Mark 1: 1-8
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120620.cfm
No one of us should be surprised by the technological advancement in our time. While we may certainly be amazed at what is possible we’ve become a society that more or less has come to expect such “cool stuff.”
If you own or know of someone who has purchased a car in the last few years,
for example, these mechanical wonders now contain all
sorts of safety features that one might only have hoped for in the past. There is something called a “road assist”
program or some similar name. Basically
what it does is keep you safely centered on the road as you drive, warns by a
“beep” or a gentle shake of the steering wheel that you’re about to veer off
the road to your right or left. It will
even slow your car down or might apply the brakes in order to protect you and
others who are riding. We are amazed but
comforted as well, especially when our insurance company gives a discount for such safety features!
This Sunday we see a far more primitive and basic method
of warning to keep us on the right path. The figure of John the Baptizer
appears essentially out of nowhere in the desert. He cries out in the manner of the prophets
hundreds of years before whom the people felt had become nothing but a voice
from their past history. The call of the living prophets had not been heard in
centuries.
Then, as Mark tell us: “John the Baptist appeared in the desert
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” The baptizer, a strange and unsettling figure
in some ways, stands along the shore of a well-known river and apparently
engaged the hungry crowds through his charismatic preaching and his cleansing
baptism in the Jordan River. No guiding technology, no books, newspapers, or internet,
websites or blogs - just a voice of conviction and his charismatic persona.
Stay on the right way to welcome the One who is coming.
Yet the force and presence of this “voice” in the desert
has become the quintessential call passed on from generation to generation as
we “Prepare the way of the Lord.” His
words are not words of comfort as we may define that word. He calls the people to repentance, to confess
their sins, to be washed clean. In other
words he reminds his audience that they are sinners, they are not pure and
perfect people, but now is the time to prepare for the One to come by
confessing your sinfulness and receive the “comfort” given through
forgiveness. We hear the same in the
first reading from Isaiah to a people who had suffered “double for all her
sins.”
John’s message rang true in the heart of the likely
hundreds who were attracted to him. So,
this fiery figure of John, like a television or radio announcer about to
present a significant person of great notoriety, prepares anyone who would
listen for Jesus formal coming. As he
(Jesus) is about to appear, we must be prepared and ready. How? Conversion and repentance of personal
sin and the water of baptism is a rich sign of that repentance.
This more mighty One John points to is no rock star,
movie personality, or influential political figure, here today and gone
tomorrow. This is the humble servant of God, the Lord who now enters our lives
in human history. He, John reminds us, “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
He fulfills all that the prophets and Jewish people hoped for. John sets the stage and raises the bar of
expectation that something, someone in fact, will profoundly move history in a
new direction. John’s voice, then, is to
be heard over and over again since the call to conversion is a daily invitation
we all have.
We know there is something innate in the human spirit
that longs for someone more powerful than us.
Those who study the power of an addiction, for example, may feel the
pull of the addiction is more powerful than them. It could be alcohol, smoking, drugs,
gambling, or even technology. It could be something less but some repetitive
behavior that I feel impossible to live without and that which consumes my time
in an unhealthy way. In its darkest most
destructive form an addiction can destroy not only the person who is the addict
but his/her family as well. That power over us can only be overcome through hard
work and in its purest form through faith as well.
We also long for community. We are social creatures; made for one another
and God intends us to live in relationship not isolation. True loneliness is a feeling of isolation and
pain. In the challenging condition of our present time the experience of
isolation and loneliness has become a not uncommon problem among so many. None of us like to feel disconnected or hide
in fear. We pray not only for protection
against this virus but just as much for the healing of so many, adults and
youth, who are suffering from the effects of imposed quarantines.
John’s voice promises all a way to follow that will free
us from isolation and powers which can destroy rather than build up. As Isaiah speaks in our first reading this
Sunday: “Comfort, give comfort to my people . . . every valley shall be filled
in, every mountain and hill shall be made low . . . then the glory of the Lord
shall be revealed.” Jesus’ coming among
us provides the WAY to freedom and peace.
In his coming the isolated are brought to community and the powers that
destroy our freedom are broken though an embrace of his role and his way in our
life. To center our lives on Him is to allow him to keep us on the road, to
warn us when we veer off, and to call us back through forgiveness. A more comfortable ride indeed.
So we are ready to welcome a God who is mighty and strong
yet at the same time gentle and comforting.
In the end, this God will visit us not with force and fear but with
mercy, gentleness and love. Yet, we must
prepare and we must accept whatever process we need to turn our lives around
and to welcome him at his coming. We draw strength from the Eucharist, from the
grace of forgiveness in reconciliation, and comfort from the presence of the
Holy Spirit.
Come Lord and set us free!
For he assumed at his first coming
the lowliness of human flesh,
and so fulfilled the design your formed long ago,
and opened for us the way to eternal salvation . . .
that we may inherit the great promised
in which now we dare to hope.
(From Preface 1 of Advent)
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