HOMILY FOR 2ND SUNDAY IN ADVENT [YEAR B]
HOMILY FOR 2ND SUNDAY IN ADVENT [YEAR B]
THEME: Impatient Hope!
By: Deacon Bill Frere
Gospel – Mark 1:1-8
Boat Chapel, Magdala
Years ago when our 2 grandsons were little, Ginger and I spent a lot of time babysitting and shuttling the boys back and forth. Lots of driving! On one occasion, as I was driving them home, and as they had a lot of experience watching me drive, I saw an opportunity to teach them a bit about driving and traffic lights. So I asked them what the different colors on the traffic signal meant. Nate immediately piped in and said – red is stop, green is go and yellow is go faster! I guess I have to work on my driving skills!
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That story speaks to the perceptiveness of children, how much they actually see and hear. But it also speaks to the impatience of adults, especially me! We are all in a hurry. We get upset with anyone/anything that slows us down. We drum our fingers at stop lights. In the midst of Covid restrictions, we got upset with someone walking the wrong way down the grocery store aisle or if they didn’t keep a 6 foot distance when we were in the checkout line. And God forbid if they weren’t wearing their mask correctly.
And that doesn’t even include the rigors of Christmas shopping – waiting with the crowds for the store to open on Black Friday. And the impatience of children for Christmas to come, for Christmas morning to dawn and running downstairs to open presents under the tree. We count the days, we can’t sleep Christmas Eve night and we stay up as long as we can, hoping to hear Santa on the roof! Impatience! If we are honest with ourselves, we all have a rather large streak of it and, sadly, we aren’t afraid to express it.
Matthew’s Gospel opens with a quote from Isaiah – the coming of the Messiah. Isaiah lived in 8th century BC. By the time of Jesus and John the Baptist, the people have been waiting for a very long time for the Messiah – they are of course more than overdue for salvation and certainly more than a little impatient for the coming of the Messiah. Talk about running out of patience! So they come to John!
John, a wild man, clothed in camel hair, leather belt and eating honey and locusts, living in the desert, a desolate and forbidding area. Definitely a wild and crazy guy! And yet they come to him! Looking for the Messiah, looking for forgiveness, looking for faith and hope! They thought he was THE ONE! But he tells them, it’s not me! He is coming, He will baptize with the Spirit. And I am not even worthy to loosen the thongs on His sandal! All that waiting, all that anticipation, all that impatience and John is not the ONE! But he assures them – be patient! He is coming! In fact, He is already here!
But maybe impatience is not always such a bad thing. Where there is impatience, there is also a sense of hope! The people had hope! After centuries, they kept that hope alive! Hoping for the Messiah is a good thing! Hoping for Christmas to come is a good thing! But we can’t just sit around and wait for it to happen. We all have to prepare! We all have to act!
And that is exactly what the people did in the Gospel! They didn’t wait around for the Messiah to appear. They went looking for Him. They traveled out into the desert to see and hear this wild man preach. They repented of their sins! They asked to be baptized!
Hope should lead us to action! Like John the Baptist, we are all called to prepare the way of the Lord; we all have to prepare for His coming! Not just doing the physical things – buying presents, decorating, baking Christmas cookies – we also have to prepare our hearts!
Many families have an Advent calendar tradition. The kids open a little window on the calendar every day leading up to Christmas and they usually find a piece of candy or chocolate! A little gift! What if we created our own version of an Advent calendar except instead of getting a gift, we give one! Every day, we do something to prepare for the coming of the Savior! Maybe it’s cleaning our room without being asked! Maybe checking in on a friend we haven’t talked to in a while. Maybe it’s checking to see if our elderly neighbor needs anything from the grocery store. Maybe it’s cleaning out the closet or pantry and donating items to a local mission. Maybe it’s doing the dishes or clearing the dishes off the table. Maybe it’s praying together as a family at the end/beginning of the day. Maybe it’s just a few minutes of quiet time – no games, no electronics, just simple peace and quiet!
Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths!
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