Prepare The Way Of The Lord
1. Signs of Hope
2. Remove the Obstacles from the Road
Introduction
1. Signs of Hope
Vatican II has restored the meaning of Advent from a season of penance and conversion into its original purpose: a time of hope. We remember the coming of Christ, and we know he has to come more deeply in our Church and in our world. To dispose us to do this we need conversion, of course, but we need especially hope that, notwithstanding everything to the contrary, his kingdom will come. To deepen that hope, we have to learn to see the signs that this hope is already present among us. Let our Lord open our eyes to these signs.
2. Remove the Obstacles from the Road
Tremendous amounts of money are spent to build better roads, to have better communications, but there still remain a lot of obstacles among people and even nations to communicate with one another. In the same way there are still many obstacles to the coming of our Saviour in our world. People put up roadblocks and we have to remove them, so that his mercy and freedom, his justice and love may reach all people. Ah, if only all could encounter the Saviour and experience God’s salvation in him and at work in us too! We ask Jesus our Lord in this Eucharist that we may be the road to him and that we may bring him near to people.
First Reading: God Will Save His Scattered People
The prophet announces a message of hope: God will lead his scattered people back to their country and to himself. They will become shining signs of God’s salvation.
1 Reading Baruch 5:1-9
Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery;
put on the splendour of glory from God forever:
wrapped in the cloak of justice from God,
bear on your head the mitre
that displays the glory of the eternal name.
For God will show all the earth your splendour:
you will be named by God forever
the peace of justice, the glory of God’s worship.
Up, Jerusalem! stand upon the heights;
look to the east and see your children
gathered from the east and the west
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that they are remembered by God.
Led away on foot by their enemies they left you:
but God will bring them back to you
borne aloft in glory as on royal thrones.
For God has commanded
that every lofty mountain be made low,
and that the age-old depths and gorges
be filled to level ground,
that Israel may advance secure in the glory of God.
The forests and every fragrant kind of tree
have overshadowed Israel at God’s command;
for God is leading Israel in joy
by the light of his glory,
with his mercy and justice for company..
Responsorial Psalm, PS 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
R. (3) The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Then they said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those who sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Second Reading: Prepare for the Day of Christ
In a warm letter, Paul thanks the Christians of Philippi for their hospitality to himself and to the gospel. He asks them and us to prepare for Christ’s coming by means of an attentive, ever-growing love.
2 Reading Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11
Brothers and sisters:
I pray always with joy in my every prayer for all of you,
because of your partnership for the gospel
from the first day until now.
I am confident of this,
that the one who began a good work in you
will continue to complete it
until the day of Christ Jesus.
God is my witness,
how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And this is my prayer:
that your love may increase ever more and more
in knowledge and every kind of perception,
to discern what is of value,
so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness
that comes through Jesus Christ
for the glory and praise of God.
Alleluia Luke 3:4, 6
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Prepare the Way of the Lord
God began his salvation history with his new people when John the Baptist announced the coming of Jesus. Then, as now, people have to prepare for the Lord’s coming. If we prepare the way, all will see how God saves.
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.”
Commentary
The Advent liturgy is shot through with a great longing for Christ. Yet today’s Gospel passage is not about him but about John the Baptist.
We have to experience the absence of Christ in order later to experience his presence. We need to learn how to look forward and prepare ourselves. We live in a world where satisfaction almost precedes desire, where advertisers tout their remedies in front of us before we even know our needs, where the half of the world that isn’t starving is overfed. “We have tested and tasted too much” (see Dec. 4). “Prepare the way of the Lord!” shouted Isaiah. Jerusalem is surrounded by desert, and ancient roads quite easily became buried in sand. When some great person was expected, the roads had to be prepared. The roads that need attention now are inner ones, spiritually lost as we easily become, or clogged and surfeited with too much or with wrong attachment. Advent is the season for repairing the roads! forced on us; it comes gently, it comes vulnerably. The newest thing of all, God’s great new event, will come as a new-born baby. Get ready! Let’s go to meet him.
Blessing
To be a highway to God,
level, smooth, and straight,
we need to become more Christ-like ourselves.
We can show others the road to Christ
and prepare the way for his full coming
only if we ourselves take his gospel seriously,
if the Lord becomes visible in us:
his goodness, his compassion, his love,
his concern for justice and truth.
May God give you this strength and bless you all:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Let us go with one another
the way of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.