Prepare a way

Our short season of Advent is rather like a journey through a structured time, so as to help us prepare for the coming or “advent” of Jesus Christ. Last week, we were given our first signpost or marker on this journey: how we are to watch and wait for the Lord. This week, we see and hear the second sign or marker on our journey, as St. John the Baptist appears and commands us to “… prepare a way for the Lord.” It was certainly the mission of St. John the Baptist to do just that: to prepare a way for the coming messiah, Jesus Christ. Even though the Lord has come, we too also have a mission to prepare a way for him. What does this mean and how are we to do it? As always, our scripture readings show us the way to prepare a way.

The First Reading (Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11) is the very beginning of the second part of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. The prophet looks to the future at a very difficult time for God’s chosen people (something that we can certainly identify with). Be comforted, the prophet writes, for God who seems to be hidden from you will be revealed in all His glory. Then Isaiah is very clear and specific about what this revelation and glory of God looks like. It is God’s love and mercy: sins will be forgiven and the people will be renewed and restored. Indeed, writing some 1,700 years later, St. Thomas wrote: “God’s all-powerful love shows itself especially in the exercise of divine mercy.”

The Psalm (Psalm 85) joyfully sings of this manifestation of God’s loving kindness and our Second Reading (2 Peter 3: 8-14) also takes up this idea of a showing forth God’s love and mercy. The Lord does not delay in coming to us and fulfilling his promises to forgive and to restore, even though it may feel that way. Indeed, we must be ready for this coming of the Lord. But, how can we be prepared … what sort of person should we be? We should be pure and at peace. If not, how will we be able to recognize the Lord as he comes?

Our Gospel (Mark 1: 1-8) is also a beginning, as with our first reading from Isaiah. This time it is the beginning of St. Mark’s Gospel; his particular account of the “good news of Jesus Christ.” Mark begins his account by introducing us to the powerful and puzzling figure of St. John the Baptist. John’s whole calling and mission in life is to announce how the prophecies (such as the one in our First Reading) are fulfilled in the coming of Jesus.John is indeed to “prepare a way for the Lord” and to be a herald of the good news of God’s love and mercy.

What about us? The Lord has come already, but we are still to prepare a way for him in our hearts and to help others to prepare a way too. After all, the phrase “prepare a way for the Lord” also has an image of a way or a journey: the Lord journeys to us. But what if there is something blocking God’s path to us? Advent, like Lent, is a season of preparation and part of this preparation is conversion and penance (that is one reason why we use the liturgical color of purple both for Lent and for Advent … it is the color of penance and of renewed conversion). As part of preparations then, we need to take a serious look at what might be “blocking” our relationship with God and, with God’s help, to make sure that that blockage or those obstacles are removed. It could be a familiar fault or failing, or a less than active or vibrant prayer life, or a long held resentment or hurt, or perhaps all the anxieties and difficulties of the pandemic that seem to be overwhelming. Any of these and so many more can act like roadblocks: a barrier for us to be open and welcoming to the Lord as He comes to us.

Unlike St. John the Baptist, we do not need to live in the desert, or to dress in camel skin clothes, or to live on a diet of honey and locusts (could this be the latest diet fad?)! However, we do need to “prepare a way for the Lord,” both for ourselves and also to help others to do the same. Given all the bad news around, perhaps that task is more needed and urgent than ever. As the well-known Advent hymn sings:

On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
announces that the Lord is nigh.
awake and harken for he brings
glad tidings of the King of kings!
Then cleansed be every life from sin;
make straight the way for God within,
and let us all our hearts prepare
for Christ to come and enter there.