The Baptism of Repentance and Purification in the Holy Spirit
Introduction: May you continue to prepare the way of the Lord Jesus
to come to you and others.
We may remember the ways through the mountains always very
long, twisted, and used to go up and down as they wound their way from one point
to another. But if we build a new highway, we use bulldozers and push the hills
into the ravines to widen the road and make it a super-highway. They removed the
twists and turns and made it straight. All the hard work paid off in making the
journey smooth and quick.
How’s your life? Is it filled with ups and downs, with
crooked paths? Do you want to make it a smooth and straight path for the King to
come to you? With work, you can prepare the way for the Lord Jesus to come to you.
The message this week is that we should prepare for the
Advent (“Coming”) of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is coming, and His way must
be prepared. In the First Reading, Isaiah speaks to the exiles in Babylon and tells
them the LORD will come and lead them back to the Promised Land since the people
have repented of their sins. The psalmist speaks of the attributes that will accompany
the LORD’s coming: peace, kindness, truth, and justice. Saint Peter explains that
the Lord Jesus is not delaying His Second Coming but giving time to as many people
as possible to re-orient their lives and prepare themselves for His coming. St.
Mark begins his Gospel with John the Baptist. John the Baptist’s role is to prepare
for the coming of the Lord (Jesus) by preaching the need for repentance.
First Reading: Isaiah
40:1-5,9-11
The glory of the
Lord shall be revealed, and all mankind shall see it
Commentary: The reading from Isaiah for today is the joyful song which opens the second
part of Isaiah. After the 70 years of the Exile Israel is looking forward to the
return to Jerusalem, aware that they are soon to be released from their captivity.
They have ‘served their sentence’ in Babylon and their sin has been forgiven. The
Lord will lead them in joy across the great desert as he led them across the desert
at the Exodus and will manifest his glory again. For Christians, the excitement
is that John the Baptist picks up this message as he prepares the people for the
coming of Christ. The coming of the Lord to Jerusalem was never wholly fulfilled,
and we can see that the great fulfilment of this passage is in the coming of Christ
to his own. He came to Jerusalem, yes, but has the divine glory been yet manifested?
He brought the beginning of the kingship of God, but it is for us Christians to
show the glory and the love the generosity of God to a world that has not yet seen
the splendour of his coming. This is the daunting responsibility of those who bear
the name of ‘Christian’, who see in Jesus the manifestation of God’s reign.
Responsorial Psalm
85:9-14
Let us see, O Lord, your mercy, and give us your saving help.
The psalmist speaks of the attributes that will accompany
the LORD’s coming: peace, kindness, truth, and justice.
The theme of the LORD’s coming resonates through the Responsorial
Psalm. When GOD’s Reign is established, it will be marked by peace, kindness, truth,
and justice. The peace (shalom) of GOD will be experienced in positive relationships
– there will be no conflicts or resentment against others. Kindness will be manifest
in the act of everyone thinking of others instead of themselves. The truth of GOD’s
presence among the people will be evident. Justice will be established as people
turn from their former selfish ways to respectful attitudes toward all. All this
implies a turning from sinful ways to the ways of the LORD.
Second Reading:
2 Peter 3:8-14
We are waiting for the new heavens and the new earth
Commentary: The Second Letter of Peter, probably the last of all the writings of the
New Testament sets out to comfort Christians who were disappointed that the ‘Big
Bang’ at the end of the world had not yet happened. The first generations of Christians
had expected the world to come rapidly to an end – and yet it still goes on. In
the first generation of Christians, much of Paul’s moral teaching is shaped by the
idea that the Second Coming will occur very soon. In the second generation, the
author of this letter does not have such immediacy. He says that our task is to
live holy lives in peace and to wait in patience. The Second Coming is still imminent
in the sense that we must live our lives in view of it, and we have no time to lose.
But it will not occur tomorrow! From this point of view, the annual cycle of Church
feasts and festivals, even of Christmas, is a reminder that God is in total control
of his universe. For us, the seasons roll around, but for God time is meaningless.
Gospel: Mark 1:1-8
A voice cries in the wilderness: prepare a way for the Lord
Commentary: Each Advent has two John-the-Baptist Sundays, the first when we see John
preparing a community for the Messiah, the second when he points out Jesus as the
Lamb of God. Today is the first of these. John chose a point where the busy road
from Jerusalem to the East crossed the Jordan River. There he button-holed all the
busy financiers, merchants, and other travelers and tourists, warning them to change
their ways – and to change them now before it was too late. ‘I am too busy’, no
doubt they said, ‘I have other things to worry about; I have a wife and family to
feed.’ John was forming a community of repentance, but not so much a community
that wept ‘Boo-hoo!’ about their sins, as a community of people determined to set
their scale of values right. He meant them to stop going in one direction, to turn
round and go in a different direction. Do we give ourselves a moment of pause to
ask whether we have our priorities right? Where on our list of priorities does the
entry of Christ into our lives come? John said rotten trees were going to be cut
down, and useless straw to be burnt. Do I need to feel the axe at my feet?
