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Reflection on the Second Sunday of Advent (December 4)

By Sharon L. Geibel and Doris A. Dick

The readings for this Sunday:

Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11

Psalm 85:9-14

2 Peter 3:8-14

Mark 1:1-8

The full text of the readings can be found here.

When many Catholic congregations in Pittsburgh were first adopting the practice of receiving Eucharist in the hand, the practice was not immediately and universally accepted. In one congregation, there was a discussion about the pros and cons of changing the practice. The consensus seemed to be leaning toward the idea of we are not worthy. We should not touch the body of Christ with our hands. One humble, wise and well-respected elderly woman simply said, "I have committed far more sins with my tongue than with my hands." The discussion ended.

That gentle old woman knew the power of the spoken word. The truth of her statement so resonated with the other members of the faith community that there was nothing else to say.

Today’s readings speak to that power of the spoken word. While the elderly woman’s statement addressed the power of words to lead us to sin, today’s readings lead us to consider the power of the word as a call to make ready the way of the Lord. They invite us to reflect upon the fact that if we desire to truly prepare for Christmas, for the celebration of the coming of Christ, then we are called to act. We are called to acknowledge that there are ways we need to make straight, valleys we need to fill in.

How many turns in the road have we, who call ourselves the faithful, taken while sidestepping a half-truth --- be it an intentional or an unintentional one? How many rifts have we created with just one or two uncharitable or unkind words? Have angry words created valleys between us and others that we love dearly? How many weeks, months, years have those valleys been uncrossed?

Isaiah bids us: speak tenderly. Make a straight way through the wastelands we have created. Fill in those valleys. Make low the mountains and hills. Peter reminds us that God’s desire is that we do not perish in the wasteland. God waits patiently for us. We see Advent as our time of waiting, but do we ever feel God waiting and longing for us? In Mark’s words, God’s messenger is sent into our desert places. John the Baptist cries out and calls us to repentance. Our beloved is coming. Be ready.

Can we allow ourselves to hear the message of the Word today? Can we be still enough to allow that call to reverberate in the marrow of our bones, to inspire us to change? Can we, will we, surrender any crooked ways that keep us from full relationship with God, self and other? Do we dare truly speak the gentle words that will permit the valleys between us to be filled in?

Today’s invitation is to prepare for the coming of God into our lives. God does not give it as a mandate or an order. God offers it as call and as invitation; a crying out of God to us and within us. Will we respond?