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Exegesis
December 7, 2008 Second Sunday of Advent (B) Betty Jane Lillie, S.C. Is 40:1-5, 9-11 X Ps 85:9-14 X Pt 3:8-14 X Mk 1:1-8 ”Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” (Mk 1:3) The words of John the Baptist ring out in the Advent season, and they set the keynote of the journey to Christmas. He proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. What was John’s baptism? He said it was baptism with water, but not yet a baptism with, or in, the Holy Spirit. Clearly, John’s way was a way of preparation for something that would follow, and what would follow would be of greater order. The one to come would be more powerful that John and would have a more powerful baptism. At that point the people would not have imagined a messianic figure to be the Son of God who would incorporate them into a sharing in the life of God in a special way. But they would have appreciated the concepts of ritual purification through a washing ritual and its symbolic connection with acknowledgment of sinfulness and seeking forgiveness. For the people of that time the roots of that understanding were likely in the ritual washing, not hygienic washing, that was used as a preparation for the Sabbath and other ritual observances. Immersion in water and in a miqveh, or pool of water, showed the disposition of repentance and readiness for entering into the religious rites of Judaism. This is still done by some Jews even in our time. In the case of John’s baptism, some think that he presided in the ritual at some place in the Jordan River where there was enough water for complete immersion. This then might have become the point of reference for the beginning of the form of Christian baptism as a rite of initiation into the Mysteries of Christ. The text of our Gospel reading is the beginning of Mark’s version of the Good News of Jesus Christ. It begins with a combination of two prophetic texts. “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way (Mal 3:1); the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” (Is 40:3) This connects the prophetic tradition in our first reading from Second Isaiah (Is 40-55) with our Gospel reading in a pattern of promise-fulfillment. The prophet proclaimed that the word of our God would stand forever. (Is 40:8) Having heard the words of the prophets to prepare the way of the Lord, we see in the Second Letter of Peter that the Lord is not slow about his promise, but rather patient and wanting none to perish but to come to repentance. So then the sacred writer asks what sort of persons we ought to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness as we wait for the coming of the Lord. (2Pt 3:9; 11-12) We have already guessed the answer. We ought to strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish. We ought to regard the patience of our Lord as our salvation. (2 Pt 3:14-15) Our Psalm
response draws these ideas together when it says, “Let me hear what God the
Lord will speak….Righteousness will make a path for his steps.” (Ps 85) |
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