Reflection: John the Baptist's life was fuelled by one burning passion - to point
others to Jesus Christ and to the coming of his kingdom. Who is John the Baptist
and what is the significance of his message for our lives? Scripture tells us that
John was filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb (Luke 1:15, 41)
by Christ himself, whom Mary had just conceived by the Holy Spirit. When Mary visited
her cousin Elizabeth John leaped in her womb as they were filled with the Holy Spirit
(Luke 1:41). The fire of the Spirit dwelt in John and made him the forerunner of
the coming Messiah. John was led by the Spirit into the wilderness prior to his
ministry where he grew in the word of God and was tested in preparation for his
prophetic mission. John's clothing was reminiscent of the prophet Elijah (see Kings
1:8).
Called to hear and obey the Word of God
John broke the prophetic silence of the previous centuries
when he began to speak the word of God to the people of Israel. His message was
similar to the message of the Old Testament prophets who chided the people of God
for their unfaithfulness and who tried to awaken true repentance in them. Among
a people unconcerned with the things of God, it was his work to awaken their interest,
unsettle them from their complacency, and arouse in them enough goodwill to recognize
and receive Christ when he came. Are you eager to hear God's word and to be changed
by it through the power of the Holy Spirit?
Jesus tells us that John the Baptist was more than a prophet
(Luke 7:26). John was the voice of the Consoler who is coming (John 1:23; Isaiah
40:1-3). He completed the cycle of prophets begun by Elijah (Matthew 11:13-14).
What the prophets had carefully searched for, and angels longed to see, now came
to completion as John made the way ready for the coming of the Messiah, God's Anointed
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. With John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit begins the restoration
to the human race of the "divine likeness", prefiguring what would be
achieved with and in the Lord Jesus.
Let the Holy Spirit purify and transform your
mind and heart
John's baptism was for repentance - turning away from sin
and taking on a new way of life according to God's word. Our baptism in Jesus Christ
by water and the Spirit results in a new birth and entry into God's kingdom as his
beloved sons and daughters (John 3:5). The Lord Jesus comes to baptize each one
of us in his Holy Spirit so that we may walk in his truth and holiness and radiate
the joy of the Gospel to all we meet. God's word has the power to change and transform
our lives so that we may be lights that point others to Jesus Christ. Like John
the Baptist, we too are called to give testimony to the light and truth of Christ.
Do you point others to Jesus Christ in the way you live, speak, and treat others?
Lord, let your light burn brightly in my heart that I may
know the joy and freedom of your kingdom. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and empower
me to witness the truth of your Gospel and to point others to Jesus Christ.
Daily Quote from the Early Church Fathers: The voice of
the one crying in the wilderness, by Theodoret of Cyr 393-466 A.D.
"The true consolation, the genuine comfort, and the
real deliverance from the iniquities of humankind is the incarnation of our God
and Savior. Now the first who acted as herald of this event was the inspired John
the Baptist. Accordingly, the prophetic text proclaims the realities that relate
to him in advance, for that is what the three blessed Evangelists have taught us
and that the most divine Mark has even made the prologue of his work. As for the
inspired John, whom the Pharisees asked whether he himself was the Christ, he declared
on his part: 'I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the
way of the Lord' as the prophet Isaiah said (John 1:23; Isaiah 40:30); I am not
God the Word but a voice, for it is as a herald that I am announcing God the Word,
who is incarnate. Moreover, he refers to the Gentiles as the 'untrodden [land]'
because they have not yet received the prophetic stamp." (excerpt from COMMENTARY
ON ISAIAH 12.40.3)
CHRISTMAS COMFORT
“Comfort, give comfort to My people, says your God. Speak
tenderly.” —Isaiah 40:1-2
The Lord promises to comfort and speak tenderly to us (Is 40:1-2). In today’s second reading, the Church proclaims in the
name of the Lord that “the heavens will vanish with a roar; the elements will be
destroyed by fire” (2 Pt 3:10). How comforting! In the Gospel reading, we meet St. John
the Baptist, one of the least comforting characters in the Bible and in history
(see Mk 1:2ff). The Lord’s ways are not our ways, and His idea of comfort
is not our idea of comfort (see Is 55:8).
The Lord does not want to give us the superficial comfort
of temporary relief. Rather, the Lord promises to baptize us in the Holy Spirit
(Mk 1:8), the Paraclete, the Comforter (see e.g. Jn 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7). This divine Comforter will free us from
generations of slavery, sin, guilt, and punishment (Is 40:2).
Comfort will begin with the Holy Spirit convicting the
world and us of sin, justice, and condemnation (Jn 16:8). Then we must let the Spirit lead us from conviction
to repentance, confession, and forgiveness. After this, we will personally experience
that “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3:17).
In the comfort of the Spirit, we will truly enter into
the freedom of the Lord. We will displace the culture of death with a civilization
of love and life. Come, Holy Spirit of Christmas and comfort!
Prayer: Father, comfort me Your way. “Here is your God!
Here comes with power the Lord God, Who rules by His strong arm.” —Is 40:9-10. Praise to You, risen Jesus, “Prince of Peace” (Is 9:5). All glory and honor to You. Alleluia!
The personal question for today: In what
ways have I prepared the way for the Lord Jesus? Have I straightened out the twisted
ways in my life and made a smooth, level path for the Lord Jesus to come to me?
Have I appreciated the time that GOD has given me (and others) to repent and turn
more fully to the Lord Jesus? How much time am I spending cleaning and decorating
the house of my soul, so that I will be able to celebrate the Lord Jesus’ coming
to me? How can I show others the true meaning of this season of preparing the way
for the Lord?