(Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; 2nd. Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8)
John, a desert-dweller enormously popular with Jews seeking
both liturgical purity and greater personal moral integrity, came to the river
Jordan to proclaim his God-given message and to ‘baptize’ the crowds flocking in their thousands to hear him and receive his
baptismal ministrations. John’s
God-given message was definitively clear and authoritative proclaiming repentance
for the forgiveness of sins to those who
were both religious and humble enough to want to hear and follow his guidance:
One mightier than I is coming
after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thong of His sandals. I have
baptized you with water; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
John the Baptist -- as he is now known -- the greatest, as
Jesus said, of all those born of woman, was chosen by God to immediately
precede Jesus and personally introduce Him to God’s Chosen People. John fulfilled
that commission perfectly by proclaiming Jesus as the Bridegroom, the Messiah of
Israel’s expectations, the One who alone could and would baptize with
the Holy Spirit.
John -- the Bridegroom’s precursor and friend to the end --
would be murdered in a lonely, royal, dungeon cell, for witnessing to God’s
truth against the displayed pride, indulged salaciousness, and the hidden weaknesses,
of a tyrant, himself subject to Rome’s ever-more-scrutinizing
approval.
John’s proclamation of Jesus was no threnody, however, dear
People of God; on the contrary, it was an introduction to the supremely
Christian song of glory, gratitude, and joy: for, all who would believe in, and
be baptized into, Jesus, would receive life from Him Who was willing to die –
even on a Roman cross -- to save them, through His own Spirit of Truth and Love,
from sin and death.
And it is in that way that obedient and faithful Catholics today
already share in some measure -- even here on earth -- the life of the Most
Holy Trinity: called by the Father
to faith in His beloved and only-begotten Son, and ‘gifted’ with the Holy
Spirit, they share eternal
sustenance as living members of the One True Church which is the Body of Christ,
constantly guided and protected in the Truth of Jesus’ Gospel by the Holy Spirit,
to worship the Father as His truly adopted children in Jesus, His Son and our
Saviour.
After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: “This is the time of
fulfilment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”
(1:14-15):
For the authentic Christian understanding and practice of
repentance, we need to look closely, very closely, at our readings today in
order to appreciate Mother Church’s teaching in this matter. What
was it that John the Baptist said?
What did Isaiah proclaim?
John said ‘repent’ first; and then next – on seeing Jesus passing by -- he said to
Andrew and another of his disciples, ‘Behold the Lamb of God’.
That, dear People of God, is the composite nature of
conversion: first turn from sin, then turn to the Lord.
Turn from sin, try to correct the ravages it has caused in
your life; which is what Isaiah proclaimed in those words:
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.
Such indeed is the first requirement of repentance, turn
away from sin in all sincerity, and then, by walking in the ways of Jesus, allow
the Spirit of Jesus to enter our life, and form us anew in the likeness of
Jesus, for love of the Father :
Then the glory of the LORD
shall be revealed, and all mankind shall see it together; for the mouth of the
LORD has spoken.
Notice too that Isaiah’s prophecy provides us with a sure way
to test the truth of our repentance: is the glory of the Lord being revealed to you? Do you, as you grow older, see and admire in
Jesus gradually more and more of the glory, that is, of the goodness, the beauty,
the truth, and the wisdom, of God? Do
you, as the years pass by, become ever more grateful to the Father for His
goodness in calling and guiding you to Jesus?
Do you find yourself gradually more willing to trust Him completely,
above all else? Do you aspire, more and
more, to know, love, and serve Him with your whole being? If you can say “Yes” to questions such as those
then, indeed, you are both sincerely repenting, and truly seeking the face of
the Lord; and, moreover, I could confidently say that the glory of the Lord
is also, indeed, being gradually revealed both to you and in you.
But what if -- as the years go by, when you seriously look
at yourself and sincerely question yourself before God -- you recognize that
you are thinking less and less of Jesus because you are increasingly absorbed
in worldly interests and aspirations; that you are more and more preoccupied by
cares about money and people’s opinions or attitudes in your regard, and less
and less attentive to God speaking through your conscience or drawing upon your
heart-strings? Do you feel yourself
obliged to respond in kind for every little benefit you receive from others, a
Christmas card for a Christmas card, an invitation by an invitation, a gift for
a gift, and yet never think that you owe a debt of gratitude to God for all the
many blessings He has bestowed on you throughout your life? Are you
gradually becoming tolerant of failings you are aware of -- you might like to
call them ‘mere peccadillos’ -- in your daily living? All these things are quite possible where
Christian people are found to be no longer looking to God, for God, but looking
at others, and looking-after themselves.
People of God, let us now for a short time look at God in
our Gospel reading trying to look
after Herod, despite his multitudinous failings.
God speaks to each and every one of us – without
exception – in one way or another, for our GOOD, for our eternal salvation; and
in today’s Gospel we heard how He kept on trying to straighten out Herod’s
hitherto most miserable life: a collaborator with the hated Romans, a most
blatant sinner with his own brother’s wife, and add whatever else you like …. a
murderer? a rapist? a great hater? a supreme exponent of the art of betrayal?
…. All most helpful for one wanting to become a royal figure with a measure of
authority in those hectic days and seasons after the death of Herod ‘the Great’, who had been a
superb servant of Rome, and whose sons –
including the Herod-Antipas of our Gospel reading – were doing their very best!!
– to win Rome’s favour by whatever means.
Dear People of God, God was still trying to
communicate with Herod Antipas, encouraging him, right to the end, to hear,
and in certain measure, to listen to John the Baptist speak of Israel’s faith! But now, although he in-his-way reverenced
John, Herod couldn’t go-back-on his foolish word to the lascivious daughter of
his scheming, adulterous, and murderous wife!
He didn’t dare give cause for his nobles and ‘mighty men’ to look down
on him and question his authority … so he ignored his God’s spiritual life-line
and plunged head and shoulders into yet greater sin and deeper spiritual
disgrace.
Dear People of God, no matter what might be the state we
find ourselves in at this moment, Mother Church urges us to aspire once again this
Advent time to prepare to welcome Jesus anew into our lives that His truth
might enlighten us, His love inspire us, and the Gift of His most Holy Spirit might
protect, guide, and sustain us along His way to the Father. Time is irrelevant to God, it of this
world, not of His heavenly Kingdom, our future home.
With the Lord one day is like
a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
What is essential for us, therefore, is that here and now, we
have the will to prayerfully aspire to the blessings He has prepared for us, and
that we have the humility and fortitude to forget our self-solicitude and, by
our daily prayer and Christian living, learn to rejoice as He gradually makes those
promised blessings an ever more real experience for us.
As St. Peter’s put it:
Waiting for the coming of (Our Lord and) God, you ought to be (found) conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion; eager to be found at peace, without spot or blemish before Him.
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