2nd Sun of Advent Yr B, December 6, 2020 - Is 40:1-5, 9-11; 2 Pt 3:8-14; Mk 1:1-8
All women, especially wives, know, that all men, especially husbands, are experts at finding wherever they are going on the road, without any help, without a map, and, certainly, without asking for directions. It’s just a natural instinct for us men, being the hunter and gatherer of the species. It’s like we have a compass or GPS in our brain. Now men, did you notice some of the ladies were laughing? Seriously, though, the truth is - we all get lost. We all make those wrong turns on the road of life.
But it would really be nice if all the roads were straight so that we would have a clear path from one place to the next and we would not have to rely on our GPS or anything else. In a way, the scriptures today are talking about something similar.
Like the Israelites, in the time of Isaiah, we want to get back to our real home. And for those of us who have been displaced by hurricanes, on occasion, we know what that is like. It’s the same when it comes to our spiritual journey too, our journey on the road to our heavenly home.
Unsure of ourselves we sometimes take a lot of wrong turns, and we sometimes listen to people who do not really know the way to go. Maybe, we are afraid to ask for directions, or even more afraid to turn around, and to go back, when we have gone the wrong way or down the wrong road.
In the 1st reading today, God assures his people that the way will be prepared for them, and the way will be made straight. We hear that again in today’s Gospel. John the Baptist was preparing the people and calling them to look at the obstacles in the road, the sin in their lives that was steering them to the wrong roads, roads that would take them away from their heavenly home and get them lost.
God is calling us to turn away from the sins that block our way, and to stop trying every crooked road around us, and to stop listening to those people who do not know where they are going and want to drag us down the wrong road with them. God is calling us to follow the one who isthe Way – Jesus.
If we already find ourselves lost and we don’t see Jesus ahead of us on the road, then it is time to get off that particular road. We may have to turn back, and change direction, to find the right road. That is what Advent is about – preparing ourselves for a change, a conversion of mind and heart, which will help us to see clearly the road ahead and to see who we need to follow to find our way home – Jesus, the Way.
Long ago, in England, a man was caught stealing sheep, so as punishment, a very severe punishment, people branded his forehead with the letters “ST” for Sheep Thief. The man spent the rest of his life trying to live down that humiliation. In fact, the man completely changed his life and he worked very hard to live a life that was in service to other people.
When the man grew old the letters could still be clearly seen on his forehead. But when children would ask their parents, what the letters stood for, the parents, who knew the man and knew how much the man had changed, would tell their children, “those letters S and T stand for the word saint.”
It is not too late for any of us to find the right road, to change direction, and to find the way back if we are lost. Jesus is waiting to lead us if we will only follow him. And, thankfully, for men and for women, there is, definitely, no shame in asking Jesus for directions.