On the Second Sunday of Advent, we see the coming of Christ, which we prepare ourselves for, in juxtaposition to God’s promise of the post-exilic restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple out of consolation for His people in exile.
Christ is coming to us in darkness of sin, as God’s way of consolation for us so that we can prepare ourselves with the blessed hope (Titus 2:13). He is coming to us to make the way for us to be delivered from the realm of sin into the true freedom in his Kingdom, as God made the way for the Israelites out of Babylon back to Jerusalem or as God made the way for the Israelites out of Egypt into the promised land in Canaan.
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God chastises, executes judgements, but consoles His people for a better future. This is certainly the case with Judah. Through prophets, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, God warned Judah against her sinfulness and possibility of judgement. For example, on behalf of God, Jeremiah first signaled Jerusalem of Judah that God was angry at Jerusalem for her sin but calling her to repent to keep His wrath in the Babylonian army from coming:
Raise the signal—to Zion! Seek refuge! Don’t stand there! Disaster I bring from the north, and great destruction. Up comes the lion from its lair, the destroyer of nations has set out, has left its place, to turn your land into a desolation, your cities into an uninhabited waste. So put on sackcloth, mourn and wail: “The blazing anger of the Lord has not turned away from us.” In that day—oracle of the Lord- the king will lose heart, and the princes; the priests will be horrified, and the prophets stunned. “Ah! Lord God,” they will say, “You really did deceive us when you said: You shall have peace, while the sword was at our very throats.” At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A scorching wind from the bare heights comes through the wilderness toward my daughter, the people. Not to winnow, not to cleanse, a strong wind from there comes at my bidding. Now I too pronounce sentence upon them. See! like storm clouds he advances, like a whirlwind, his chariots; Swifter than eagles, his horses: “Woe to us! we are ruined.” Cleanse your heart of evil, Jerusalem, that you may be saved. How long will you entertain wicked schemes? (Jeremiah 4:6-14).
Did Jerusalem heed God’s words of warning in Jeremiah’s prophecy above? Did Judah listened to these words and repented?
Obviously not.
Consequently, Judah was put under God’s wrath, which would come in the Babylonian army to destroy Jerusalem and its Temple. Thus, Jeremiah said:
The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus, engraved with a diamond point upon the tablets of their hearts, and the horns of their altars, when their children remember their altars and their asherahs, beside the green trees, on the high hills, the peaks in the country. Your wealth and all your treasures I give as plunder, as payment for all your sins throughout your territory, you will relinquish your hold on your heritage which I have given you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know: For a fire has broken out from my anger, burning forever (Jeremiah 17:1-5).
As a result, Jerusalem and its Temple were destroyed by the Babylonian army and those who survived the Babylonian seize were deported to Babylon (2 Kings 25:1-21; 2 Chronicles 36:15-21; Jeremiah 39:1-10). But during the Babylonian Exile, God consoled His people as they repented and the prophets expressed fresh hope for returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the ruined city and the Temple, as God so promised, as reflected in the Book of Baruch, who was the 5:1-9 of Jeremiah. After 70 years of the exile, God let His people return to Jerusalem, and they began rebuilding Jerusalem and its Temple, restoring its splendor and holiness, through the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua (Haggai 1:1-15).
The First Reading of the Second Sunday of Advent, Cycle C, Baruch 5:1-9, fits in this spectrum, as it conveys God’s consoling message for Jerusalem in desolation and for the exiles in Babylon.
Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery; put on forever the splendor of glory from God: Wrapped in the mantle of justice from God, place on your head the diadem of the glory of the Eternal One. For God will show your splendor to all under the heavens; you will be named by God forever: the peace of justice, the glory of God’s worship.
Rise up, Jerusalem! stand upon the heights; look to the east and see your children gathered from east to west at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that they are remembered by God. Led away on foot by their enemies they left you: but God will bring them back to you carried high in glory as on royal thrones. For God has commanded that every lofty mountain and the age-old hills be made low, that the valleys be filled to make level ground, that Israel may advance securely in the glory of God. The forests and every kind of fragrant tree have overshadowed Israel at God’s command; For God is leading Israel in joy by the light of his glory, with the mercy and justice that are his (Baruch 5:1-9).
Jerusalem was the capitol of Judah, the home of the Davidic kings. In this context, Jerusalem is like a mother who tragically lost her children, as residents of this holy city were slaughtered by the Babylonian invaders and those who escaped their swords were “deported” from there to Babylon.
For her loss, Jeremiah compared Jerusalem to Rachel, who was one of Jacob’s wives and died upon giving birth to Benjamin, Jacob’s youngest son (Genesis 35:16-18). Later, Benjamin was annexed to Judah (1 Kings 10:5; Jeremiah 33:17). Thus, for Rachel to see people in Jerusalem being killed and taken away to Babylon was like watching her children being killed and taken away from her. So Jeremiah wrote to express the painful grief of Jerusalem, in juxtaposition to Rachel:
In Ramah is heard the sound of sobbing, bitter weeping! Rachel mourns for her children, she refuses to be consoled for her children—they are no more! (Jeremiah 31:15).
