sunday of Advent

Piety

Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.  Isaiah 40:1-2

Since everything is to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be, conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames and the elements melted by fire. But according to his promise, we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace.  2 Peter 3:11-14

The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah, the Prophet: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”  Mark 1:1-3 

Study

Modern GPS devices usually have a pleasant voice that tells you when you missed a turn and how to get back on the right road. On this Second Sunday of Advent, we hear the pleasant voice of this Good News in the opening words of our Gospel today: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.” (Mark 1.1). 

The word “gospel” means “good news.”  The news is Jesus is new life.  He alone dealt with the burden of our sin and estrangement from God by his saving death on the Cross and Resurrection. For the faithful departed, life is not ended through his redemptive act but changed (Catechism 1012) into a happy destiny.  He gained for us the immortality of the conscious personality (subjective awareness) and the resurrection of our body on the last day.

In this life, the Good News also is that Jesus shows us the moral way that leads us to salvation and, through grace, we receive divine assistance to do it. As our Second Reading says, “conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion” (2 Peter 3:11)

For example, we often hear that John clothed himself in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he fed on locusts and wild honey. (Mark 1:6).

On a historical level, desert peoples ate grasshoppers as protein, and raw honey is rich in nutrients and Vitamin C.  Comfort food in wild honey and locust?

The early Christian authors made theological reflections on John the Baptist’s clothing and food, seeing an example of a change in lifestyle and behavior that does not follow the status quo. That sanctification realizes our moral life.

Clement of Alexandria offers the Baptist’s diet as an example to avoid overeating and gluttony, saying, “I for one would not hesitate to call that devil, the devil of the belly, the most wicked and deadly of them all. John the Baptist maintained extreme self-restraint. [source: Paed. 2.1 (2.15.4-2.16.1); Simon P. Wood, [Clement,] Christ the Educator (FC 23; New York: Fathers of the Church, 1954).

And St. Jerome says that John the Baptist’s somber dress scandalizes an immodest world, yet, among those born of women, there has not been [one] more excellent than he. He was called an angel, and he baptized the Lord Himself, yet he was clothed in camel’s hair, girded with a leather belt. [source: Jerome, Ep. 38.3 (To Marcella). St. Jerome was telling Marcella that as a widow, she is “freed from the marital bond” and now has, for her one duty, to continue as a widow; in modest dress and to persevere since Marcella only had simple food to eat.]

The second example of Good News in our Readings today is the comfort that comes through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

People say that the task of a prophet is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

In Our First Reading, the Babylonian army invaded the land.  They took away many of the leading citizens into exile in Babylon. The belligerent military destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, and the city lay in ruins. The people were in shock. These were real-life historical events that the Prophet Isaiah described from a faith perspective as coming from God as a “divine chastisement” for the people’s apostasy, heresy, idolatry, and other religious and social transgressions.

After all that, the Divine Anger subsided, and God tried to draw Israel into returning to their relationship with him. Historically, the Persians had conquered the Babylonians and have now given Israel permission to go home.

Action

The only route home is spiritual – what the readings call “the way of the Lord.”  Pay attention to preparing for the coming of the Messiah.

The result of preparation is peace, a self that is utterly at rest with God with a good conscience. 

Listen to the words of our First Reading, “Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.” (Isaiah 40: 1-2).

Isaiah repeats the word “comfort” to emphasize its emotional weight and reassure us that Christ, the Messiah, expiates our guilt.  His coming means the end of our indentured service to temptation, along with the liquidation of our debts incurred.  The benefits bestowed will outweigh the punishment inflicted.

The word “comfort” includes the word “fort,” which means strong; to give strength and hope to, easing the trouble,” by the receiving the sacrament of reconciliation, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.