Second Sunday of Advent (B) [Mk
1:1-8]
10.03.2023
The
Proclamation of John the Baptist
1. Theme in brief
How to
prepare the way of the Lord
2. Focus Statement
To prepare ourselves
to welcome Jesus at Christmas, we need to personally respond to the
proclamation of John the Baptist for a radical change of mind or attitude and imitate
his humility and austere life-style.
3. Explanation of
the text
Today’s
gospel text is about the proclamation or message of John the Baptist about preparing the way for the
Lord (Jesus,1:2) by amending the crooked paths (1:3) that are an
obstacle to receive him. He considers his preaching as the voice of a prophet like Isaiah crying out in the ‘wilderness’ –obviously, a symbol of a meeting
place or encounter with God (1:3). Here John the Baptizer is presented as the forerunner of the Messiah in whom two
prophetic texts from Malachi and Isaiah are fulfilled: A messenger of God will go "ahead of you"
(Malachi 3:1), one who will "prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight" (Isaiah 40:3).
In his
preaching addressed to the people of Judea and
The main purpose of
John’s preaching is to prepare people to accept the Good News of Jesus as the Anointed One (Christ
or Messiah) and the Son of God (1:1). He
points to Jesus as the promised Messiah and invites his readers
to recognize him as God’s own Son.
This text depicts John the Baptist as an ascetic and humble prophet who gives a personal example of an austere life-style. He renounces worldly comforts by wearing clothing of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist. He eats locusts and wild honey (1:6). He humbly admits that the Coming One (Jesus) is more powerful than him. He accepts a subordinate role by expressing his unworthiness to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals (1:7). He says that the baptism to be administered by the Coming One is also radically different from his. He contrasts his baptism by water with the baptism of Holy Spirit to be administered by the Lord who will come after me(1:8).
4. Application to
life
On the second Sunday of Advent, the
Church invites us to listen to the proclamation or
message of John the Baptist and imitate his personal and
powerful example. She wants that we should prepare for Christmas and ultimately for
the final coming (Parousia) of the Lord, by personally responding to the
proclamation and prophetic voice of John the Baptist. How? First of all, as he
preaches, by preparing the way of the Lord and making his paths
straight. John gives a clarion call to straighten
our ways made crooked by our selfishness, ungodly ways and double standards. In other words, his call involves turning away from crooked ways of the world and returning to
God’s ways. We need to prepare our hearts to receive Jesus by straightening of
the crooked paths we are walking, so that he may enter.
For us the straight way is the way
of the gospel. Whenever we deviate from the path of love, genuine
concern for others, service, sacrifice, mercy and forgiveness and imitate selfish,
corrupt or dishonest ways of the world we walk on the crooked path. Advent is
an appropriate time to examine whether there are symptoms of any crookedness in our behaviour, action, dealings
or attitudes that are contrary to God’s path. We often here people speaking
about “dirty politics” and “dirty business” to refer to crookedness of people in public
dealings. The former word is used to refer to not only political
circles, but also to any crooked or dishonest behaviour
or double-dealing found within families, neighbourhoods, villages,
religious/social institutes and the Church. The latter word is used for any
business that uses corrupt or dishonest
means. How can the Lord enter if our way is so crooked or “dirty” (as people
say)?
Secondly, we need to hearken to John’s voice as a messenger of God crying in wilderness which symbolizes our meeting point with the Lord. His voice resounds in our consciences telling us to renounce our sins, seek God’s forgiveness and establish a new relationship with God and fellow humans to reach that meeting point with the Lord at Christmas. We should heed to his call for a firm decision to change the direction of our life. Yes, a direction contrary to the one we have taken now. Advent is the time to feel the need of a change in our life by changing our mental attitudes. In John’s ministry baptism was a sign that a person had decided to change his/her life, giving up a sinful or evil behaviour and selfish way of life and do good with a renewed zeal. Of course, it is not possible to do this without turning to God. Therefore, a call to conversion or repentance is simultaneously a call to return to the Lord. Advent is a time to examine how far away we are from the Lord and to desire for a closer and deeper relationship with him through prayer and fruitful reception of the Eucharist.
