Second Sunday of Advent Reflection
December 10, 2023
Isaiah 40: 1 - 5, 9 – 11
2 Peter 3: 8 – 14
Mark 1: 1 - 8
Isaiah begins his word today by making a pertinent statement – “Give comfort to my people.” Who are these people today? An answer might be – migrants who are looking for a better life in today’s world, or street people whose aspirations may be no different, or the elderly in our midst for whom life is getting short.
These answers may stir our consciences in a variety of ways. Our Christian ideals do not allow us to be silent or inactive. We are invited to be rooted in God’s Word and follow Jesus together with all believers in whatever way He may invite us. And what is that way which we hear from Isaiah today? Isaiah says, “Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God.” Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11.
Sometimes we tend to live as though life will go on forever. Peter, in his letter today, makes a reference to this fact when he refers to the future and to the hereafter. This may be true more so as we age. Advent occurs annually and a new church year begins to stop us in our tracks, as it were, and remind us that life has a stopping point. The time is now! It is as though God readily and eagerly gives us another opportunity to live life in the NOW, to live it fully. We have the choice in how we will choose life. So let us take what God eagerly gives us. 2 Peter 3: 8-14.
We hear the great message of John the Baptist in today’s gospel reading. He completes what we heard from Isaiah and Peter in the passages they offered to us today. Prepare the way of the Lord is such a standard message which can stop us in our tracks and re-evaluate life and where we are going. Pictures we may have seen of him depict John as a rather “rough”-looking individual. But having been familiar with him over the years, we know his deep sincerity in the message he has to convey to people for all time. John has been gifted to be the precursor of Jesus, which in turn, is a special gift to each of us in this time of our life. Mark 1:1-18.
Written by Mary Ann Zrust, SLW (Chicago, Illinois)