The Word of God was spoken to an outsider (John the Baptist) in the desert. Who speaks the Word of God to us today?

We are an Advent people.  We are given the gift of time to prepare the inn of our hearts and to prepare our faith community for the coming of Christ Jesus.  I suggest we will value the true spirit of
Christmas to the degree that we have prepared as an Advent people for the joyful coming of the Saviour into our lives.

I like to think of Advent as a time of listening to what God is birthing in me.  Need to quiet down and listen.  Tuesday we celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  She who gave birth to the Saviour calls us to the awareness that Jesus needs to be born again this Christmas.  In what way if God birthing in you?  Our Advent time of waiting for new birth is a labor of patient love.

How do we prepare as an Advent people?  We need to look to the Scriptures for guidance.  The evangelist Luke in today’s Gospel tells us that the Word of God was spoken to John the Son of Zachariah in the desert.  Say that again!  Where was the Word of God spoken and to whom?    Note that the Word of God was not pronounced by the religious and political leaders of the day.  It bypassed them all.  The Word of God did not come from the Palace of the Temple.  The Word of God came from an outsider in the desert.  The Word of God came to John in the desert.  What?  Did I hear that right?

It leaves with the question:  Where is the wilderness in your life in which the Word of God is going to be proclaimed to you?  Is there a wilderness area in your heart?  Perhaps that side of you that never sees the light of day.  Perhaps it is a place of struggle and turmoil and sinfulness.  The Word of God comes in the crosses and in the places of wilderness in our lives.

Where is the wilderness in the world about it?  Certainly we find it in the all too many senseless acts of violence in which innocent lives are lost.  There is the wilderness in the growing treat of terrorists and how to respond to acts of terrorism and the threatening face of war.  There is the wilderness of pornography, and in the lives that are lost in acts of abortion.   Yes, there is much, much wilderness but you may be sure that God is present and the Word of God is spoken to the wilderness.  May we, like John the Baptist, be aware of how the Word of God is being spoken.

Don’t discount any place in your life as a place where the Word of God may be spoken to you.  Into whatever area of your life you seem most vulnerable, most discouraged, that may well be the area of wilderness in which God is speaking to you.  In whatever relationship that is falling apart in your life, in whatever fear and anxiety is most troubling to you, into what political, secular, or moral component of society is most disturbing, the Word of God is present.

Today’s Gospel begins:  “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod the tetrarch of Galilee etc., the Word of God came to John the son of Zachariah in the desert.  I suggest if you daydreamed through the first lines of today’s Gospel, you missed the whole point of Luke’s Gospel.  The evangelist is setting the ministry of Jesus in its wider historical context.  The point is the sacred ministry of Jesus emerged right in the midst of secular history.  Secular history does not get in the way of the proclamation of the Word of God.  Rather, for us to hear the Word of God proclaimed in this moment of history means wen need to know the circumstances of our own history.  God’s word is being spoken in the midst of the mess of our own lives and in the mess of the church and the world we live in.  I know God likes to speak me when I am too busy to listen.  My Advent mantra is the word of the psalmist:  “Be still and know that I am God.”

Who speaks the Word of God today in the context in which we live our lives?    Is it the priest, a ministry person, a politician, a writer, a teacher, our children, a wisdom person we may know?  It is for us to be aware of the prophets in our midst.

The message of John the Baptist to the people of his day as well as to us:  God is about to act.  Therefore prepare the way of the Lord.  His message was and is a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  John is talking about an inner change, a metanoia.  Before we can experience the joy of Christmas, John the Baptist calls us to a baptism of repentance.  We need to acknowledge our own sinfulness – our greed and consumerism, the sinfulness that devalues our sexuality, the compulsive busyness of our lives that keeps us from valuing the spiritual dimension of life, and our unwillingness to share more fully what we have with those in need.

May our Advent prayer include the beautiful Sacrament of Reconciliation – this sacrament of experiencing the forgiving love of the Lord Jesus.  On Monday Evening at 7:00 pm, we will have a communal penance service with individual confession.  Frs Amann, Kreckel, Sergio, and I will be available for confessions.  The call to Reconciliation is such a significant component of our Advent preparation for the coming of Christ.

This Advent let us resolve to truly prepare for the coming of Christ by repenting of all that is wrong and living with an openness to God’s grace.  On Tuesday with the wonderful feast of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, Pope Francis is initiating our jubilee of mercy.  May we both rejoice in God’s merciful love for us, and may we bearers of God’s merciful love in the lives of others.

-          As you pray for God’s help in your life this Advent, think how you can extend God’s compassion to others.

-          Pray for peace and seek reconciliation within your own family, neighborhood, and work place.

-          Pray for healing and take the time to visit someone in a hospital or nursing home.

-          Rejoice in God’s love and rethink your own prejudices.

-          Pray for Christ’s coming and live as though he is knocking at your door right now.

MARANTHA.  COME LORD JESUS.