Though Jerusalem (Rachel)’s grief was way too great to be consoled, God was up for redeeming Jerusalem (Rachael’s) children lost in exile back to her. So Jeremiah wrote:
Cease your cries of weeping, hold back your tears! There is compensation for your labor - oracle of the Lord - they shall return from the enemy’s land. There is hope for your future -oracle of the Lord - your children shall return to their own territory (Jeremiah 31:16-17).
Set up road markers, put up signposts; Turn your attention to the highway, the road you walked. Turn back, virgin Israel, turn back to these your cities. How long will you continue to hesitate, rebellious daughter? The Lord has created a new thing upon the earth: woman encompasses man. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: When I restore their fortunes in the land of Judah and in its cities, they shall again use this greeting: “May the Lord bless you, Tent of Justice, Holy Mountain!” Judah and all its cities, the farmers and those who lead the flock shall dwell there together. For I will slake the thirst of the faint; the appetite of all the weary I will satisfy. At this I awoke and opened my eyes; my sleep was satisfying. See, days are coming-oracle of the Lord - when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of human beings and the seed of animals (Jeremiah 31:21-27).
Reading Baruch 5:1-9 and Jeremiah 31:16-17, and Jeremiah 31:21-27, we see God was consoling both grieving mother (Jerusalem- Rachel) (Baruch 5:1-9; Jeremiah 31:16-17) and her children lost in exile (Jeremiah 31:21-17).
God promised to set up the highway for the children of Jerusalem in the Babylonian exile to return home – to Jerusalem, their mother, Rachel (Jeremiah 31:21). Though this was the way that they were taken from Jerusalem, it was no longer the same way.
And God described what the highway would be like:
For God has commanded that every lofty mountain and the age-old hills be made low, that the valleys be filled to make level ground, that Israel may advance securely in the glory of God (Baruch 5:7).
When the surviving children of Jerusalem (Rachel) walked eastward from Jerusalem to Babylon, it was a way of sorrow, with ups and downs. But, as God was about let them return to Jerusalem, from east to west, it would be a way of hope for joy in Jerusalem. And it will be leveled. Furthermore, this highway back to Jerusalem eventually leads to the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
Now, when was the new covenant established?
It was when the incarnated Christ hosted Pesach Seder dinner on the night before his death in Jerusalem, saying:
This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you (Luke 22:20; cf. Exodus 12:7; cf. Leviticus 16:14-16).
Therefore, ultimately, the high way that God set up for the exiled in Babylon to return to Jerusalem, to Rachael, leads to Christ, whose blood, is the new covenant. And under this new covenant, established by Christ, God sets up the new highway from this world of sins to the Kingdom of God, to which the Parakletos, the Christ (1 John 2:1) and another Parakletos, the Holy Spirit (John 14:16, 26, 16:7; cf. John 14:18, 28) lead us.
In order for us to journey on the new highway from this world to the Kingdom, where we find our permanent home in the House of the Lord (Isaiah 2:1-5; Micah 4:1-5; cf. John 14:2-3), we must receive Christ, whom the Father has sent with His steadfast covenant love (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9).
Christ is on his way to us.
In order to make sure that Christ is well-received in our hearts when he arrives, we must be ready at any time with our vigilance (i.e. Luke 21:34-36). To learn how we prepare ourselves to receive Christ upon his adventus, we heed words of John the Baptist, who identified himself as the fulfillment of the voice crying out in the Judean wilderness (John 1:23; Isaiah 40:3). It is because John the Baptist was the one commissioned by God to publicly prepare the appearance of Christ to start his salvific ministry. And he is the precursor of Christ, Malachi reported these words of God on John the Baptist:
Now I am sending my messenger- he will prepare the way before me; And the lord whom you seek will come suddenly to his temple; The messenger of the covenant whom you desire - see, he is coming! says the Lord of hosts (Malachi 3:1, NABRE).
And, indeed, John the Baptist’s role as the forerunner of Christ to prepare the way of the Lord’s coming, was in the spirit of the return of Elijah, for he did not die but taken into heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kgs 2:11-12). Thus, it is written:
Now I am sending to you Elijah the prophet, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and terrible day; He will turn the heart of fathers to their sons, and the heart of sons to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with utter destruction (Malachi 3:23-24, NABRE).
About 400 years after the time of Malachi, Archangel Gabriel foretold Zechariah of the birth of his son, John the Baptist:
Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord (Luke 1:13-17).
