Homily Advent (B) 2nd Sunday - Prepare the Way, Hasten the Day

Prepare the Way, Hasten the Day

Core Message:

To Know:

Advent (parousia) is a time to exercise earnest expectation for the coming (parousia) of the Lord

To Do:

Wait for and hasten his encounter. Wait means let him be God. Hasten means be a disciple.

I. Introduction – The Problem of Preparing

I love Isaiah’s cry: Behold your God! Behold the Lord God is coming with might!

· This is our Christmas cry. This is the expectation of Advent. Jesus the Lord is coming!

· The time of exile – the long separation from God due to sin – is about to end.

· That is Good News indeed! Nothing will ever be the same again.

But WAIT! Didn’t he already come 2000 years ago?

· Yes, but the Catechism (524) explains that…

· When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming.

So Advent (i.e., coming) is preparing us for the Parousia (i.e., coming).

· But, when it comes to the Second Coming, at least two people are confused and confusing

John the Baptist and St. Peter:

· JB is definitely confused because he cries out: Prepare the way of the Lord!

o But there is nothing you can do to make God’s trip from heaven to earth easier.

o You can’t make him budge an inch.

o You can’t help him with directions.

o You can’t speed him on his journey.

o You can’t meet him half-way.

o You can’t advance one millimeter toward heaven on your own.

o Every aspect of this trip (beginning, middle, end) is entirely up to him.

· Peter is even more confused because he says, Wait for and hasten the coming of the Day of God

o Wait for AND hasten? How does that work?

o You know how I wait? I sit down. I fold my arms. I do nothing. That’s what waiting is.

o Think of Doctor’s office: you don’t wait for & hasten the doctor’s coming while you’re sitting in the waiting room. You just wait. Basta!

o How do you hasten the coming of a day?

o How do you make Dec 25 come any sooner?

o Are you going to make everybody’s watches tick faster?

o Are you going to give the earth a big push and make it spin a little faster?

o Even if God does decide to “anticipate” his coming 2 days, that’s entirely in his hands, and has nothing to do with you.

· Hasten the Day – Prepare the Way?

o How? It’s impossible!

Thankfully, the Opening Prayer helps us out of this conundrum:

Almighty and merciful God,

may no earthly undertaking hinder those

who set out in haste to meet your Son,

but may our learning of heavenly wisdom

gain us admittance to his company.

Evidently, the Advent of Christ, the King’s Coming (Parousia) is NOT just Jesus’ journey: it’s ours too.

· It’s an encounter, and we’re called to meet him.

· It’s an embrace, and we’re called to reach for him.

· He’s not just racing toward me. He’s asking me to race toward him.

Hasten the Day – Prepare the Way

· And how do I run? How do I prepare the way?

· How do I begin to build a highway to heaven?

I can’t. But I can make sure there a no roadblocks or speedbumps, no hurdles or hindrances.

· I can purge my soul of every unworthy desire…

· Consecrate my thoughts toward all that is true, excellent, and pure

· Through praise, exercise my longing to see the Lord

· Throw contempt on the pride that puffs me up.

· Find my peace in being his humble handmaid.

· In this way, I can level the mountains, and fill in the valleys. Make straight his paths.

· So when he does come and I’m called to meet him, I do not find myself hindered by a thousand chains to this world.

Don’t get me wrong, without him I can do nothing.

· I need to WAIT for him to act: he is God, and I am not!

· Even if I capable of hastening something, St Peter knew waiting came first.

He goes before me!

· Yahweh sent his messenger (angel) before Moses to lead his people from the slavery of Egypt to the safety of the Promised Land (Read all about it in Exod 23).

· Isaiah takes that memory from the past and projects it into the future, announcing a New Exodus. [A new Moses,] a new Deliverer, the Suffering Servant, will bring the nations out of darkness and into the light. Jesus walked the way, and it was the way of the Cross.

· John the Baptist, the Eschatological Messenger, proclaims that way, and with it, the dawn of the Messianic age. As great as he is, he isn’t even worthy to undo the Jesus sandal strap. Less than a slave – that’s what we are before the Mighty One who is coming!

Jesus is doing everything, YES.

· But that doesn’t exclude me from doing my part

· especially the part he empowers me to do

You don’t have to wonder who you will be or how you will act on that day.

· You already know. You know why?

· Because between the 1st and 2nd Coming—there’s an intermediate Coming.

· And it’s about to happen right now.

We have hastened the Day – we are preparing the Way

· IN. THIS. VERY. EUCHARIST. Here and now.

· He comes from heaven to earth.

· Wait and make haste!

Question and Answer

Readings for the 2nd Sunday of Advent (B):

First Reading Isaiah 40:1–5, 9–11

Response Psalm 85:8

Psalm Psalm 85:9–14

Second Reading 2 Peter 3:8–14

Gospel Acclamation Luke 3:4, 6

Gospel Mark 1:1–8

First Reading

Isaiah 40:1–5, 9–11

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and cry to her

that her warfare is ended,

that her iniquity is pardoned,

that she has received from the Lord’s hand

double for all her sins.

A voice cries:

“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;

make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be lifted up,

and every mountain and hill be made low;

the uneven ground shall become level,

and the rough places a plain.

And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

and all flesh shall see it together,

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Go on up to a high mountain,

O Zion, herald of good news;

lift up your voice with strength,

O Jerusalem, herald of good news;

lift it up, fear not;

say to the cities of Judah,

“Behold your God!”

Behold, the Lord God comes with might,

and his arm rules for him;

behold, his reward is with him,

and his recompense before him.

He will tend his flock like a shepherd;

he will gather the lambs in his arms;

he will carry them in his bosom,

and gently lead those that are with young.

