Homily of 2nd Sunday of Advent Year C — By Fr Isaac Chima

Theme: Prepare the way for The Lord’s coming.

Readings: Bar. 5:1–9; Phil 1:4–6,8–11; Lk 3:1–6

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday, the second week of Advent, the church continued the message of joyful hope for liberation and restoration that we saw in the Mass of last Sunday. The readings of today talk about the merciful intervention of God in favour of His people, and of God’s call to His people to prepare themselves for this great feat (liberation and restoration) in their history.

Last Sunday, the prophet Jeremiah told his people to live in the hope of what God was coming to do for them. This Sunday, Baruch, who was the secretary of Jeremiah, made the same call on Jerusalem in a more sweet and dramatic way. He told Jerusalem to dress up in mighty and sparkling apparel, and wait for the restoration of her hope and joy — the return of Her children from exile. He said: “Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory of God. Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the heights and look towards the east, and see your children gathered from west and east, at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them.”

Actually, dear friends, the people of Israel saw the destruction of their hope and joy when, in the year 586 before Christ, Jerusalem fell under the army of Babylon. It was a heavy fall that led to the destruction of the Temple and the deportation of all able-bodied Israelite to Babylon. They wept as they were led to that captivity. Their grief was articulated in Psalm 137, which reads: “By the rivers of Babylon. There we sat down, and there we wept when we remembered Zion.”

When the people of Israel continued to cry to God for mercy, liberation and restoration from the land of their exile, the message of hope from God came to the prophet Isaiah (in Is 40:1–6) that they should prepare for the visitation of their God who will liberate them from the land of exile. It said: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together.” This message of consolation and promise of liberation threw the people of Israel in exile into a joyful ecstasy that knew no bounds.

Dear friends, it was this same message of hope for the return of those in exile that the prophet Baruch was referring to in the first reading of today. Baruch, who wrote to Israel in Babylonian captivity, also announced the same joyful message of the promise of the return of the exiles, and also made the same recommendation as Isaiah’s that all mountains and hills be made low and valleys filled up, all rough grounds made level so that Israel may return safely to the glory of God. Thus, when Israel prepared itself for the manifestation of God, they were liberated from Babylon and returned to their land starting from the year 538 Before Christ. The psalm of today (Ps 126) was their memorial return song. It said: “When the Lord restored the fortunes of a Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.”

To address his audience whom he was preparing for the coming or birth of Christ in the Gospel of today, John the Baptist borrowed the same injunction of Isaiah and Baruch to the people of Israel on how to prepare for their liberation and restoration from exile. He said: “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together.”

Dear friends, John the Baptist was calling on his people to be in the same mood of Joy which their forefathers were when they heard the promise of liberation and restoration from the prophets Isaiah and Baruch, a mood of joyful expectation. The reason for such a call from John was because Jesus would achieve in the new people of Israel what God achieved in the life of Israel of old.

However, dear friends, both the message of John, that of Isaiah and Baruch came with injunctions as necessary conditions for the manifestation and liberation of God. The conditions say: “Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight. Fill in the valleys, break down the mountains and hills, make the crooked paths straight and the rough ways smooth.” When all these are done, then, the glory of God shall be revealed.

In obedience to this command, many people all over the world have started beautifying their houses and shops for Christmas. Many shops, houses, street squares and roads have been decorated with flashy lights and Christmas trees to show the season we are into. Obviously, these decorations are good.

However, dear friends, we know that the paths the Lord will walk on as He visits us this Christmas will not be those roads that we have decorated with beautiful lights, but our hearts. Therefore, John and the church challenge us to go beyond the material preparation of houses, shops, street squares, roads etc., and prepare our hearts for the visitation of Christ and the commemoration of the birth of Christ.

The church is asking us to make out time and go to confession during this season in order to amend our ways with God; we should make good our relationship with other people too. We should break down the mountains of hatred, envy and inordinate desires in our hearts, and fill the valleys of lack of charity with love, mercy and generosity; we should make plain the rough ways of our unholy desires. These are ways to prepare the way for the coming of Christ. If we do this, His glory will be revealed in our lives.

Then, to those who have already started this task of preparing their hearts and lives for the coming of Christ, St Paul, in the second reading of today, says that the God who has begun this good work in you will bring it to completion.

Happy Sunday to you all

Fr. Isaac Chinemerem Chima