Of
course, Santa Claus isn’t the only figure whose annual appearance heralds the
coming of Christmas. As she always does on this 2nd Sunday of
Advent, the Church introduces us to the mysterious figure of John the Baptist,
who comes out of the desert each Advent proclaiming: “Prepare the way of the Lord” [Luke 3:4; Isaiah 40:3].
John
the Baptist is a very mysterious figure, appearing briefly at the beginning of
Jesus’ public life, then quickly getting himself arrested and executed. All
four Gospels mention John in connection with the beginning of Jesus’ public
life, but Luke’s Gospel goes further and links John and Jesus not only as
adults but at the beginning of their lives as infants. As the future founder of
the Paulist Fathers, Isaac Hecker, wrote in his Diary eight months after he had become a Catholic [April 2,
1845]: “We have much to
learn before we know all that union with God means … Alas how few live solely
for God – Mary – John the Baptist – these from their birth were consecrated to
his work alone.” Hecker echoed the emphasis in Luke’s story of John’s
consecration as priest and prophet from Day 1 - how John was by birth a Jewish
priest, summing up and fulfilling all that the Old Testament was about, and a
prophet, going before the Lord in the
spirit and power of Elijah to prepare a people fit for the Lord [Luke
1:17; Malachi 3:23-24].
But how to prepare a people fit for the Lord? How do we
prepare for the Lord?
John’s
message may be timeless, but Luke the Gospel writer went to great length to
pinpoint precisely when in historical time John made his first public appearance.
What one notices immediately is the special solemnity
of the story's language - the style of an official imperial proclamation,
complete with the names of the reigning emperor and his representatives. That's
Luke the historian, telling us who, what, when, and where - situating John's
message in the larger sweep of human history.
All of this suggests that, however out-of-the-way the Jordan
Valley may seem to us (despite its regular prominence in the news of the
world), the real stage on which John's solemn pronouncement is being proclaimed
is not some far-off desert oasis but at the very center of society - symbolized
in the Gospel by that list of names of the emperor and his representatives. While the message itself may indeed be
timeless, God’s grace and mercy come to us in real time, in the specific
circumstances in which we happen to find ourselves. That was what the Prophet
Baruch was explaining to the people in the sad and troubled time that followed
the Temple’s destruction and Israel’s exile to Babylon. Baruch invited the
people to put aside their mourning and contemplate the exiles’ return at the
time of the fall festival when the autumn rains bring new life to the parched
land. He portrayed the return of the exiles as if they were on a pilgrimage, a
pilgrimage brought about by God alone, who is revealed in his mercy and justice.
Some
25 centuries later, we read and hear this prophecy in a world which once again
is witness to a seemingly endless procession of exiles – refugees from Central
America who are presently stranded on our own southern border and others around
the world where war and chaos currently destroy lives and families and the very
fabric of society itself. Wherever they come from and wherever they go, our
obligation, as the United States’ Bishops have reminded us is “to care for and
stand with newcomers, authorized and unauthorized, including unaccompanied
immigrant children, refugees and asylum-seekers, those unnecessarily detained,
and victims of human trafficking” [Faithful
Citizenship, 81] .
The similarities between then and now remind us that the stage on
which John's solemn pronouncement is being proclaimed is not just some far-off
1st-century desert oasis but every time and place, including notably
our own.
The geographical desert was just John's starting-point - as it had
been Israel's starting-point way back when. Rather than remain in the
wilderness, the word of God takes John out of the desert and into the world.
God's word wants to be heard - by everyone, where people actually are. In the
words of the prophet Isaiah that Luke quotes: all flesh shall see the
salvation of God [Isaiah 40:5].
For most of us, preoccupied as we inevitably are with our busy
day-to-day lives and our here-and-now concerns, John the Baptist reminds us
what Advent and Christmas are all about - God's word's active movement into our
world. Isaiah said all flesh shall see the salvation of God, but in John
that future is already happening in the present. And, as in Isaiah's day and as
in John's, there are certainly plenty of valleys to be filled and mountains and
hills to be leveled by God’s grace and mercy in our world.
Advent, as we are always being told, is all about waiting and
eager expectation. But waiting for what, exactly? Surely not just for Santa
Claus! For Christ? Yes, for Christ - but surely not for Christ to be born! That
happened a long time ago in Bethlehem. Otherwise, we wouldn't be praying here
in this church today! If I may quote Isaac Hecker again: Christ has come.
Christ is here, now upon earth. Christ ever abides with [us] according to His word. What the age
promises [us] is the rending asunder the clouds of error which hinder [us]
from seeing that Christ is here. [The Church and the Age, 1887]
Like the first coming of Christ, which John proclaimed way back
then, the day-in, day-out, here-and-now, coming of Christ, which the Church
lives all year long, invites a convinced and committed response on our part.
That kind of response can only be sustained when we become convinced, as Saint
Paul so clearly was, that the peace of
God that surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus [Philippians
4:7]
Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Advent, Immaculate Conception Church, Knoxville, TN, December 9, 2018
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