HOMILY 2ND SUNDAY OF ADVENT
PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD ONCE AGAIN
Mt 3.1-12 Is 11.1-10 Rom 15.4-9
We jump from Isaiah’s early words of hope and peace in better times last week, to further assurances of God’s enduring presence with his people, and his Spirit guiding them, as we hear the first mention of the gifts of the Spirit we learn, in preparation for Confirmation: “A spirit of wisdom and insight… counsel and power… knowledge and fear of the Lord.” For rote learinng, expanded into ‘wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord’, although I reckon the last better described as wonder and awe, rather than fear! And these gifts don’t come on automatic pilot, but by faith response in prayer and action. My preference then is to translate these gifts into the fruits of the Spirit: ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control’ (Gal 5.22-23).
Brendan Byrne SJ sees it this way: “It is out of this deep awareness of God and God’s will for human beings, that the ruler will be able to institute true justice in the Land, with a particular bias towards the cause of the poor.”
So, now it’s time again for John the Baptist to erupt onto the scene, as well presented in Godspell” (back to 1970, with ‘Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord!’ ), with his wild and woolly appearance, and strange habits, with the camel hair design clothing, with the earthy diet of locusts (maybe carob pods for protein) and wild honey (for energy, and he had plenty of it)!!
This was perhaps daunting to some, and certainly not pleasing to the religious leaders of the day, as he gets going ‘down by the riverside’, as opposed to the Temple, where they had control of ritual, rules and regulations. The people came there for worship and offerings, perhaps the offerings getting precedence in the minds of the Temple police, as they might be called! This also calls to mind Jesus turning over the tables in the Temple in all four Gospel accounts.
Given that his dad Zachary was himself a Temple priest, and that this was a hereditary role, it might have been expected that his long awaited son would follow in his footsteps, but no such thing happened. Remember silly old Zach was struck dumb because he unwisely didn’t take well to his son being named John, of all things!! He soon learned it wasn’t such a bad idea, and got his voice back!! It is suggested by some scholars that, after running away from home, or at least moving out from his parents, John had spent time with the Essenes, an ascetic sect out in the desert, with their own strict way of life, before he emerges as a prophetic voice out of the wilderness.
It can’t be denied that his message prefigures that of Jesus, who echoes it in much the same words, including their condemnation of the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, whose practice was seen to fall far short of their preaching! Isn’t that something that has been reflected often enough throughout Christian history too? There might be no perfection here in this life, but inconsistencies need to be called out, and change for the better implemented.
So here we have John standing out alone, who even gets a mention by the Roman historian Josephus. He presumably had some sort of charisma for drawing a crowd, calling the ordinary people to repentance, and following that through with a meaningful ritual of immersion in the River Jordan, as a sign of being purged or cleansed from sinful ways, rising to a new way of living a good and faithful life, as believers who observed the commandments. This was meant to be more than an empty symbolic ritual, but indicative of a determination to do better, to reject sin and evil, as we do when we are reminded to repeat our Baptism promises, at significant moments of the Church’s liturgical year, but particularly at Baptisms.
A key difference between John and Jesus is that Jesus hits the road (the Romans had built quite a few, as Monty Python tells us!!), or the track, and pursued an itinerant ministry from the start, after first heading for his desert retreat, following his baptism by John. Jesus reaches out to all, while John draws the crowds to where he is.
Claude Mostowik MSC also has good insights into today’s readings: “The image of animals playing together and children not being threatened is the prophetic vision of the relationship between humans and nature. It is about harmony and mutual respect – not exploitation and destruction. Coming from the margins, as did Jesus, John the Baptist does not speak from the centre of his community, but the wilderness, where he saw reality as it is, and awakens people to God’s presence – a presence that can shatter the silence and penetrate our comfortable lives. Will we shout out that injustice, inequality, prejudice, ignorance, poverty, hunger, illiteracy, powerlessness, and hopelessness in our world are not normal? Will we allow John to confront our indifference?”
One final interesting thing, to my mind, is that Jesus is never recorded as having followed this ritual with water himself, but still went through the process with cousin John, at the beginning of his public ministry. Yet, at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, his final instruction is a clear universal call, to go out and baptize all nations, and so we continue the practice today, getting them in as early as we can!
And this weekend, please support our St Vincent de Paul members in the good work they do, serving the needy in the background of our communities.
john hannon 7th December 2025