Prepare the way!
Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11; 2 Peter 3: 8-14; Mark 1: 1-8
One fourth of the Advent is gone; and soon it will be Christmas! The Lord will be here anytime, warn the readings today. Last week liturgy invited us to watch, and this week it invites us to WAIT.
Waiting can be of two fundamental kinds. The first type is a passive indifference - you wait helplessly; you wait doing nothing, because you think you can do nothing about it! You are passive and you are inactive...whatever you are waiting for, has to happen by itself and you feel you have no part of it, until it really begins to happen. The other type of waiting is, an active preparation - you are totally involved in the expectant events. Though you know you cannot do much about what you are waiting for, but you can do all the preparations for it, and you do it with such enthusiasm, that when it really happens you begin to live the moment to the full.
A Christian waiting can never be an indifference or a passive helplessness regarding things that happen. That is what the world calls fate. The difference between the concepts of fate and will of God, is the love that is involved in the latter. A love with which a person lives to the full the moments of preparation, in order that the event itself could be meaningfully experienced. Yes, a Christian Waiting at advent is an active participation in the historical events that announce and usher in the Reign of God.
What does this WAIT concretely consist of? The liturgy today offers a clarity on this.
To wait is to Wish the coming of the Lord. True Waiting begins with a real wish, a want, a true desire that the Lord comes. It cannot be based on a dubious or a half hearted acceptance of an inevitable situation. A truly Christian waiting for the Lord should begin from an ardent desire that the Lord should visit us. Sometimes this wish or desire can be half hearted because of the fear of the changes that the Lord can effect with the coming.
There were those who did not wish the coming of the Lord - just imagine Herod becoming troubled at the news of a child being born. Recall those people of the Gerasenes (Mk 5), who did not want the Lord to come into their village. Let us not take this condition for granted - the condition to wish the coming of the Lord. At times, even we may tell that Lord, 'please do not enter my life...I cannot afford to change anything there right now!'
To wait is to Allow the hand of the Lord. Isaiah today speaks of the changes that we need to look forward to; that the valleys be filled and the hills be leveled! It cannot be a true Christian attitude to want the Lord to come but not being ready to do anything or give into any change personally or as a community. It is a readiness to allow the Lord to challenge us to perfection.
Yes, if we truly wish the coming of the Lord into our lives, we need to allow the Lord to have his way! Today I want to dine with you the Lord said to Zacchaeus; and the very moment he began climbing down that sycamore, Zacchaeus started planning his itinerary already...I will change; I will become better; I will repent; I will restitute what I have unlawfully taken from others; I will relinquish my comforts for the right way of living. That is allowing the hand of the Lord to work on me, on my life, on my daily decisions.
To wait is to Inhabit the dwellings of the Lord. The second reading speaks to us of the need to conduct ourselves in holiness and devotion. The Gospel presents to us a people who went in search of the man of God that they may get closer to God, purify their ways and dwell in holiness and devotion. How eager are we to dwell in the courts of the Lord? How prepared are we to inhabit the new heavens and the new earth that the Lord promises us?
The coming of the Lord is a figurative phrase! It is not that the Lord has to come from somewhere, as if the Lord is not already with us. But it is a fact that we need to come home to the Lord. We are busy elsewhere, while the Lord waits at home, with arms wide open. We have neither the time nor the patience to recognise the Lord present and the arms that wish to console us, calm us, enthuse us and energise us. We need to inhabit the dwellings of the Lord - the Lord's favourite dwelling is our being...our inner being where the Lord resides...let us come home to this dwelling and get in touch with the Lord there.
To wait is to Tremble at the presence of the Lord. Let each one work out one's own salvation with fear and trembling, St. Paul would instruct elsewhere (Phil 2:12). John the Baptist personifies the need to prepare oneself in earnestness for the day of the Lord. He gives the ways and means of being prepared for the Reign of God. When the people looked for a saviour in the Baptist, he admits it with trembling before the Lord that the One who comes after him is mightier than him. And not just that, but that we need to prepare with haste for the day of the Lord.
There are no fixed formulae nor some short cut pathways to reach the salvation that God has in store for us..it is something that we need to work out on a daily basis: it is working out to be fit for the Reign. As John the Baptist indicates, each of us, depending on the state of life that we are in and the daily commitments that we have and the context in which we live our lives - we need to plan our itineraries. The journey we began last week is fast running its course out. We cannot take it at ease, or wait inactively for an opportune moment. We need to make decisions here and now...to change, to grow, to prepare more in concrete for the coming of the Lord.
Lets WAIT... wish heartily the coming of the Lord, allow the hand of the Lord to change our lives, inhabit the dwellings of the Lord and tremble at the presence of Lord. Let us take stock of the journey so far and continue in earnestness.