The Baptist's Message This Advent

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Special to the Herald
(From the issue of 12/15/05)

The following homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde on Dec. 3, the Vigil of the Second Sunday of Advent, at St. Thomas More Cathedral in Arlington.

The Church’s new liturgical year is only one week old. Early in this year of God’s favor, God the Father sends us messengers to instruct us on how to achieve what God desires for us in this new year: deeper union with His Divine Son Our Lord Jesus Christ. This Sunday and next, the messenger being sent is St. John the Baptist and then, on the Fourth Sunday, it will be Our Blessed Lady.

So then, St. John the Baptist stands before us on this second Sunday of Advent. The opening verses of St. Mark’s Gospel, proclaimed in our hearing moments ago, point to St. John the Baptist. "As is written in Isaiah the prophet: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.’"

In St. John the Baptist’s message to us, there are two key and interrelated points for our instruction. He announces that the Lord is coming and he describes how to prepare for His coming among us.

St. John echoes in our midst the words of the prophet Isaiah in today’s first reading. "Go up unto a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings, cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news. … Here is your God! … Like a shepherd he feeds his flock, in his arms he gathers the lambs. … " St. John himself says in today’s Gospel account: "One mightier than I is coming after me. … he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit."

Yes, the Lord is coming. The Advent season helps us (1) to prepare for His coming to us liturgically on Christmas; (2) to await in hope His final coming, individually to us at each of our deaths and at the end of the world; and (3) to welcome Him as He comes daily to us in so many ways, including in His Word and through the sacraments, in prayer, both personal and liturgical, and in other people. Recently, Pope Benedict XVI referred to this continuous coming of the Lord between His first and final comings. " … Yet there is not only the final coming at the end of time: in a certain sense the Lord always wants to come through us. And He knocks the door of our hearts: are you willing to give me your flesh, your time, your life?" (Homily, First Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent).

Are we alert to this daily coming of the Lord? Will this new year of God’s favor find us watchful and alert, so that we can say to Jesus as He comes to us often each day, "Come, Lord Jesus, enter my life and make me more like You"?

Moreover, St. John the Baptist describes how we are to prepare for the Lord’s coming. He "appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." We prepare ourselves for Christ’s coming by repentance, that is, by becoming converted in mind and heart. What are we to be converted from? From anything that is an obstacle to Christ’s coming into our beings — in a word, from sin. During this season of hope-filled expectations, we must pause to examine what are the obstacles within each of us to the Lord’s deepening presence in us? What keeps Him distant? Is it our pride or selfishness? Is it our self-pity or lack of discipline? Is it our lack of chastity or lack of charity? Following St. John’s exhortation, let us turn back to the Lord, let us repent and in the sacrament of penance experience Christ’s forgiveness and a new beginning.

In today’s second reading from the Second Letter of St. Peter, we are reminded that the Lord is patient with us and delays His final coming so that we can have time to turn back in repentance and allow Him to enter our hearts. This new year of God’s favor gives us a priceless opportunity to become more united with the Lord Jesus as He molds us into His image. All we must do is to allow Him by turning back to Him in sincere conversion and by welcoming Him as often as He chooses to come to us.

Yes, St. John the Baptist is God’s message to us early in this new liturgical year. His message is bright with hope. Let us heed His message, so that we may "be found without spot or blemish before Him, at peace" now in this new year of God’s favor and forever in His presence in heaven.

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