HOMILY FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT SEASON, YEAR B
THEME OF THE HOMILY: A voice cries in the wilderness: prepare a way for the Lord.
By: Fr Deotacious Chikontwe SMA
READINGS OF THE DAY
Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11
Psalm 84:9-14
2 Peter 3:8-14
Mark 1:1-8
LITURGICAL COLOUR
PURPLE
INTRODUCTION
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday already marks the Second Sunday of Advent our Advent Season.
FROM OUR FIRST READING
today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah, written several hundreds of years before the coming of Jesus, ‘Prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord. Make a straight highway for our God across the desert’. These words were addressed to a people who were in exile in the city of Babylon in modern day Iraq. The prophet has a vision of a great highway between Babylon and Jerusalem across the wilderness between the two cities, so that the exiles could return home safely, with the Lord leading them, as a Shepherd leads and looks after his flock. Two and a half thousand years later, we hear those words of Isaiah addressed to each one of us, calling on us to prepare a way for the Lord to enter our lives more fully this Advent. Of all the roads that we travel on, the most important road is the one that we create in our hearts for the Lord to enter our lives.
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FROM OUR SECOND READING
In our second reading Saint Peter further reminds us that as we await the Lord, whether he comes early or not, we must not relapse into sin or take advantage of his delay to do evil. In this Reading, Saint Peter shows us that, while we prepare the way of the Lord, three things are absolutely necessary to know and understand:
1. First, the Lord is not slow about his promise of coming; He is patient with us, not wanting any to perish, but to come to repentance.
2. Second, ‘the Day of the Lord’ will come like a thief with the heavens set ablaze and dissolved, the elements melted with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it dissolved and new heavens a new earth will be created in which righteousness dwells.
3. Third, leading lives of holiness as a way of hastening the coming of the Lord is an absolute necessity – since all things are going to be dissolved in this way. For this, you and I are expected to be found at peace with God, ourselves, and everyone.
FROM OUR GOSPEL READING
In our Gospel passage today, we heard the narration of how John the Baptist, the one whom Isaiah prophesied about, began his ministry in proclaiming the coming of the Lord to all of God’s people, and how he performed his works in the wilderness, calling upon all of them to return to the Lord’s Presence, seeking Him with humility and desire to repent from their sins and wickedness. Through St. John the Baptist, the Lord has shown all of us, His beloved people, that He has always kept us first and foremost in His thoughts, and He has always wanted us to be reconciled and reunited to Him. Through St. John the Baptist, many people came to be touched by the Lord, and they came to Him, all seeking for forgiveness and mercy, through the baptism which John the Baptist had done at the River Jordan. It is a call for us today, if we’ve been harbouring grudges or hatred, or failing to reconcile with others, now’s the time to clear away all the debris; and if we’ve been pushing God off the side of the road, if we’ve been saying to Him that we don’t really have the time for Him, now’s the time to get our priorities straight.
CONCLUSION
Dear brothers and sisters, may our lives become so focused on God and His ways in our lives, that we become like John the Baptist: our lives only giving witness to the love and mercy of God and drawing others to that love and mercy.
Have a Blessed Second Sunday of Advent Season.
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