Now it is clear that John the Baptist, who was in the spirit of Elijah, was born of Elizabeth, the wife of Zechariah, to serve God as the precursor of Christ, as the voice crying out in the wilderness to prepare the way of Christ’s coming. And the way he prepared the way of Christ’s coming was “to turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord (Luke 1:17)”.
The task of John the Baptist to prepare a people fit for the Lord, who is coming, is by mending disordered hearts, as the voice crying out in the wilderness (Isaiah 40:3).
In the Gospel Reading (Luke 3:1-6), this is how John the Baptist’s preparation ministry for the coming of Christ is described:
He went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘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’”(Luke 3:3-6).
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Mainly, John the Baptist, in the spirit of Elijah, called for penance completed with a baptism of repentance for forgiveness, as this was the first step to fix disordered hearts. Citing Isaiah 40:3, as the voice crying out in the wilderness (desert), John urged people to fill the emptiness of hearts with God’s providence, as every valley shall be filled, and flatten their prides, as every mountain shall be made low. And crocked hearts are to be straightened up, as Christ only comes through a straight and smooth and flat way to us. Just as legendary Santa Claus will not bring a gift to naughty children but to only good children, Christ may not come to a heart unless it is fit for him to dwell. Thus, Christ only comes to straighten, smoothen, leveled, and clean hearts. For this, John the Baptist urges us to repent and wash our hearts clean.
If we failed to make ourselves fit to receive Christ at his arrival, for which we remain vigilant, we may be subject to his punitive judgement when he returns and may not experience salvation. In this sense, John the Baptist is in the spirit of Elijah (Malachi 3:23-24, NABRE) who warned Ahab against his defilement (1 Kings 18:1-46).
As in the case with the First Sunday of Advent, the Second Sunday of Advent also has dual bearing of the preparation for the first coming of Christ in anamnesis and of the preparation for the return of Christ in anticipation.
For those who prepare well and receive Christ at his arrival, their lives will be like the consoling post-exilic Jerusalem, reflected in the First Reading (Baruch 5:1-9). However, those who fail to make themselves fit to receive Christ, because they did not repent and reform themselves, as John the Baptist urged, will not only receive Christ in their hearts but may put themselves at risk for the judgement upon Christ’s second coming.
The Second Reading (Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11) reflects our needs to fill our emptiness with God’s grace, because the work of grace will continue until its consummation upon Christ’s second coming. As the grace works on us through Christ, whom we receive and accepts at his arrival, we grow in love, increase knowledge, refine discernment, become purer, and bear fruit of righteousness, so that we will be prepared for his second coming and the judgement.
Namely, this is how God, who made a highway for children of Rachel residents of Jerusalem lost in the Babylonian exile to return to Jerusalem (i.e. Baruch 5:6-9) to rebuild this holy city and its Temple, provides a highway out of the world of sin to his Kingdom. And the way is Christ himself (i.e. John 14:6). But for God’s highway for us to benefit us for our entry into the Kingdom, first, we must make the highway for Christ to come us our hearts. For this, as the crying voice in the wilderness, John the Baptist, in the spirit of Elijah, calls us to repent and make our hearts straight and smooth way of the Christ to come in. This way, broken relationships can be mended through repentance and forgiveness. But those who fail to work on this preparation will suffer from its consequence when Christ returns.
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In the year 2024, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (December 8) falls on the Second Sunday of Advent.
This certainly invites us to reflect on Mary’s significance, in particular, the importance of Mary being the Immaculate Conception, in terms of Christ’s coming.
First of all, what if God did not predetermine Mary to be the Immaculate Conception, meaning that being conceived by her parents’ sexual intercourse yet without any trace of Original Sin? This would make Mary unfit to conceive the Son of God to be incarnated in the human flesh. The Christ cannot be incarnated with any ordinary human flesh as it has been all tainted with Original Sin. The incarnated Christ must be unblemished because he is the Paschal Lamb to be sacrificed to deliver us from sin on Good Friday (i.e. Exodus 12:5-7; cf. John 1:29). Then, we would not have salvation!
Not only that she was made the Immaculate Conception but Mary accepted her role as the Theotokos, bearing the incarnated Christ, at Annunciation (Luke 1:26-36), the Christ incarnated in the immaculate human flesh of Jesus out of her flesh is coming to us.
Had Mary not been the Immaculate Conception, there would not be any point of making our Advent preparation for his straight and smooth and leveled highway to come to our hearts.
As we need to strive for the purity of our hearts, to make ourselves fit to receive Christ at his arrival through penance and turning disorder of hearts into order, we find Maru’s Immaculate Heart as the model. Though we cannot attain the perfect purity of heart as Mary’s Immaculate Heart, the grace of God through Christ, whose coming we are preparing, will make our hearts as pure as Mary’s Immaculate Heart by the time we victoriously enter the Kingdom of God upon his return. It is when the work of grace completes (Philippians 1:6).
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