Advent Meditation Week 2, 12/7/14

Second Sunday of Advent

Reading 1: Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11

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.

A voice cries out:
In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!
Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill shall be made low;
the rugged land shall be made a plain,
the rough country, a broad valley.
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Go up on to a high mountain,
Zion, herald of glad tidings;
cry out at the top of your voice,
Jerusalem, herald of good news!
Fear not to cry out
and say to the cities of Judah:
Here is your God!
Here comes with power
the Lord GOD,
who rules by his strong arm;
here is his reward with him,
his recompense before him.
Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers the lambs,
carrying them in his bosom,
and leading the ewes with care.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14

Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.

Reading 2:  2 Peter 3:8-14

Do not ignore this one fact, beloved,
that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years
and a thousand years like one day.
The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,”
but he is patient with you,
not wishing that any should perish
but that all should come to repentance....
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.
Alleluia

Gospel: Mark 1:1-8

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.”
John the Baptist appeared in the desert
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
People of the whole Judean countryside
and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
were going out to him
and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River
as they acknowledged their sins.
John was clothed in camel’s hair,
with a leather belt around his waist.
He fed on locusts and wild honey.
And this is what he proclaimed:
“One mightier than I is coming after me.
I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water;
he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

It’s interesting that the Evangelist Mark echoes exactly the voice of Isaiah the Prophet as he begins his telling of the Gospel.  Actually, all the gospel-writers find the point of connection that helps us to understand the acts of Jesus in what goes before him. Matthew and Luke each give us Jesus the descendent of one of the mystical lineages of the Chosen People.  John gives us the philosophical descent of Jesus, the Logos--the Word or Mind of God--from the center of Being itself, the Godhead.  Mark, who always gets right to the point, does this with concrete events, by introducing the hard-to-miss John the Baptizer shouting truth and salvation in the Judean wilderness, and drawing a crowd.  

Who was going out there?  “People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to see him.”  Why did they go?  They went “to acknowledge their sins” and “to be baptized by him in the Jordan River.”  Whose idea of a vacation in the country is this?  Think for a minute what moves people to such behavior; occasionally in history, this happens, but not exactly because it’s August in Paris.

People leave their accustomed environment to hear a message about human sinfulness and helplessness because something is very wrong.  In the case of early first-century Palestine, the common classes of the Jews were under the oppression of Roman rule.  One could live peaceably, but at a cost--limitation of basic freedoms, bureaucracy and harsh justice, and stifling taxation exacted by paid enforcers using strong-arm tactics. In addition, Jews felt betrayed by the backers of the local ruling dynasty, the Herodians, who bought Roman toleration of their rule and traditions at a cost to life and spirit the nation.  By the time another century would pass after the cessation of hostilities, the Jewish remnant of Roman ethnic cleansing, largely scattered in numerous diaspora communities, would blame the Herod dynasty for the greatest decimation of their history to that point--worse than the exile in Babylon.  They ultimately would expunge a number of late Greco-Roman era biblical books from their Scripture because these reminded them of a very dark period.

So the times were ugly, and the people sought refuge in God, hearing words of solace and moral clarity for their anger, anxiety and hardship. Isaiah's words in this light seem an incantation calling forth from the fiery desert a figure of truth--like the Baptizer.  Like Isaiah, John promises that judgment is coming in the person of God's Anointed.  This figure stands for a kind of justice that will mark an end to the reign of the power-mad and corrupt tyrants of the day--we can say of any point in history, practically.

But the Anointed also comes in response to another longing, one felt universally felt among all people, this for peace of spirit: "Kindness and truth shall meet; justice and peace shall kiss. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and justice shall look down from heaven." Worldly justice is but a prelude, a first stage on the way to a moment when everything will change.  Isaiah's power-metaphor of the world's physical renewal gives way to nurturing tenderness that is only the property of God: "the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together; ...Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care."

Of course, John the Baptizer is among the tiny remnant of those alive at the time who get it right. Study well the Protagonists in the Gospel stories of the next several weeks. This handful of "nobodies" is the first community of faith, who accept with pious humility that the God of Mighty Acts has roused, hearing the cry of his little ones. This, says John, is the Time when water is no longer just the Jordan River's mere trickle, but a torrent of the Spirit, releasing a new Creation from the waters bound up at the start of time itself. John's "baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" is but the visible appearance of what the human heart truly seeks--a complete transformation that addresses our temporal fears, but much more indeed: the deep dread of sin and death inherent in our fallen condition. John seems to know that Yahweh God is paying a visit, and he will submit himself in obedience before the Almighty. In so doing he will die to the powers of this world, as the worldly, venal Herod will have him murdered.

In the child that arrives in Bethlehem, grows up in Nazareth and walks with the people looking for John along the Jordan abides the great mystery of the cosmos: where in this world, parched lifeless and without hope, can we find a source of renewal in truth and justice, and a love beyond all human loves? For us, as for those who with John trusted and treasured the ember of faith in their gentle hearts, it is a hidden mystery, but one no less real for the fact that we are waiting for its fulfillment, knowing that there are witnesses to its incarnation.  Hence, the Church asks us to consider seriously the seemingly incongruous advice of Peter who reminds us of the greater dimension of the mystery of this "expectant Christmas."  In Peter's words, "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."

The newness of Creation is at hand. Have a blessed second week of Advent!