Only a voice in the wilderness?

Second Sunday of Advent

Lectionary: 6

It-Tieni Ħadd tal-Avvent 

Reading 1  =  BARuch 5:1-9

Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery; put on the splendor of glory from God forever: wrapped in the cloak of justice from God, bear on your head the mitre that displays the glory of the eternal name. For God will show all the earth your splendor: you will be named by God forever the peace of justice, the glory of God’s worship. Up, Jerusalem! stand upon the heights; look to the east and see your children gathered from the east and the west at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that they are remembered by God. Led away on foot by their enemies they left you: but God will bring them back to you borne aloft in glory as on royal thrones. For God has commanded that every lofty mountain be made low, and that the age-old depths and gorges be filled to level ground, that Israel may advance secure in the glory of God. The forests and every fragrant kind of tree have overshadowed Israel at God’s command; for God is leading Israel in joy by the light of his glory, with his mercy and justice for company.

Qari I  -  mill-Ktieb tal-Profeta Baruk 5, 1

Neħħi minn fuqek, Ġerusalemm, ilbies il-vistu u n-niket tiegħek, u ilbes għal dejjem id-dija tal-glorja ta’ Alla. Ilbes mantar il-ġustizzja ta’ Alla, qiegħed fuq rasek id-dijadema tal-glorja ta’ Alla ta’ dejjem. Għax Alla għad juri sbuħitek lid-dinja taħt ix-xemx, Alla jsemmik għal dejjem:“Sliem tal-Ġustizzja” u “Glorja tal-Qima ta’ Alla”. Qum, erusalemm, itla’ fl-għoli, u ħares madwarek lejn il-Lvant, ara ’l uliedek miġmugħa, minn fejn tinżel ix-xemx sa fejn titla’, għall-kelma tal-Qaddis, ferħana li Alla ftakar fihom. Telqu mingħandek bil-mixi, imkarkra mill-għedewwa, u issa Alla se jġibhomlok, merfugħin fil-ġieħ bħalkieku fuq tronijiet is-slaten. Għax Alla ordna; jitniżżlu l-muntanji għolja, u l-għoljiet ta’ dejjem, jimtlew il-widien u titwitta l-art, biex hemm Iżrael jimxi ’l quddiem, bla tfixkil ta’ xejn,taħt il-ħarsien ta’ Alla. U l-foresti u s-siġar tal-fwieħa, jixħtu dellhom għal fuq Iżrael, bl-ordni ta’ Alla. Għax Alla jmexxi lil Iżrael ferħan, b’dawl il-glorja tiegħu, imsieħba mill-ħniena u l-ġustizzja ħierġa minnu .Il-Kelma tal-Mulej

Responsorial Psalm  =  PSalm 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6.

When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing. 
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Then they said among the nations,
"The LORD has done great things for them."
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed. 
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those who sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing. 
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Salm Responsorjali  -  SALM 125 (126), 1-2ab. 2ċd-3.4-5.6

R/. (3): Kbir f’għemilu l-Mulej magħna!

Meta l-Mulej reġġa’ lura l-imjassra ta’ Sijon,

konna qisna mitlufa  f’ħolma;

imbagħad bid-daħk imtela fommna, 

u bl-għajjat ta’ ferħ ilsienna.        R/

.

Imbagħad bdew jgħidu fost il-ġnus: 

"Kbir f’għemilu l-Mulej magħhom!

Kbir f’għemilu l-Mulej magħna! 

U aħna bil-ferħ imtlejna.     R/.

Biddel, Mulej, xortina bħall-widien tan-Negeb! 

Dawk li jiżirgħu fid-dmugħ 

jaħsdu bl-għana ta’ ferħ.    R/.

Huma u sejrin, imorru jibku, 

iġorru ż-żerriegħa għaż-żrigħ. 

Iżda huma u ġejjin  lura,                                                                                             jiġu b’għana ta’ ferħ, iġorru l-qatet f’idejhom. R/.

Reading 2  -  PHILippians 1:4-6, 8-11

Brothers and sisters: I pray always with joy in my every prayer for all of you, because of your partnership for the gospel from the first day until now. 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. God is my witness,  how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

Qari II  -  mill-Ittra lill-Filippin 1, 4-6.8-11

Ħuti, nitlob dejjem ferħan fit-talb tiegħi għalikom, minħabba s-sehem li intom ħadtu fix-xandir tal-Evanġelju, mill-ewwel jiem sal-lum. Jiena żgur minn dan: li dak li beda din l-opra tajba fikom, iwassalha għat-tmiem tagħha sa ma jasal il-jum ta’ Kristu Ġesù. Iva, jixhidli Alla kemm jien miġbud lejkom bil-qalb ta’ Kristu Ġesù! U jien dan nitlob: li l-imħabba tagħkom tikber u toktor dejjem iżjed bl-għerf u b’kull dehen, biex tistgħu tagħrfu tagħżlu l-aħjar, u mbagħad tkunu safja u bla ebda ħtija fil-jum ta’ Kristu, mimlijin bil-frott tal-ġustizzja li ġejja permezz ta’ Ġesù Kristu, għall-glorja u l-foħrija ta’ Alla.  Il-Kelma tal-Mulej

Gospel   =  LuKe 3:1-6

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,  during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert. John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: A voice of one crying out in the desert:“Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