Response

Psalm 85:8

Show us your steadfast love, O Lord,

and grant us your salvation.

Psalm

Psalm 85:9–14

Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,

for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;

but let them not turn back to folly.

Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,

that glory may dwell in our land.

Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;

righteousness and peace kiss each other.

Faithfulness springs up from the ground,

and righteousness looks down from the sky.

Yes, the Lord will give what is good,

and our land will yield its increase.

Righteousness will go before him

and make his footsteps a way.

Second Reading

2 Peter 3:8–14

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.

Questions about 2nd Reading

Why is the Lord so slow in acting, in answering my prayer?

· For my sake, he’s “slow”. That is, he’s “patient” with my unholy heart. He woos me to repentance, respecting my freedom.

Why does St Peter say “waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God?”

· What can I do to make Dec 25 get he faster? How can I hasten the Parousia?

· The coming of God, apparently isn’t just a matter of him racing toward me. It’s a matter of me racing toward him.

· The word speudo appears only on 2 occasions in the Gospel.

o Luke 19, Zachaeus

§ Make haste and come down

o Luke 2, the shepherds.

§ 15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.

Gospel Acclamation

Luke 3:4, 6

As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”

Gospel

Mark 1:1–8

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,

who will prepare your way,

the voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight,’ ”

John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Questions about Readings

The Locked Door - Existential Need

Miscellaneous

· When God sends an answer to my question, a solution to my problem, a messenger for my salvation, will I be ready to receive it or will it come in vain?

· What does “being ready” mean?

· How many people aren’t looking for an answer, a solution, a messenger of God because they have given up on life, on truth, on total happiness?

· How many people aren’t getting ready for the Day of the Lord because faith has been snuffed out?

· Why does Mark begin his Gospel in this way, quoting this part of Isaiah? Where is he going? What is his intention

From Today’s Liturgy

Entrance Antiphon [Cf. Is 30:19, 30]

O people of Sion, behold,

the Lord will come to save the nations,

and the Lord will make the glory of his voice heard

in the joy of your heart.

The Gloria in excelsis (Glory to God in the highest) is not said.

Collect

Almighty and merciful God,

may no earthly undertaking hinder those

who set out in haste to meet your Son,

but may our learning of heavenly wisdom

gain us admittance to his company.

Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

The Creed is said.

Prayer over the Offerings

Be pleased, O Lord, with our humble prayers and offerings,

and, since we have no merits to plead our cause,

come, we pray, to our rescue

with the protection of your mercy.

Through Christ our Lord.

Preface I of Advent, p. 534.

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,

always and everywhere to give you thanks,

Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God,

through Christ our Lord.

For he assumed at his first coming

the lowliness of human flesh,

and so fulfilled the design you formed long ago,

and opened for us the way to eternal salvation,

that, when he comes again in glory and majesty

and all is at last made manifest,

we who watch for that day

may inherit the great promise

in which now we dare to hope.

And so, with Angels and Archangels,

with Thrones and Dominions,

and with all the hosts and Powers of heaven,

we sing the hymn of your glory,

as without end we acclaim:[1]

Communion Antiphon [Bar 5:5; 4:36]

Jerusalem, arise and stand upon the heights,

and behold the joy which comes to you from God.

Prayer after Communion

Replenished by the food of spiritual nourishment,

we humbly beseech you, O Lord,

that, through our partaking in this mystery,

you may teach us to judge wisely the things of earth

and hold firm to the things of heaven.

Through Christ our Lord.

CCC Quotes

CCC 524 When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming.

PAROUSIA: The glorious return and appearance of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as judge of the living and the dead, at the end of time; the second coming of Christ, when history and all creation will achieve their fulfillment

Hahn

Hahn

Our God is coming. The time of exile – the long separation of humankind from God due to sin – is about to end. This is the good news proclaimed in today’s liturgy.

Isaiah in today’s First Reading promises Israel’s future release and return from captivity and exile. But as today’s Gospel shows, Israel’s historic deliverance was meant to herald an even greater saving act by God – the coming of Jesus to set Israel and all nations free from bondage to sin, to gather them up and carry them back to God.

God sent an angel before Israel to lead them in their exodus towards the promised land (see Exodus 23:20). And He promised to send a messenger of the covenant, Elijah, to purify the people and turn their hearts to the Father before the day of the Lord (see Malachi 3:1, 23-24).

John the Baptist quotes these, as well as Isaiah’s prophecy, to show that all of Israel’s history looks forward to the revelation of Jesus. In Jesus, God has filled in the valley that divided sinful humanity from himself. He has reached down from heaven and made His glory to dwell on earth, as we sing in today’s Psalm.

He has done all this, not for humanity in the abstract, but for each of us. The long history of salvation has led us to this Eucharist, in which our God again comes and our salvation is near. And each of us must hear in today’s readings a personal call. Here is your God, Isaiah says. He has been patient with you, Peter says in today’s Epistle.

Like Jerusalem’s inhabitants in the Gospel, we have to go out to Him, repenting our sins, all the laziness and self-indulgence that make our lives a spiritual wasteland. We have to straighten out our lives, so that everything we do leads us to Him.

Today, let us hear the beginning of the gospel and again commit ourselves to lives of holiness and devotion.

TIPS and Checklist

VOICE

Is my core message clear?

Have I used the best illustration?

Is the illustration concrete?

What phrase captures the climax of my homily?

What word deserves extra emphasis?

What will they remember from this homily?

[1] The Roman Missal: Renewed by Decree of the Most Holy Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, Promulgated by Authority of Pope Paul VI and Revised at the Direction of Pope John Paul II. (2011). (Third Typical Edition., p. 534). Washington D.C.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.