The readings of today, the second Sunday in Advent (Baruch 5,1-9; Phil 1, 6.8-11 and Luke 3, 1-6), offer us a typical advent perspective. The readings present us with a message of hope, promise of salvation, words of restoration and wholeness, and the call to justice and uprightness. We are enjoined to stand in readiness for the Lord’s coming. The first reading asks us to put away mourning clothes and be clothed instead with the clothing of gloriousness and blessedness. The reading tells us that God will show us the greatness of his love and our glory to the whole earth. He will give us the name: peace of justice and gloriousness of the fear of God. Furthermore, we are assured that God will restore her scattered Children to their home, in joy, peace, mercy and justice. Of course, the promises and assurances are not without challenge and duty. How does God speak to us in these Sunday’s readings? I invite you to reflect with me.
The Voice of Salvation
The gospel reading, especially, makes the message of advent through the words of John the Baptist in the wilderness quite concrete: “Prepare the way of the lord! Straighten His Paths. Every gulley should be filled up, every hill must be removed. What is crooked, must be made straight and uneven places should be levelled. And all people will see the salvation of God.”
The sayings of John the Baptist marking the introduction to the ministry of Jesus in the form of an Old Testament prophetic call (Lk 3:2), which extends to the quotation from Isaiah 40, is remarkable. It presents the preaching of John the Baptist who urges the crowds to reform and introduces the standards for reforming of conduct. With these words, John the Baptist announced the call for repentance in view of the forgiveness of sin. Furthermore, doing so, he presents the theme of the universality of salvation. It is remarkable, that in the Bible, salvation was always connected with the call to repentance or the reform of social conduct.
The Divine-Human Salvation Factor
Human beings are the architects of history. In this responsibility for history, human beings achieve the utmost best for creation and human existence when they act in accordance with the divine will. The history of salvation which we celebrate at Christmas and which we prepare through the advent, is a re-enactment of one who listened to the call of God and lived in the presence of God with his brothers and sisters. Jesus Christ taught us the way of God; that God is our father, that he loves us and is always with us. This is the call of advent, that we retrieve our existence in God, repair what has impeded our communion with God and with others and remove everything that prevents us from seeing God’s glory.
It may well be the case that the present existence is filled with uncertainties. Nevertheless, the word of God says: I myself will rebuild the ruins of Jerusalem and bring back Israel’s exiles. This is the message of advent, and I pray that we have the courage to shake off everything that disrupts our waiting in hope for the promised savior.
