Second Sunday of Advent December 8, 2024

Readings: Baruch 5:1-9   Philippians 1:3-6, 8-11  Luke 3:1-6

The word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness; and he went into all the region about the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:2-3). In this short text we find the three steps necessary to transform anybody from lukewarmness to enthusiasm in the faith. The three steps are (a) John went into the desert, (b) the word of God came to him, and (c) John left the desert and went about proclaiming the faith. We also must pass through these three stages to arrive at the stage where we begin to live the life of faith with joy.

We go into the desert. The desert is a place of being alone with God. We go into the desert when we take time off our normal job and household occupation to be with God in church, in prayer, in reading the word of God. The desert is the place where we encounter God. We ourselves must take the first step to go into the desert, to reach out to God, to look for God.

The word of God comes to us. Once we open our hearts to God in the desert, God Himself comes and fills us up. A saint once said that when we take one step to God, God takes two steps to us. At this stage God takes the initiative to come to us, to fill us, to renew us, to transform us, to remould us into God’s image that we are created to be. This is the stage that some people call being born again. When this happens to us we would like to spend the whole day alone with God in church, in prayer, in Bible reading. But like John we must go on to live our lives and carry out our duties in the family and in the society.

                                                                              Fr. Terry.