Advent - 2024; Week Two

Advent - 2024; Week Two

Preparation for the birth of Christ requires two special persons as we anticipate the Nativity.  Mary, whom we saw in the first week of Advent, and his cousin John who also would be born into a life of giving only to give his life for the truth.  

St. John the Baptist is the Lord’s immediate precursor or forerunner, sent to prepare his way.  “Prophet of the Most High,” He John surpasses all the prophets, of whom he is the last.  He inaugurates the Gospel, already from his mother’s womb, welcomes the coming of Christ , and rejoices in being “the friend of the bridegroom,” whom he points out as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  Going before Jesus “in the spirit and power of Elijah,” John bears witness to Christ in his preaching, by his Baptism of conversion, and through his martyrdom.  (CCC 523).

Our question always behooves our intellect with, “what now” once we receive the Sacraments of the Church which totally bring attention to the mandate of responsibility and accountability for these blessings that are our diploma for the journey that lies ahead for us.  

From the Liturgy of the Hours:

Ant:  Have courage, all of you, lost and fearful; take heart and say: Our God will come to save us. 

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God.  The prophecy makes clear that it is to be fulfilled, not in Jerusalem but in the wilderness: it is there that the glory of the Lord is to appear, and God’s salvation is to be made known to all mankind.  It was in the wilderness that God’s saving presence was proclaimed by John the Baptist, and there that God’s salvation was seen.  (commentary on Isiah by Eusebius of Caesarea).

Taking this thought of a wilderness, we should also find that wilderness within ourselves to empty the busy life of unnecessary baggage to allow the Lord to fill us with a reflection on what we look forward to occurring in two weeks.

Ralph B. Hathaway