December 8th 2024. Second Sunday of Advent
GOSPEL: Luke 3, 1-6
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio
Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .
GOSPEL: Luke 3, 1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,
and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region
of Ituraea and Trachonitis,
and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,
during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,
the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.
John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ
SUMMARY OF HOMILY
1. Is Advent about preparing a road for the Lord, or for finding the right road for ourselves?
The Gospel for the Second Sunday of Advent recounts the prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled in John the Baptist. The theme of this passage from Isaiah, and also the first reading from Baruch, is that of return from Babylon after seventy years of purification in exile. The theme of return is fundamental in Scripture. The word “conversion” in Hebrew signifies to return to the good origins, to turn around and go back to the place of truth. Conversion, the forgiveness of sins, the call to change path, are the road by which the Messiah comes. Question: is this road a way that we must follow, or is it the road by which Christ comes? On the one hand, it is the Lord’s way and we must allow him to enter into our lives. However, on the other hand, the way is ours, for we must put ourselves on the right road so that we can receive him.
2. Two things distract us from the Lord: our mountains of pride and self-reliance, our valleys of being bogged down in our sins.
John the Baptist says:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low”.
The Lord is coming, but we must be on the straight path to receive him, and this requires filling in the valleys and levelling the mountains. This is referring to internal transformations. In the Magnificat, Mary speaks of raising the humble and bringing down those who are proud of heart. Thus, the levelling and raising that John the Baptist speaks of are actually existential or spiritual matters. How do we make sure that we see the Lord when he comes? The problem is that we are distracted by our own things, and there are two aspects to this – the mountains and the valleys. It is essential that we do not absolutize two extreme tendencies. The first is to give two much importance to our sins, forgetting that the Lord has forgiven us. The second is to delude ourselves, thinking that our own ideas are the truth, that our own ways are the best ways, that our own capacities are important. “Lowering the mountains and filling the valleys” is the art of being freed from our own twisted paths, our egocentric ways of thinking that seem straight to us but are distorted in the eyes of the Lord. We follow our own projects, seeking after things and results that the Lord has not given us. Advent is a manual for de-absolutization. When the Lords arrives, he must find us, not our projects and ideas, not our sins or our self-exaltation.
3. In the end, we are the ground that the Lord wishes to visit and plant his seed. Let us be that ground, let us be ourselves, instead of thinking that we are those mountains or valleys.
“All flesh shall see the salvation of God”. When a person is himself, he is ready to be saved. When he is neither in the valley of discouragement nor the mountain of self-pride, the Lord can touch him. This week, let us forget our exaggerations and fixations, and become like unleavened bread. God did not make a mistake when he created us as we are. By means of those mountains and valleys we seek to be different to who we really are. In reality we are simple and poor, but also noble and important as the Lord has made us. The beginning of the Gospel mentions Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Philip and other kings, and the high priests Annas and Caiaphas. After all these great figures, we are told that the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert, in a place far from any seat of power, a place nobody considered important. We are the place, we are the ground that the Lord wishes to visit.
ALTERNATIVE HOMILY
The word of the Lord comes to a strange man living in the desert, a place where there is no-one around to listen to him! The word does not come to the great and the mighty political and religious leaders mentioned in the Gospel passage. Maybe it is only in the desert that there is enough silence to hear the word of God? We are told then that John’s message is to prepare the way of the Lord, filling in the valleys and levelling the mountains. Is this our task? Are we to fill in valleys and level mountains? No, our task is to “prepare” the way of the Lord, which means to place ourselves in front of the Lord and his ways. Our task is to cease following our own ways and open ourselves in humility to his ways. Once we do that, then the Lord will fill in our valleys and level our mountains. Our valleys are the dead-ends and blind alleys that we follow, in which we debase ourselves and forget our human dignity. Our mountains are the ways in which we exalt ourselves and consider ourselves and our projects to be all-important. The path of the Lord is different to these two paths. It is straight and is the only path grounded in reality. When we place ourselves before the ways of the Lord, then he will lead us out of our arrogance and false autonomy into humility, and he will draw us out of the blind alleys and help us to realize our true dignity.
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