Thirdly, our preparation to meet the
Lord involves a convincing faith in the Powerful One (Christ) who is coming and a personal commitment to him as the
Son of God. In
the context of Advent Season, John’s message is an appeal for us to accept
Jesus who comes at Christmas as the Lord of our lives and the promised Messiah.
It means making Christ as the Centre of our life and accepting him as the Son of God who comes to take birth in our
hearts in new ways. As long as sin reigns over our lives, or long as we do not turn away
from selfish ways and turn towards God’s love, we cannot accept him who came to
bring about a revolution of love. Unless we are filled
with faith-conviction and submit ourselves to his power, neither our way will
be straight nor will we feel the need for a change of heart.
Fourthly, we must prepare ourselves to welcome the Lord with a spirit of asceticism and humility – the hallmarks of John the Baptist. They are contributory factors that motivate us to decide for a change of heart. John the Baptist’s ascetic way of life, rejection of worldly comforts and convincing proclamation of the coming of the Lord were challenges for his audience. His challenges help us to change our lives, and become effective witnesses for Christ. Humility is an additional virtue in the process of conversion, since a proud person cannot open his heart to Jesus.
What is humility? Humility is an attitude
of the mind because of which we admit our human limitations and weakness; rely not on our strength alone, but on God’s;
admit that we are all sinners or forgiven sinners; and recognize that we are
continually in need of his mercy and forgiveness. We need to realize how poor we
are spiritually (if not materially), how lame and crippled we are to walk on
God’s ways unless helped by him, and how blind we are unless the he gives us
the light of faith. Proud people forget that all that they are and all that they
have is God’s gift.
They seem to have changed the song of angels at the first Christmas night in
this way: “Glory to God in the highest
heaven and glory to me here on earth!” Though in prayer they say, “You
alone are the Lord,” in behaviour and action he/she shows, “I alone am the Lord!” If
anybody thinks he is the Lord, where is the need for the real Lord who is to
come?
John the Baptist’s personal example of humility to the extent of admitting one’s unworthiness to stoop down to untie the sandals of the Coming One motivates us to renounce any kind of self-reliance and pride and be willing to renounce all symptoms of pride in us such as arrogance, self-importance, aggressiveness, self-righteousness, domination, showiness or pomp and self-assertion at the expense of others. This virtue of humility motivates us to resist worldly competition noticed in our external Christmas preparations. Can we resist the tendency among to compete with other parishes or neighbourhoods for the best of Christmas decorations/ cribs/ parties/ carols?
The modern world considers humility as misery and madness
– accepting defeat, giving up the fight and allowing the opponents to have an
upper hand. It tells us to prove that we are worth something. Under the
influence of this secular mentality, when Christmas comes we may
be tempted to show that our parish church is not less than any other as far as
the glamour of decorations is concerned, or our Christmas party should have
more and better items than others’. In multi-religious societies, Christians
are tempted to imitate the pomp and grandeur of the tableau installed by
followers of other religions in public places during their festivals to show
them that we are better than them.
5. Response to God's Word
What attitude, behaviour or life-style should we change
before we can receive and accept the Son of God who comes to take birth in a new
way at Christmas? As Christmas is approaching, what is our main focus: is it on new
clothes, party, decoration, dance, eating and drinking, or change of our mental
attitudes that will lead to change of our behaviour? What efforts are we going
to make, by which spiritual means, to turn away from lying, cheating, abusing, quarrelling,
slandering, aggressiveness and violence in our families and society? What are
the crooked or dishonest ways we are walking that need to be straightened? How
can we imitate the spirit of renunciation and humility followed by John the
Baptist in order to come back to the Lord? Does our
pride make us behave like a ‘messiah’? If so, where is the place for the real
Messiah?
6. A prayer
Merciful God, as we prepare
ourselves to welcome your Son at Christmas as the Messiah and Son of God, grant
that we may heed to John the Baptist’s call for a firm decision to change the
direction of our life so that you, and not sin, may rule over us. Give us the
strength to straighten our crooked and dishonest ways. May our repentance be
genuine so that it yields to visible action. Make us meek and humble of heart
to receive you. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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