Evanġelju  -  Qari skont San Luqa 3, 1-6

Fis-sena ħmistax tal-ħakma ta’ Tiberju Ċesari, meta Ponzju Pilatu kien gvernatur tal-Lhudija, Erodi tetrarka tal-Galilija, ħuh Filippu tetrarka tal-artijiet tal-Iturija u t-Trakonija, u Lisanja tetrarka ta’ Abileni, fiż-żmien meta l-uffiċċju ta’ qassis il-kbir kien f’idejn Anna u Kajfa, il-kelma tal-Mulej ġiet fuq Ġwanni bin Żakkarija, fid-deżert. U ġie fl-inħawi kollha ta’ madwar il-Ġordan, ixandar magħmudija ta’ ndiema għall-maħfra tad-dnubiet, kif hemm imniżżel fil-ktieb tal-profeziji ta’ Isaija: “Leħen ta’ wieħed jgħajjat fid-deżert: Ħejju t-triq tal-Mulej, iddrittaw il-mogħdijiet tiegħu. Kull wied jimtela, kull muntanja u għolja titbaxxa, il-mogħdijiet mgħawwġa jiddrittaw, u t-triqat imħarbta jitwittew. U l-bnedmin kollha jaraw is-salvazzjoni ta’ Alla!”. Il-Kelma tal-Mulej

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John the Baptist, the Paradox of Advent

A reflection by Fr Thomas Rosica csb

The true prophets of Israel help us in our struggle against all forms of duplicity. John the Baptist is the patron saint par excellence of authenticity. How often our words, thoughts, and actions are incoherent! Inherent in John the Baptist is the very paradox of Advent: the coming triumph of God manifest precisely in the darkness of the present, evil age. John the Baptist heard, experienced, and lived God’s liberating word in the desert and was thus able to preach it to others so effectively because his life and message were one. He certainly didn’t mince words. 

John the Baptist shatters the silence of the wilderness with his cry: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Not just “repent,” change the way we live, but repent and prepare for the coming of the Kingdom of heaven, which will upset all our securities and overturn anything we try to leave in place. The joy and the challenge of Advent is that in Jesus Christ, our God is coming, and our aching and longing for God are about to be met. But this God who comes disturbs us.

There was nothing politically correct about the Baptist’s message. He got right to the point and said what needed to be said. He told the first people who came to him to share. He told the tax collectors to be just. He told the soldiers to make peace.

The Baptist taught the people of his day and our day that the Messiah comes to save us from the powers of duplicity, despair, darkness, and death, and to put us back on the path of peace and reconciliation so that we might find our way back to God. John the Baptist’s life and mission remind us how badly we need a Saviour to save us, in order that we might be all that we are called to be and do all that we have to do to live in the Light. So often we fail to recognize the one among us who is our Way, our Truth, and our Life. This is what Advent is all about: finding our way back to God. 

The transformation of our deserts

Advent is a mystery that transforms and not just informs. Advent comprises a paradoxical combination of waiting and hastening, suffering and joy, judgment and deliverance, apocalyptic woe and eschatological hope. Unfortunately for our culture of instant gratification, hope requires incompleteness. To hope, in the true Advent fashion, is to live with the certainty of unfulfilled desire.

The God who was a highway engineer making new ways through the wilderness, a gardener turning deserts into flower gardens, is now the artist painting a new perspective of the age-old Messianic promise of hope. Hope in God cannot stand still, because – as Isaiah reminds us – we hope in a God who is constantly doing a new thing. Does our hope in God hold fast in the face of chaos and confusion in our life? How do we live with the Word of God? How can we live with the silence of God?

Advent teaches us that if we are quiet in our hearts long enough, we will discover that God still carves out highways and turns the desert places of our lives into oases of wonder, life, beauty, even though nothing will be as we expected. Any transformation of the wilderness depends on water.

Throughout the Old Testament, God is spoken of as the one who gives or withholds water – an image easily understood by people for whom water is a precious and controlled commodity. Few of us in the developed world have any concept of drought. The water piped into our homes deprives us of an image of God as the one on whom our very existence depends. Similarly, electricity deludes us into thinking we have the darkness under control. Together they rob us of daily experiences that could give vibrancy to the Advent invitation to revisit our dependence on God, to revisit our desire for God, and to discover through the night of waiting that God does indeed come.

The message of Advent is not that everything is falling to pieces. Nor is it that God is in heaven and all is therefore well with the world. Rather the message of Advent is that when every fixed star on the moral compass is wavering, when all hell is breaking loose on earth, we hear once again the Baptist’s consoling message:

Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Yet even with the birth of Jesus, we learn that Jerusalem and Israel still awaited their redemption. The world still awaits its freedom from hunger, war, oppression, violence, persecution, and suffering. We all await our redemption. Advent challenges us to look at the ways that we wait, the ways that we long for God, and the ways that we hope. What and who is the source of our Advent hope?

John the Baptist’s life can be summed up in the image of a finger pointing to the one who was coming: Jesus Christ. If we are to take on John’s role of preparing the way in today’s world, our lives also will become the pointing fingers of living witnesses who demonstrate that Jesus can be found and that he is near. Jesus is the fulfilment of our longing, our hoping, and our waiting. Jesus alone can transform the deserts of our lives into living gardens of beauty and nourishment for the world. Come, Lord Jesus! We need you now more than ever!

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