Readings:
• Is 40:1-5, 9-11
• Ps 85:9-10-11-12, 13-14
• 2 Pt 3:8-14
• Mk 1:1-8
One of the great mysteries we experience constantly and live with every second—quite literally—is the mystery of time. We measure it and count it; we talk about “having time” and “being on time.” But time is elusive, always moving and slipping away, even while we are able to point back in time and anticipate what might take place “sometime down the road.”
In his great poem, “The Four Quartets,” T. S. Eliot referred to time dozens of, well, times. He wrote:
Men’s curiosity searches past and future
And clings to that dimension. But to apprehend
The point of intersection of the timeless
With time, is an occupation for the saint…
One such saint was the Evangelist Mark, who opens his Gospel with a reference to both time and the point of intersection of the timeless: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.” God, in becoming man, demonstrated that time is not just a fatalistic cycle without purpose but is the stage for the drama of salvation, the means by which the Messiah’s coming is revealed and known.
Advent, in many ways, is a season—a “time”!—to reflect on time, especially the time we call “our life”. It is a period for reflection and repentance, mindful that our days are numbered, and that “the day of the Lord will come like a thief,” as we hear in today’s Epistle.
Advent is also a reminder that the gospel is ever ancient and ever new. Put another way, the “good news” is not just a matter of historical fact, but is also a matter of personal encounter and transformation. “Everything the Lord does and is remains always beginning,” wrote Adrienne von Speyr in her meditations on the Gospel of Mark, “is in the process of setting forth and arising. It is always ‘today’. It is always just starting.”
She then makes a statement that summarizes this Sunday’s readings quite well: “We must always be open in and to this beginning.” The work of God is ongoing; the mission of the Son of God continues; the power of the Holy Spirit is real and vital—today.
The otherwordly message of preparation was, fittingly, delivered by a figure, John the Baptist, who was rather otherwordly in appearance. Just as the prophet Isaiah announced an exile from Babylon and a return to the promised land, the prophet John proclaimed an exile from sin and a fulfillment of the covenantal promises of God. Clothed in camel’s hair and a leather belt, he “appeared in the desert”, a place of desolation and testing.
His extreme appearance was equaled by a radical proclamation of a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Why was this radical? While the Jews practices ceremonial washings, a once-only baptism was an immersion meant for non-Jews converting to Judaism. So, as Scripture scholar Craig Keener notes, “the ultimate example of repenting, or turning from a wrong way of living to a right way of living, was when a non-Jew decided to obey the teaching’s of Israel’s God.” Therefore, John’s insistence that Jews were to repent in the same manner as non-Jews was startling, even offensive. It sent the clear message that everyone—Jew and Gentile alike—must come before God on the same terms.
The goal was deep repentance, or metanoia, which refers to a complete change of thinking, acting, and being. All of this takes time; it all takes place in time. Today, during Advent, is the time to prepare the way of the Lord by repenting of sin and growing more deeply in the divine life granted in baptism.
Make time for confession, prayer, and contemplation. In that way we can better appreciate the words of Eliot: “In my end is my beginning.”
(This “Opening the Word” column originally appeared in the December 7, 2014, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Carl:
Thank you for this homily on John the Baptist, especially the illuminating insight into what his call to baptism signified.
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came to give testimony, to bear witness to the light…. The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world.”
The events surrounding Jesus’ ministry and death were spoken of in terms of a timing context FRAMED by eternity. “In the fullness of time, his hour had not yet come, the hour has come, but this is your hour,” etc. When we become so focused on and immersed in time that we lose sight of eternity, we lose the eternal value of both.
“Why did the Origin of the universe, the Author of nature, will to be born, except that he willed to die?” — St. Peter Chrysologus
A wonderful enlightenment by author Olson of the radical Jewish requirement that converts to Judaism must be baptized in water, something not required for those born into Judaism. Now John the Baptist demands Jews be baptized. An attestation that we’re all sinners regardless of the orthodoxy of our faith.
Apparently many of the Pharisees, Sadducees assumed they were free from sin by outward adherence to the Law. John shatters that self deception as would the Apostle. That mistake is still a major issue today, hierarchy assuming outward show of belief and practice suffices, as do laity in the belief that minimal, or outward observance absent of imitation of the observable spiritual goodness of Christ will save us. For us that means living the Gospels in spirit and in truth, emptying ourselves to convert ourselves into his image.
Agree, another excellent reflection by Carl.
Especially inspired by the “good news” must be “a matter of personal encounter and transformation.” And Advent being the time for “repenting of sin and growing more deeply in the divine life granted in baptism.” Repenting in particular all the times we allow that divine life to go dormant, unseen and inactive.