The figure of John the Baptist is very present in Advent. We are awaiting the coming of Christ and John was sent to prepare Israel for the coming of our Lord. However, we need to be prepared, open to God's grace. Today's first reading puts it all in context. Israel had sinned (and let us remember that we too are the new Israel in our sinfulness) and had been punished by God.
But the Lord, through Isaiah, offers a message of consolation. How appropriate this is for Advent: what could be more consoling than the coming of the almighty God as a small, helpless child in need of our affection?
God wants to comfort us if we are willing to be comforted. "Your sin is atoned for." and God prepares a way for the exiles in Babylon to return to their own land (part of the punishment for Israel's sins was exile in this great pagan city). A straight road is prepared for Israel, with mountains and hills lowered and cliffs smoothed.
We do not have to understand this literally, as if God is gardening to help the people of Israel return home. It is simply that God is simplifying everything for the people to return to Him.
It is we who complicate things. In fact, part of our conversion this Advent may well be the effort to be more simple and straightforward, to try to avoid double dealing and insincerity.
John deliberately presents himself as an Elijah-type figure, ministering in the same area and even wearing the same kind of rough clothing that the prophet used to wear nine centuries before Christ, a camel-skin garment.
All those centuries before, Elijah had been sent to convert Israel from their double-dealing, when they attempted to worship both God and the false fertility god Baal, whose worship permitted numerous forms of immorality.
By acting in this way, the Baptist was fulfilling the ancient prophecies that Elijah would return. Elijah-who had been taken to heaven apparently alive in a chariot of fire-was expected to return. He did not return in person, but Jesus explained that John fulfilled this prophecy: he himself was like a new Elijah.
John points to the greater power of the one he awaits, Jesus Christ, who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, with God, because he himself is God. The readings want to make us more aware of God's power, also in the course of time. The second reading teaches us that God is totally beyond our limited concept of time: "To the Lord, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.".
We are invited to be aware of God's saving power, also so as not to fall into pessimism or despair, as if our situation were hopeless. God can act to save us, and he is ready to do so: he just wants a little honesty on our part.
Homily on the readings of the Second Sunday of Advent (B)
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaA short one-minute reflection for these Sunday readings.
