2nd SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Readings:
Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11
2 Peter 3:8-14
Mark 1:1-8
"I am sending my messenger
ahead of you to prepare your way.”
Last
Sunday, we meditated on the meaning of advent, and we learned the
various sense of the Lord's coming: Of course, the biblical kairos
refers to the two big events of Christ's coming. But we know that our loving
God comes to us not only at Christmas and at the end of time, but also in the
different situations of life. And we know, too, that every time he does, it will
always be a moment of grace. Surely, it is in his coming that he enters into
our hearts and touches our lives. Thus, his coming entails not only plain
watchfulness, but also a deep-seated sense of preparation. It is God who comes
to us, and it is just most righteous that we give him his due, i.e., we must
prepare for his coming.
Today we
are given a model of preparation. He is most worthy as a model for, on the
place, it was God himself who sent him to prepare the way of his son. For two
Sundays, we shall be meditating on this special biblical personality and on his
message. His name is John Baptist.
1. "I
am sending my messenger..." First and foremost, John is God's
messenger. John is no ordinary figure. He is a recipient of God’s special
calling. Right from the start, John already enjoys God’s favor. His conception
is revealed to his father in a vision. Like Isaac (Gen 18), he is conceived at
his mother's old age; Like Samuel (cf 1 Sam 1) and Samson (cf Jg 13), he is
born of a mother thought to be sterile. And like any other big biblical
characters, he is endowed with a particular mission. But unlike the rest, his
mission is singular and special. In fact, both his person and mission have been
foretold by the prophets themselves: "A voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Prepare the way of the way of the
Lord, make straight his paths.’”
From all
eternity, therefore, God has chosen John to
be the forerunner of his son. God has revealed this as early as the time of the
prophet Isaiah. What Mark quotes in his gospel is practically the prophecy of
Isaiah. Mark himself acknowledges this future event as being foretold in the
book of the great prophet. In fact, if we are to take a closer look, can safely
say that the remote Old Testament preparation for the lord’s coming is
personified by Isaiah. But if Isaiah the Prophet bears that remote preparation
in the Old Testament, John the Baptist now
shines as God’s instrument for such immediate preparations in the New
Testament. And if Isaiah's preparation consists in making the people know about
the coming messiah through his prophecies, John,
for his part, will now be the herald of the messiah’s imminent coming in and
through his bold proclamations and uncompromising pronouncements. In fact,
John, in his person and ministry, is the fulfillment of what Isaiah himself
foretells.
2. As a
messenger, John has a resounding message to tell and a mission to fulfill. And
as the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, he calls himself "a voice
crying out in the desert: 'Prepare the way
of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley will be raised up; every mountain
and hill will be laid low. The ground shall
become level and the rugged places smooth…’”
These
words of the great prophet are familiar to his people. Literally, this is how
people of the Orient prepare their place when the royal majesty or the nobles
would visit them. But such preparation acquires a higher meaning when the
prophet now applies this message to the coming Messiah. While perhaps preserving
the physical sense of it, prophet exhorts his people to prepare themselves in
the most intimate spiritual sense. Straightening a crooked path may mean
mending our crooked ways. Leveling mountains and hills may mean tempering our
pride. And making rugged places smooth may mean mellowing down our harsh
characters and attitudes. In short, it means a change of lifestyle from what is
aweful to what is acceptable, from displeasing to pleasing, from bad to good.
It is no
surprise, therefore, that John carries the message of repentance: "Repent,
for the kingdom of God is at hand!” This repentance is not simply an
outward penance but an intimate and sincere inward change. It is metanoia,
a change of heart. It calls for a radical mending of ways whereby one takes a
complete about face. It is that repentance, which shams and abhors every sinful
situation. Thus, one who truly repents in this manner turns his back on sin and
faces the new life of grace. For this reason,
only this kind of repentance bears fruit in the kingdom. That is why
John challenges the Pharisees and Sadducees who come to him for baptism: "Produce
good fruit as evidence of your repentance" (Mt 3:7-10).
3. With this, we see that John as the messenger,
as the forerunner, as the herald of Christ, pre-proclaims the messianic gospel
of liberation. In fact, John inaugurates this “pre-proclamation” at the river
Jordan, where and when he performs the baptism of water. This baptism of water
is the baptism of repentance, the baptism of conversion that prepares the way
for the baptism of the Spirit.
His call to repentance is inseparable from the
kingdom of God that liberates. Thus, even as
he proclaims the imminent coming of God’s kingdom,
John carries in his message the prophetic indicatives of God’s reign. These
indicatives are clear in the enunciations of the Prophets. And John comes to re-echo the message of old. When this messianic
kingdom reigns, captives are given freedom,
the blind are given sight, the deaf hearing,
the mute speech, and the broken-hearted joy and hope. And not only that. What
seems to be most consoling about the messianic reign is that the good news is
announced to the poor and the year of favor is proclaimed to them. Jesus
himself would confirm this when at last he came. In fact, it was precisely in
this same fashion that Christ would answer John's disciples when the latter
would send them to verify the person of Jesus (cf Mt 11:2-6). The kingdom of God is therefore the good news
of our salvation. And the good news of the kingdom reigns at the advent of the
Messiah because he himself bears the kingdom, and he himself is the good news.
It is most befitting, therefore, that our
celebration of the Jubilee Year must set us towards our genuine goal and
direction. It must attune us into that rightful mood and spirit of the
messianic gospel of liberation. In these difficult times and at these critical
moments of our history, the voice of the wilderness comes even more
relevant and uncompromising. It is that voice, which shouts for justice amidst
an unjust world. It is that voice, which cries for the preferential option for
the poor And this means, among others, giving the poor equal share and
opportunities in every aspect of human life - cultural, religious, political,
ecological and economic - even as the new world order opens itself to a more
repressive and exploitative type of global economy. The voice of the wilderness
continues to echo as the voice of the new millennium: "Prepare the way
of Lord!”