Well, here we are at the Second Sunday in Advent, the time of preparation for the coming of the Christ-child once more into our lives. Can you really believe that it’s only three weeks until Christmas? And since it is this special season of the year, I have an Advent question for you. It’s this: Whom do you use as a model as you prepare for Christmas? In other words, when you think of Christmas, what person do you associate with the holiday? I’m going to give all of you the benefit of the doubt and assume that the first person you thought of was Jesus! So, let’s go to the second person.
For little kids, or perhaps the child in each of us, there is always Santa Claus. And if holiday shopping has gotten you down, I suppose you might identify with Ebenizer Scrooge. However, there are two people that the church offers to us as special models at this time of the year: the Blessed Virgin Mary – and John the Baptist. The focus for today’s homily is to be on these two people and how they might be models for us, not only during the season of Advent, but for other times as well.
Today’s gospel reading, as well as the one for next Sunday, speak about John the Baptist, who proclaims the coming of the adult Christ. The gospel readings for next Thursday, when we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and the one for the Fourth Sunday of Advent speak of the announcement to Mary of the coming of the Christ-child into the world.
So it is that Advent, this season of expectation, is both a time of the Announcement of the birth of Jesus and the coming of the kingdom and a time of the proclamation of the return of Christ and the fulfillment of the kingdom. Advent, then, is a time for us to consider both Mary and John, to see what they have to say to us about preparing for the coming of Jesus the Christ. With John, the focus might be on our need for “change”. For Mary, the focus might be on our need for “acceptance”.
Let’s begin with John the Baptist. He came proclaiming our need for repentance, our need to change our lives, to re-form our lives, for this is indeed, what repentance means: to change, to form again, to re-form. John is a man of action. He was that way from the first moment we heard about him, as he leapt for joy in the womb of Elizabeth, his mother, when she first met Mary, after the Annunciation by the angel Gabriel that Mary would bear the Son of God.
As for Mary, herself, what was her reaction to the angel’s announcement? In the words of Luke, she whispered: “I am the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be done to me as you say.” So, while John is our model for Advent-change, Mary remains our model for Advent-acceptance.
But what does it mean if I am to use John, the man proclaiming change, the man of action, for my advent-model? Following him, would it mean that I must give up my destructive habits? Would I need to break off those harmful relationships that hinder my growth towards God? Following John, must I work for social change? Must I volunteer for community action and service? Must I do what I can to change my life and help to improve the lives of those around me?
And what if I am to use Mary, the woman who accepts without hesitation the Word of God into her own being, the woman of prayer, as my advent-model? Following her, would it mean that I must accept conditions or events that I cannot control? Would I need to embrace and affirm a person with whom I have been estranged? Following Mary, would I be called to let go of past hurts and internal pain? Must I pray for the Peace of God to help me, or those I love, get through a time of difficulty?
During Advent are we called to walk with John or with Mary? Or perhaps with both of them, as two companions at our sides. Is this what Saint Paul encourages us to do in his prayer for the Christians of Philippi when he says: “And this is my prayer: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.”
Are we called to love with both understanding and experience, with the “acceptance” of Mary and with John’s “call to change”? Is our conscience to be clear and our conduct blameless: is our inner life of prayer to be balanced with our outer life of action? Do we truly learn the value of things that really matter? For if we do, we will, indeed, be prepared “up to the very day of Christ.”
Not only during this Advent, but perhaps throughout our life, we have the opportunity to walk with both John and Mary – until the day comes when: “Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
Second Sunday of Advent; December 4, 1994
Baruch 5:1-9; Phillippians 1:4-6; Luke 3:1-6