Second Sunday in Advent
Reflection: Make your path a little straighter
By SISTER MARY McGLONE
When I finished high school, my father thought it would be a great experience for me to learn from working in an office for the summer.
Instead, I found a job as a counselor in a camp sponsored by Catholic Charities. Our campers were girls between the ages of 9-14, the majority of whom came from an orphanage in the city.
The camp sat at something over 7,000 feet in altitude and from it we could look up at “Twin Peaks,” a pair of mountains 11,420 feet above sea level. Early in the camp session, we started getting the girls in shape for their end-of-camp hike up Twin Peaks.
Happily, we didn’t know that this hike is officially classified as “hard,” meaning that it’s long, has significant gain in altitude and the possibility of unmarked tracks, etc. Innocent of that knowledge, we carried their lunches and led our little troopers up. Almost all of us — big and little — succeeded in reaching the summit and finding our way back down. One counselor stayed behind with stragglers when their energy ran out.
When we started, Twin Peaks was fully in sight. After about a half an hour, the incline hid the high mountains. As the climb grew more difficult, we had to remember that the goal was really there even though we couldn’t see it. If we hadn’t believed, we would have given up.
I thought of that climb when reading Paul’s statement that hope comes from “endurance and … the encouragement of the Scriptures.” This coincides with Isaiah’s promise that a savior would “sprout” from the people and “the Spirit of the Lord shall rest on him.” Isaiah promised that the coming One would establish justice and peace throughout creation and that “Earth will be filled with knowledge of the Lord.” An invisible dream!
This Sunday, our wild friend John the Baptist appears with his never-subtle message, “REPENT!” He’s broadcasting a call to assume a new mentality. John preached that one like Isaiah’s “sprout” was coming and that everyone had to make ready to recognize him.
John called the preparation “metanoia,” or repentance. Metanoia has little to do with saying “I’m sorry,” or making a confession. It’s far more demanding than that.
John wanted to clear the way for the Messiah. To do that, he didn’t demand worship, prayer or fasting; one might almost think he avoided those expressions of formal religiosity. No, John cuts to the quick: “Produce good fruit! You think you’re part of the chosen people? God can raise up children of Abraham from stones — and right now you do resemble those rocks!”
John called for a mindset that relied completely on Isaiah’s promises, a metanoia perspective in which people believe so firmly that they act from the certainty that God’s future is already present. They see God’s reign emerging now; they sense that humanity and all of creation are on the way to becoming all God created us to be.
This mentality doesn’t look backward to an ideal past but toward what theologian John Haught calls “an unprecedented, planetary, super-organic state of fuller being.” That’s a way of being that Paul described more simply as the process of all creation groaning in the birth pangs of the glorious future of the children of God (Romans 8:18-28).
John is the perfect messenger to prepare us for the Nativity. He readies us for One to come, the One whose passion for God and creation is so contagious that it can only be described as the fire of the Holy Spirit. John proclaims that the time is ripe, that this is the moment. He calls us to metanoia faith. He maintains that the kingdom of heaven is at hand and that we can discern the Spirit at work among us if only we look with new eyes.
This second Sunday of Advent invites us all to live John’s style of metanoia. Because this prophetic invitation comes from the Spirit, we can believe that it’s possible. The Baptist echoes what Moses taught: that the reign of God is not far away in the heavens or across the sea, “No, it is very near … in your mouth and [it’s] in your heart to do it” (Deuteronomy 30:12-14).
The time is ripe; this is the moment to make straight the paths, to remind ourselves that Christ is alive and the Spirit is active among us.
In this fracturing world, we’re all on a long climb. We’ll find ways to care for those whose stamina runs dry while the rest of us move forward. All we need is the conviction that we are on the way to something dreamed of, but currently out of sight. We can keep going if we believe.
Reading 1
(Isaiah 11: 1-10)
On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse,
and from his roots a bud shall blossom.
The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him:
a spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
a spirit of counsel and of strength,
a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,
and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.
Not by appearance shall he judge,
nor by hearsay shall he decide,
but he shall judge the poor with justice,
and decide aright for the land’s afflicted.
He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
Justice shall be the band around his waist,
and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.
Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the young lion shall browse together,
with a little child to guide them.
The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,
together their young shall rest;
the lion shall eat hay like the ox.
The baby shall play by the cobra’s den,
and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.
There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,
as water covers the sea.
On that day, the root of Jesse,
set up as a signal for the nations,
the Gentiles shall seek out,
for his dwelling shall be glorious.
Responsorial Psalm
(Psalm 72: 1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17)
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
he shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever.
May his name be blessed forever;
as long as the sun his name shall remain.
In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed;
all the nations shall proclaim his happiness.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever.
Reading 2
(Romans 15: 4-9)
Brothers and sisters:
Whatever was written previously was written for our instruction,
that by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures
we might have hope.
May the God of endurance and encouragement
grant you to think in harmony with one another,
in keeping with Christ Jesus,
that with one accord you may with one voice
glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you,
for the glory of God.
For I say that Christ became a minister of the circumcised
to show God’s truthfulness,
to confirm the promises to the patriarchs,
but so that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.
As it is written:
Therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles
and sing praises to your name.
Gospel
(Matthew 3: 1-12)
John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea
and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said:
A voice of one crying out in the desert,
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
John wore clothing made of camel’s hair
and had a leather belt around his waist.
His food was locusts and wild honey.
At that time Jerusalem, all Judea,
and the whole region around the Jordan
were going out to him
and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River
as they acknowledged their sins.
When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees
coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers!
Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.
And do not presume to say to yourselves,
‘We have Abraham as our father.’
For I tell you,
God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees.
Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit
will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
I am baptizing you with water, for repentance,
but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I.
I am not worthy to carry his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fan is in his hand.
He will clear his threshing floor
and gather his wheat into his barn,
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”