HOMILY FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT– YEAR B

Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Osmond Anike

Readings:

First Reading: : Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11 – The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all mankind shall see it.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 84(85):9-14 – Let us see, O Lord, your mercy, and give us your saving help.

Second Reading:2 Peter 3:8-14 – We are waiting for the new heavens and the new earth.

Gospel: Mark 1:1-8 – A voice cries in the wilderness: prepare a way for the Lord.

Advent is a period of wakefulness and waiting. But it is also a period consolation and hope. Last Sunday’s liturgy emphasized the need to stay awake and wait patiently for our salvation. This Sunday, the emphasis is placed on consoling the people and giving them words of hope that, finally, they can be restored to their original state. The Isaiah text that we listened to in the first reading comes from the second part of Isaiah known as the Deutero Isaiah (= chapters 40-55, and is believed to have been written by a remote disciple of Isaiah). In Biblical scholarship, it is referred to as “The Book of Consolation”, in contrast to the first part of Isaiah (chapters 1-39) which is referred to as “The Book of Judgement”. The reason is because, throughout this section, the prophet offers no judgment and condemnation of Israel, but only a message of trust and confident hope that God is about to end the exile.

In the years 597, 587 and 582 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked and destroyed Jerusalem and deported most of the prominent people in Judea to Babylon. The Temple of Jerusalem was burnt down and its sacred vessels looted to Babylon. With this desecration, both the Jewish liturgical worship and Davidic monarchy were removed. From their exile, the people became demoralized and even questioned the faithfulness and the power of God for allowing them to suffer such humiliation in the hands of their pagan enemy. They felt threatened and even seduced by the religion and science of this pagan country. It was at this time that the anonymous Deutero-Isaiah (or Second Isaiah) was called by the Lord to address these problems that the people were facing. His core message was that of consolation. The prophet states that having already paid double penalty, God’s people shall now receive salvation. This is why one key element in the entire Second Isaiah’s message of reassurance and comfort to those in exile is the hope the prophet gives to them that they will return to their homeland of Judah and have the opportunity to rebuild and restore their community there. It is in the hope and preparation for this restoration that “every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low”.

To fully understand this drama of filling every valley and levelling every mountain, one needs to understand the topography of the region in question. Babylon and Jerusalem are separated by a vast desert. However, the road linking the two cities did not go straight through the desert but rather through a snake-like meandering across hills and valleys, thus making it very long and difficult. Yet, the mysterious “voice” announces that the exiles will return through a direct and more comfortable road across the desert. This is because the one to lead them will be no ordinary human leader like Moses. Their journey will be a new exodus, more glorious than the first, and led by the Lord himself. This is why the people were called upon to prepare a way in the wilderness for the Lord, and make a straight highway for God. This call aligns with the culture of the Ancient Near East where a king’s or monarch’s advent was heralded by adequate preparation to level the routes he was to follow in order to make his chariot ride a smooth one. Some of the exiles hearkened to the call of the “voice” by eventually returning to Jerusalem. But many preferred to stay back in Babylon and consequently continued in their slavery.

Christian theology has interpreted this Isaiah text in the light of the Jesus event. Advent, therefore, is a time we prepare for the coming of the King of kings. Like the people of Israel of Isaiah’s time, we have to get comforted and hope for our own time of liberation and restoration. The Israelites were taken into slavery to Babylon. We are equally under slavery of sin. But just as the Israelites were restored back to the Land of Promise, so shall we hope to get restored back to the state of grace. But before we can thus get restored, we have to fill in different potholes in our lives; we have to level the mountains and hills in our hearts, so that when the Lord comes, he shall find in us smooth paths.

Unfortunately, the secular society has taken over Christmas from Christians. And it is interesting to see the types of preparations we make nowadays for this great and unique feast of the Lord’s birth. John the Baptist is the new voice that cries in the wilderness. He preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in the Gospel of today. In doing so, he really captured the spiritual dimension of Christmas and insisted that people prepared spiritually by repenting and confessing their sins.

The question now is this: What type of preparation are you making for the Christmas? Are you preparing to come out of Babylon or to go into it? And if you are immersed in the “Babylon” of sin, are you contended to remain in it? Remember, majority of the Israelites decided to stay back in Babylon to continue in their slavery because they lacked the courage and the strength to begin a new life. When one has been in sin for so long, there is always this temptation to remain in sin for lack of courage to come out of it. Beginning a new life is never a sign of weakness; it is rather a sign of strength. What is a sign of weakness is remaining in your old life for lack of courage to come out. We should strive during this Advent period to muster enough courage to say goodbye to Babylon, and to follow the desert road to our own Promised Land of grace.