Keyword: Advent

Today’s reading from the Bible highlights two themes: joy and the Holy Spirit. Joy is so strongly emphasized in the readings that this Sunday is sometimes called Gaudete Sunday, “Rejoice Sunday!” Isaiah the prophet can’t wait to tell of his joy in announcing the good news of salvation to the community. The prophet speaks to a community battered by exile, poverty, and community strife.

We need to hear more about this kind of joy. Though many would be surprised, joy is an important  Christian virtue. The Bible views it as a gift of God. St. Paul regards it is a sign of the presence of the holy spirit. Advent is a good time to reflect on joy, for Advent means the coming of Christ, which is characterized by joy. 

Another reason for devoting attention to joy is that it is indispensable in authentic Christian discernment. “Discernment” means “the ability to judge well.” Joy is key to finding a person’s deep-seated and personal reaction to daily reality. In recent years, some wise people have studied discernment, especially discernment about vocation in a broad and non-necessarily religious sense. The same people, mostly in college and universities, are worried that students see their studies only as providing them the skills needed to make money; they don’t think about their personal growth and the contribution they could make to the common good. The teachers ask students to identify their personal strengths and gifts and reflect on how their gifts may serve the world’s needs.

The late Father Michael Himes, a professor at Boston College, was especially eager that people reflect on their vocation. Father Himes asked people three questions: 1) What gives you joy? 2) Is this vocation, role, or profession you are considering something you are good at? 3) Does anyone need you to do it?

The First Question: What gives you joy? distinguishes between happiness, often dependent on external and temporary factors like health and friends, and joy. Joy is deeper, pulling us out of ourselves and expanding our horizons. The Second Question: Are you any good at it? You may want to be a professional singer, but can’t sing in tune. Some things you can do well. Prize the talents you discover in yourself. The Third Question: Does anybody need you to do it? The theologian Frederick Buechner puts the answer this way: Vocation is “The place where God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” You may not answer them today, but you can let them be abiding questions, and that’s discernment.

In the second Sunday of Advent, we meet two characters whom we will meet again in Advent – the prophet Isaiah and the evangelist Mark. Isaiah records the Lord’s extraordinary decision that Israel’s exile has ended and they can return home to Jerusalem.

Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service has ended, that her guilt is expiated, that she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins. A voice proclaims: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!

Israel is to embark on a new exodus from Babylon just as Israel of old embarked on the exodus from Egypt and journeyed home to Jerusalem. That first exodus occurred in the thirteenth century BCE and made a family into the Lord’s people. The exodus in the sixth century BCE, narrated in Isaiah 40 quoted above, renewed the first exodus and re-formed a nation of the returning exiles. Christians believe that Jesus inaugurated another exodus, forming a new people, a new creation.

“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” became one of the most quoted texts when Jesus inaugurated a new exodus, a renewal of the first two exodus events. This exodus, however, was not a literal journey, but a movement. It represented a new way of the Lord being with Israel as their savior, and a new way of the people relating to the Lord. John the Baptist used the words that Isaiah used in announcing a new stage of God’s presence among the people.

Does the call of the Baptist in Mark have any meaning for our lives? Yes, it does. The gospel Jesus preached is not just a message from the past. It is the inauguration of a fresh way of God being present in the midst of his people. The words and deeds of Jesus do not lie dormant in the past. The Gospel of Mark begins with “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” “Beginning” does not refer only to the beginning of Mark, but also to the beginning of a work of God that continues into the present and affects us. God is at work in us. We must open our hearts to receive him. John demands conversion, which means that in Advent we open our hearts and minds and make ready a way in the wilderness of a world that has largely lost track of God’s love.