Advent 2

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I need to explain here that there are two homilies here for the price of one. I got a bit carried away the other day when writing them. This does not mean that you will get three homilies next week. That is just being greedy


There is no surprise in the first line of today’s Gospel. Mark quite simply states that he wrote his work for the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ. But, what maybe is quite surprising is the emergence of what that the first hint of what that proclamation not comes from Jesus himself but from a rather way wood person John the Baptist the Wildman of the Wilderness. A man that does not belong to any religious group or political persuasion and what does he preach repentance and forgiveness. Mark pretexts this with a quote from the prophet Isaiah so that the listeners are in no doubt that it links with the Old Testament prophecies of the coming of the Messiah

But, surely this quote also links in with the message of John the Baptist. So let us take a closer look. I wonder what the Wilderness in our life is. Does it mean for us that we have all these gifts and talents given to us by God that we do not use them? Or are we walking in the wilderness of our own selfish attitudes. Have we had a difficult time to forgive our neighbour or ourselves? And what about the valleys these could be our dips in faith and enthusiasm for our faith. The times we have doubted that God exists or our prayer life fails.   And the mountains are those times when we feel that we are the obstacles in our life where we fail to see the person of Christ in others or even ourselves. The desert may represent the coldness of feeling towards others and us in a heart bearing no fruit of love and compassion
Now this may sound bleak and like being in a desert seems endless and hard work. Well I have to tell you that the spiritual life is hard work.
But wait it is not all bad news. Advent is about hope. Hope for the Messiah, Hope for us to say come Lord Jesus. Come and transform us. Come and rejuvenate us. Our Advent prayer of hope breaks through and tears through the obstacles of our lives. Our advent prayer helps us to find the path out of the wilderness of our selfishness and pride. Our Advent prayer renews our faith and gives us a heart of love. All we need to do is to be to open ourselves and be able to say “Come Lord Jesus.”  

Part two

We have an opportunity to allow God to enter in to attempt in this advent season to make our paths straighter. Last week I gave the challenge to turn off your mobile phones in order to hear the word of God in our lives to make space for God by for one day getting rid of a distraction. This week I invite you to think about the sacrament of Reconciliation to receive God’s love.  I invite you this Advent to make use of the sacrament.  To open our hearts and invite the Lord to Come and help us make our paths straight and find that road out of the wilderness. But don’t think we are doing this alone. Look at the prayer we say at mass the “I confess”. Once we have acknowledged our sins we ask the community to pray for us because we need the help and prayer of our Brothers and Sisters to make our paths straight. The Last hope that we have is that we do not do this alone. We do it with the help of Jesus but also our brothers and sisters who are praying for us too. This is one of the most important things to realise and something that we forget often.

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