Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the Second Sunday of Advent – Year B. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray. READINGS: Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11, 2 Peter 3:8-14, Mark 1:1-8.
The Three Ways John the Waymaker Liturgically Prepared for the Advent of the Lord
To help us understand the principle purpose of Advent, which is to wait (anemeno) and hope for the Lord’s coming presence (parousia), the liturgical readings for the following two Sundays will focus on the figure of John the Baptist, the last and greatest prophet of the Old Covenant, and the one who embodied the spirit of Advent more than anyone else. We can learn three lessons from his life that inspire us to prepare for Advent as he did.
John is better called ‘the Waymaker’ than ‘the Baptist’ because baptism was just one crucial aspect of his ministry of repentance and forgiveness of sins while making way for the Lord was the entirety of his divine mission. Based upon how John approached anemeno and parousia for the prophetic coming of the Lord, we can infer he follows these three principles: (1) A Bold and Reckless Wait, (2) Living an austere life, and (3) In humility, lowering himself to Christ. It is true that according to how we culturally celebrate the Advent season today, it appears to be a season of the year that is more inclined to the procession of blind material consumption, ostentation, and routine intemperance than it is to a bold and reckless wait for Christ Jesus, austerity, and humility. Nevertheless, we are not surprised that our customs, cultures, and traditions are closer to worldliness than to Christ or any resemblance of a true spiritual life that orients us to our true homecoming.
The readings for this second Sunday of Advent offer something that we do not often have the opportunity to experience during the liturgical readings at Mass, where our Gospel reading quotes an Old Testament reading as proof that a prophecy had been fulfilled in Christ Jesus. In accounting, we call this a reconciliation of accounts, where the transactions listed in our bank account are reconciled to what we posted in the general ledger. In the instant case, the prophet Isaiah in 40:1-5, 9-11 proclaims in today’s First Reading, “A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” Then, in today’s Gospel reading from Mark 1:1-8, that prophecy of Isaiah is reconciled in us hearing that it was John, son of Zechariah, who was that voice that cried out in the desert to prepare the way. God used John the Waymaker to bridge the Old Covenant with the New Covenant; John is the greatest of all the Old Covenant Prophets because he is the only prophet whose anemeno was satisfied with parousia. He is the only prophet whose eyes beheld the coming of the long-awaited Messiah; not only that, but the Messiah is his kin; not only that, but he dances in his mother’s womb when he hears the voice of the Ark of the Covenant (i.e., the Blessed Mother Mary) speak; just as David danced when the Ark returned to Jerusalem.
As there were many prophets before John whose anemeno was not satisfied with a parousia, so too will most of us die before the Lord comes in His Real Presence at the end of the age. Therefore, the call from the Apostle Paul in today’s Second reading from 2 Peter 3:8-14 is, “Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance . . . What sort of persons ought you to be, conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God . . .” The best evidence we have that God is patient with and does not wish any of us to perish and desires that we all come to repentance is the liturgy of the Mass and the sacraments, especially the sacraments of healing: Baptism, Penance and Reconciliation, the Anointing of the Sick, and the Holy Eucharist.
However, the essential question from 2 Peter remains, ‘How do we conduct ourselves in holiness and devotion as we wait for Advent, the coming Presence of God?’
According to the liturgical life of John the Waymaker, the only way to prepare for the parousia of Christ Jesus is to live our lives humbly. By humble, I mean in a way that internally and externally affirms that there is someone greater than us, “whose sandal strap” we are not worthy to unite.[1] Humility is living the cry of the centurion that we repeat during the liturgy of the Mass, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.”[2] John’s life was a clear testimony to the fact that he genuinely believed that there was someone greater than him and that he would always act as such. He was the opposite of the atheist who says that there is none greater than me and I will act as such. Humility as a character trait for Advent season is recognizing that an infant lying in an animal’s feeding troth in a cave is our long-awaited King. Humility is the recognition that no human is greater or less than us because, on judgment day, we all will stand before the same God who created each of us to give an account of all that we have done and failed to do in a very short life. Indeed, people who will be judged for their deeds done while in the body, a body that they did not create, have nothing to be proud of. Him, who created our body and soul, will be the final judge of what we did in the body. Therefore, John’s teaching on humility helps us prepare well for the end.
We should always be bold and reckless in our anemeno. For John, waiting for the Messiah meant living a life that always responded to the parousia. In the analogy of a chess game, it was not just black responding to the opening move of white, but, rather, black intentionally surrendering his pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, and queen to white throughout the game so that the black king could be easily captured in haste. Indeed, John’s heart was bold for Christ Jesus from the moment of his conception. This is why he recklessly danced in his mother Elizabeth’s womb when the pregnant young Virgin Mary arrived at their home. There is holy recklessness and sheer audacious abandonment about the life of John that is worthy of imitation. If you have ever waited for someone to arrive at an airport, bus station, or a designated meeting place, recall that your eyes are always keen to find them and shift them out of the crowd. You do not care what people think about you because you assume they understand you are looking for a specific person. Some passing by wish that someone was waiting for them with so much interest and intent. Do people recognize you as someone waiting for the Lord’s coming? They indeed recognized John the Waymaker as such. The liturgy hopes she is training us to consistently and intentionally keep our eyes focused on Christ Jesus and His coming as the Holy Eucharist, preparing us to keep our eyes focused on His parousia in the world.
Whereas we tend to desire the accumulation of things, especially during our material Advent season, John’s austere desire was to accumulate nothing of his own. He even dressed austere in “camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist” so that he could always see the parousia and be prepared to announce the Agnus Dei. When there is too much clutter in our lives and too much material to concern ourselves about with protection and preservation, we make it difficult to see the Lord well and announce Him to the world. Becoming austere is not just about removing unnecessary material. We should also be working toward austerity in mind by having a clear understanding of the call the Lord has on our life, austerity in relationships by avoiding people who want to misdirect us, and austerity in the heart by being temperate and prudent with our affections and passions. While the older liturgies, with all their bells, smells, opulence, and movements, may not invoke the idea of being something austere, the universal message of the liturgy is simply that Christ has come, Christ comes, and Christ will come again. The austere message of the divine symphony is always summed up in the Agnus Dei of John the Waymaker, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
This is just one way how the readings at Mass this Sunday connect to the liturgy and how the liturgy is forming us in how to live our lives in the world. Be in the world what you have received through the liturgy.
[1] John 1:27.
[2] Matthew 8:8.
