Daily Gospel Reflection – Second Sunday of Advent
Daily Gospel Reflection – Second Sunday of Advent
Daily Friends, a couple years ago, there was a poll conducted in Great Britain that revealed that the majority of people there feel that Jesus was not a real, historical figure, but rather more of a mythic character. There are all kinds of spiritual systems that trade in mythic language bearing spiritual truths—but that’s not what Christianity is.
Second Sunday of Advent
Gospel: Lk 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.”
Source: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Bishop Robert Barron
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Luke quotes from the prophet Isaiah:
"Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths." (Isa. 40:3)
Advent is a great liturgical season of waiting—but not a passive waiting. We yearn, we search, and we reach out for the God who will come to us in human flesh. In short, we prepare the way of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This preparation has a penitential dimension, because it is the season in which we prepare for the coming of a Savior, and we don’t need a Savior unless we’re deeply convinced there is something to be saved from. When we have become deeply aware of our sin, we know that we can cling to nothing in ourselves, that everything we offer is, to some degree, tainted and impure. We can’t show our cultural, professional, and personal accomplishments to God as though they are enough to save us. But the moment we realize that fact, we move into the Advent spirit, desperately craving a Savior.
In the book of Isaiah (Isa. 64:7), we read:
"Yet, O Lord, you are our father;
we are the clay and you are the potter:
we are all the work of your hands."
Today, let us prepare ourselves for the potter to come.
Reflect: Are you spiritually passive or active this Advent as you wait for the coming of Jesus? How can you become more spiritual- ly active amid the busyness of the season?
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