First Reading
Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; indeed, she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins. A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Go up on to a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord God, who rules by his strong arm; here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.
Second Reading
2 Peter 3:8-14
Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be found out. Since everything is to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be, conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames and the elements melted by fire. But according to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace.
Gospel Cycle Cycle B
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 am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins. John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey. And this is what he proclaimed: “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
The Prophet Isaiah wants us to hear the word of God: Comfort my people. Speak tenderly! This second Sunday of Advent is filled with warmth and with God’s love. It is God who loves us, over and over. All through the history of salvation—that history of God seeking out His chosen people so that He can show His love to all peoples—God is looking for us, for you and for me and for every person who has ever lived. It is not just us who are seeking spiritual truths! No, it is God Himself who is seeking us out to draw us to Himself.
The Second Letter of Peter tries to reach our hearts by assuring us that according to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Why would we await righteousness? Because if our eyes are open, there is unrighteousness around us in every age and it consumes our world. Those of us who live in relative comfort are unrighteous because the hunger and the needs of the poor don’t touch our hearts. The hungry and the needy often lack righteousness becaue they covet what the wealthy have. Yet God assures us over and over that He takes His side with the poor and the needy because we who have don’t share and don’t even care.
Into our world comes John the Baptist. The Gospel of Mark today puts in front of us the figure of the Baptist, who preaches so clearly to us the need to repent. Do we repent? No often! Do we seek the way of the Lord? When it is convenient! The Baptist will cry out to us: Prepare the way of the Lord!
We should always trust in God’s love for us. It is God inviting us to know His love. It is God who tells us that He does not come to condemn us. It is the same God who invites us to repent! Even though we find ourselves too comfortable and not worried about the poor and the needy, that can change. Conversion is not just a nice feeling. Conversion is not just thinking about God. Unless we change and begin to care for the poor and the needy in our actions, we have not yet embraced conversion. We want to follow Jesus as our Lord. Advent is the time to begin!!