SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT – YEAR C

Last Saturday, there was a blackout in part of our neighborhood. It started in the middle of the afternoon, just as dusk was approaching, so that by 4:30 some streets were totally dark enough that people had difficulty finding their way around. Brother Bill and a couple of the sisters from our convent came through the tunnel with flashlights to find their way church to attend Mass.
We are celebrating a season of light this month. Currently, our Jewish brothers and sisters are observing Hanukah, remembering that as the holy Temple in Jerusalem was rededicated, the lamps kept burning for days despite a shortage of oil. When Jesus traveled from Galilee down to Jerusalem to celebrate The Feast of the Dedication, as it was called in his day, he would have observed the huge torches that were used in the Holy City. And, of course, we disciples of Jesus are about to celebrate the birth of him whom we hail as The Light of the World.
This Second Sunday of Advent invites us to reflect on light, and on how light guides us into a future that God has in store for us, if only we are willing to pursue it. Yesterday, we heard how Mary learned of that future from the Angel Gabriel and accepted it with her famous answer to Gabriel, “I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.”
In the first reading today, Baruch draws the delightful word picture f Jerusalem as a watchman standing atop the mountain on which it is built, and catching sight of her people returning from a long exile far-off Babylon. It must have been similar to catching sight of the huge caravan of asylum-seekers, moving north thought Mexico to the Promised Land of the United States. “Up, Jerusalem!” Baruch commands, “Stand upon the heights; look to the east and see your children gathered from the east and the west, rejoicing that they are remembered by God.” “God is leading Israel in joy by the light of his glory…” He is leading by the light of his glory.
St. Luke today pictures John the Baptist not, as we often do, standing in one place to baptize the crowds that gather around him, but on the move. “John went through the whole region of the Jordan – that’s quite a lot of territory – proclaiming a baptism for the forgiveness of sins.” In his Gospel, St. John the Evangelist is careful to note, about the Baptist, “He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.” And later, Jesus would tell the crowds who were gathering around him,’ John was a burning and shining lamp, and for a time you were willing to enjoy his light.”
John is ready to lead all who are willing to follow his lamp on a road that God has already made ready, a road easy to travel. It is the road of accepting the message of God’s overwhelming love for his people and a willingness to leave behind our sins and whatever else holds us back from making that journey into God’s future.
St. Paul tells us today, that once we set out on that road, we can depend on God to carry us along. “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” And the following of Jesus leads us again and again into the company of people who love us and want to help us. “God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus,” Paul writes to his favorite converts, the Philippians.
When we walk in the light that God sheds in this world through Jesus and the saints, it always leads us to assist others. That is why the Giving Tree stands in our Gathering Space as donations to the food pantry did before. The candles burning on the Advent wreath point us to that Giving Tree.
Than, too, Advent calls us to light to one another. Albert Schweitzer, the famous medical missionary who spent years of his life in Africa, the Dark Continent as we used to call it, once wrote. “In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” Advent is the time to join with St. Paul in praying with joy for all those special people who have caused out inner fire to burst into flame by their care, their attention, their encouragement, their love. It is a time to follow the light of a star to the crib where very shortly the baby who is The Light of the World, The Sun of Justice will appear, to take off the robe of mourning and misery and put on the splendor of glory from God. May God lead us forward confidently into the future he has prepared, bearing us aloft in glory as on royal thrones.