A lot of times when we look at an event in history, we can look at a time previous and see that there is a long history to that event.
Today, Mark presents to us the arrival of John the Baptist calling people to prepare the way of the Lord and to make straight their paths. No one knew at the time but forty years later, the Jewish state would cease to exist until 1948, the Roman empire would begin its slide into oblivion and a whole new understanding of who we are as human beings would spread throughout the known world. So, as people look to this moment and St. Mark writes about it, few were aware that history is about to take a whole new path.
Remember, at the same time, everything is operating normally on a day to day basis as well. People are still waking up, going to work in various jobs including farming and bringing products to market. Others are working in civil service and others are completely out of work. Yet, in the background there is a movement in the whole cosmos that is slowly enacting a change one step at a time. What is more interesting is this change is actually something that was always happening but is now happening at a faster pace as a great change happens.
John the Baptist is quoting Isaiah from the seventh Sixth Century b.c. So, he is announcing that what was promised during the Babylonian exile is now coming to fruition. The world is going to change and it will be all by God’s hand.
This sends a message for us in this second week of Advent, God’s promises happen in God’s time but they actually happen. If we understand this simple fact, will it change our way of thinking?
Our world is in a different place than it was earlier in our lives. Internationally, it has never been the same since September 11. Domestically, our country has not been the same since the election of 2000. Each of those things set in motion on an incremental scale a change in our history that brings us to this day.
However, remember, in the background, just as you see here, God is doing what he promised on a slow and incremental scale. If we are mindful of this, we will see our world differently. We will draw upon God’s grace doing his will and see everything more from a larger perspective than if we only look at what surrounds us and not see the bigger picture.
Let’s look at the time frame. Everything that Isaiah the prophet prophesied is beginning to come true but it is six hundred year after he did prophesy it. Now a major step to all that prophesy coming true happens in forty years.
We look at our world around us changing quickly but where is this change taking us. Wherever it is, God’s hand is behind it. Where will be in 2063? Just as Jesus says, all everyday life will continue going on but in the background one change after another may happen. Maybe that change will be drastic such as what happened on October 7, the world changed once again. Such as what happened when Russian invaded Ukraine, the world changed again. Such as what happened on January 6, our domestic world changed again. All these changes are leading us somewhere but we do not know where. However, God’s promises lead us to know the end game.
This is the season that our liturgy asks us if we are ready if the endgame happens tomorrow. The question is are you ready.
If you are ready, what choices are you making in your life that reflect you see the world differently than others see it today.
It is no secret that the Church is changing as well. We saw the changes in leadership over the past several weeks. However, what is changing, it is a focus from turning from a focus on individual sin to one of impacting the world around us.
The Lord calls us to holiness that means a call to act differently because our motivation is now different. Jesus calls us to not be like others because there is no merit in this. We must act in ways that reflect a radical change in our understanding of the world around us.
This is the time to ask, are we ready? How much of our life reflects this.
One of the changes happening in our church is change from an older understanding of Catholicism that leads people to focus on turning from sin to the post-Vatican II understanding more rooted in the Church’s tradition of seeking to live a holy life of witness to the world around us.
The older understanding found more in what are called radtrad communities is one of seeking to be free from sin, where as we have a calling to seek live holiness which is rooted in our foundation in Christ as witness to those around us.
We seek to be free from those things rooted in ignorance that lead us to live a popular life in the material world that reflects no understanding of the spiritual world of Christ.
Now is the time to ask if we are walking on the road to holiness where we understand the revolution that Christ is creating in our world or whether we are walking on the road of success in the material world, rarely do those two roads converge because they are rooted in different visions. One seeks only what this world has to offer and one seeks to find a greater destiny.
In the time of John the Baptist, those who ignored his word lost everything forty years later but those who started the listen and open up to the Lord’s action in the world came to understand a whole new way of being that led to eternal life.
Which road are you on today?
God's Promises Happen in God's Time