Second Sunday of Advent (December 4^th 2011)   

Mark 1:1-8

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1. Whose ways need to be straightened? The Lord's, or ours?

2. In what sense do we make it difficult for the Lord to enter our lives? In what sense do we "make crooked" the entrance of God into our daily existence?

3. What are the daily compromises in my life that impede the Lord from coming?

4. Is the Advent transformation from ambiguity to authenticity a painful process, or can it also be a life-giving and uplifting experience?

The Gospel is built upon the foundation of a period of conversion

Advent refers to the time of arrival of the Lord himself. The first line of the oldest of the Gospels – that of St. Mark – speaks of the "beginning" of the Good News of Jesus Christ. The word for "beginning" in Greek signifies "foundation". According to St Mark, the foundation of the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus consists in the sending ahead of a messenger who will prepare the way of the Lord - a voice crying in the wilderness that will make His paths straight. Jesus, apparently, cannot come until John the Baptist has prepared the way; God cannot enter our lives unless our existence goes through a transformation of a certain sort, and this transformation is initiated by a messenger - one who has the role of preparing the way. The English text uses the term "messenger" to translate the original Greek word "angel". An angel is one who has been sent; one who must announce or proclaim a message.

Whose ways must be straightened? The Lord's, or ours?

God enters our lives through this character, John the Baptist, who has been given the role of preparing the way, of straightening the path. Whose ways does the text intend to refer to? Sometimes when we hear this Gospel we think that it is our ways that need to be straightened. We surmise that we are being asked to straighten out a few personal problems and bad habits. But this is not the full story. The fundamental point is that we must prepare the way for Him. In the ancient text from the prophet Isaiah, the verb "prepare" ("prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord") means to "turn one's face" to the ways of the Lord; to stop being fixated with our own ways and to be attentive to the ways of the Lord. To begin to turn away from our own projects and plans and to turn towards His plans. To "prepare the way of the Lord", thus, does not so much mean to sort out a few bad habits before the Lord comes, but to make ourselves available for what He wishes to do with us, what He wishes to accomplish in our lives. So we have to make the Lord's way's straight. But why? Are the Lord's ways crooked? They are only crooked in the sense that we have twisted them! We have "domesticated" the Lord's ways and subordinated them to our own designs. The human being tends to view the world from the point of view of his own interests, and he tries to manipulate reality towards his own ends, his own rewards, his own needs. In this way, he transforms reality into a thing into which the Lord cannot enter. Man organises his existence in such a way that he has as much control over it as possible. In this way he makes crooked the way of the Lord and impedes God from entering. On the face of things, God might appear to have a place in this world of our own making. Perhaps we have relegated Him to forty-five inattentive minutes on a Sunday. Often, we domesticate God into an artificial corner of our lives and prevent Him from having a significant influence on our existence.

John the Baptist asks us to confront the comprises that impede the Lord from coming

We are experts in making the ways of the Lord crooked. The fact is that we fear the eruption of God into our lives, and we expend much effort in making His entrance as tortuous as possible. Then along comes John the Baptist who says: "Stop twisting the ways of the Lord. Stop turning prayer into a supplication for what you want, instead of what the Lord wants from you. Stop pretending that obedience to the Lord consists in a few external, publicly-seen, acts. Stop pretending that your attachment to worldly goods is compatible with the message of the Gospel."

            Our lives are composed of a series of compromises that impede the Lord from entering in a meaningful way. We distort the workings of our conscience and fail to form it in an honest and healthy way. We fail to place before our consciences the ways of the Lord. The Lord cannot come into our lives because we have barricaded the entrance, and sometimes the barricades themselves are elements of our lives that we have purportedly constructed in His name! To allow the Lord to enter we must descend into the profundity of our being and confront the ambiguities that make His entrance all but impossible. It is through these small and hidden "corrections" of the twisted path that the Lord will find a way in, not in ostentatious acts or attitudes.

Conversion necessarily involves painful detachment from old ways

John the Baptist invites us to open wide the doors and to undertake a baptism of conversion. Conversion is a fundamental notion that the church places before us at significant times of the year, such as Advent and Lent. Conversion is the transformation and transfiguration of man, and we are being constantly called to mature, develop, and bring to fruition the best of ourselves. This involves abandoning the ambiguities of our lives. The word "baptism" is a Greek term meaning to "immerse oneself", and it involves the complete annihilation of that which went before. We must leave behind in the water our old stagnant ideas and false Gods. Change of this sort involves pain, the pain of detachment from old ways. It is not possible to arrive at something new without leaving behind the old. For that reason John the Baptist is a necessary step for the coming of the Lord.

The transformation from ambiguity to authenticity is beautiful and life-giving

Why did the inhabitants of Jerusalem flock to John, to hear a message so austere and severe? The human being is always searching for the clear message of John, for something greater than the mediocrity of our existence, for a message that invites transformation from the crookedness of our lives, to live a live full of beauty and meaning. When Francis of Assisi embarked upon his life of penitence and simplicity he was persecuted by the middle-class families of Assisi because their children began to follow him. These young people could see the attractiveness and beauty of the life that Francis had to offer. The mission of John the Baptist involves a similar call to live authentically, to live simply, instead of twisting the message of the Lord to our own ends. John ate locusts and wild honey and dressed in camel hair. This was a man who had returned to the life of the desert that was so much a part of Israel's history. The time in the desert for Israel was a time of transition and transformation, the transformation that all of us are desperately in need of. We are misshapen and deformed in our lives of compromise and comfort. All of us need the time of transition that is the meaning of Advent.

             Someone is arriving that is "greater" than John, someone who alone has the right to be our spouse. The expression "to undo the sandal strap" refers to a Jewish custom in the situation where a man was betrothed to a woman but for some reason was unable to marry her. Before she could be given in marriage to someone else, the new spouse had to undo the sandal strap of the original candidate. John's statement emphasizes the fact that he is unworthy to take the place of the true spouse. That true spouse is coming, someone who is more powerful than the cleansing water of the Jordan, one who brings the new life of the Holy Spirit.

            Let us wake up this Advent! Let us try to take our lives in hand and get rid of the ambiguities that litter our existence. How beautiful it is to get rid of the dross and return to clear and simple lives of authenticity! Let us ask the Lord for an Advent brimful of straight ways, and for genuine conversion.