Sunday, Dec. 8, is the Second Sunday of Advent. Mass reading: Baruch 5:1-9; Psalm 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6; Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11; Luke 3:1-6.

In this Sunday’s Gospel, the curtain rises on the opening scene of the New Testament. In order to grasp its significance, let’s recall the closing words of the Old Testament. 

“See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; lest I come and strike the land with doom!” (Malachi 4:5-6).

With these words, the Old Testament ends in the layout of most modern Bibles. And now, the New Testament opens in the desert, near the banks of the River Jordan, with John the Baptist, of whom Jesus says, “He is the Elijah who was to come” (Matthew 11:14). In John the Baptist is the fulfillment of the Elijah figure who was to come to prepare the hearts of the people for the great coming of the Messiah.

In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist summons the faithful to repentance so that they will be ready when the Messiah arrives. Those of us who want to be ready also need to go into the wilderness and hear the message of John the Baptist: “Prepare the way of the Lord!” And though only the Lord can finally get us ready, we must be able to say to the Lord, “I’m ready as I can be.”

The Gospel begins with a parade of the prestigious, but it was to John the Baptist, the simple man in the desert, that the Word came. John the who? “But God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). And where is the word of God proclaimed? In a place of vulnerability, where one experiences one’s limitations. 

And what is the summons? “Repent and believe in the good news!” John said this, but so did Jesus in his opening call: “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the Gospel!’” (Mark 1:14 -15).

Modern thinking and practice has strayed from this kerygmatic balance between “Repent” and “Believe the good news!” Many today only want to hear or proclaim the “good news.” But the good news only makes sense if we understand that we are in need of a divine Physician. “Repent” sets the stage for the “good news.”

John says, “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.”

We need to be ready: Prepare the way of the Lord. We need to be right: Make straight his paths. We need to be reverent (free of pride): Every mountain and hill shall be made low. We need to be refined: The rough ways shall be made smooth. And then we can rejoice: And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.