We admire people with the ability to see beneath the surface of things. Such an attitude may help us go beyond the bland opening of today’s Gospel, “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 sentence reports historical facts, reflecting the way most people would look at dates and civic events. But it is followed by an interpretation that goes beneath the surface: “the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert. He 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.” As if illustrating what going beneath the surface implies, the first sentence presents bare facts, and the second sentence gives us the underlying Christian interpretation of those facts, “the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah in the desert.”
Because of the commercialization of Christ in modern times, Christmas in our culture is a blend of the secular and the religious. Christmas is a civic holiday and a Christian feast. In Advent, however, the two perspective remain separate; in fact the religious perspective predominates. Secular thinking dismisses the four weeks of Advent as unconnected to Christmas, a time to shop for Christmas giving. So what does Advent as a religious season mean to Christians? Its meaning is best shown by the biblical readings the Church chooses for the four Sundays in Advent.
The first reading in the C cycle is from the prophet Baruch (a late Old Testament book revered as canonical by Catholic and Orthodox church). Baruch personifies Jerusalem as a woman restored from humiliation who invites exiles and other excluded people to appreciate God’s presence in the city. The second reading from St. Paul emphasizes his genuine affection for the community he founded in the Greek city of Philippi, and encourages the congregation to grow in the love they have for one another. But perhaps the most pressing call is that of John the Baptist in the Gospel of Luke to “prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” John quotes the words from Isaiah that meant so much to Jesus and his early followers. Today, using the words of Isaiah cited by John, we can pray that God straighten the winding ways of our hearts and smooth the paths made rough by sin, to keep our hearts watchful in holiness, and bring to perfection the good God has begun in us.