Second Sunday of Advent

The first week of Advent has been a swirl of activity and beauty. We've had time together with our family prayer group, been to Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, begun putting out our Christmas home decorations, experienced the first snowfall of the season and (almost) finished up the Christmas shopping. It's all wonderful and filled with love - and yet, there's still that call, that desire, for quiet introspection, quiet time with God.....

In the midst of that tension between the busyness of life and the need for contemplation, in steps John the Baptist in this week's gospel. To me, John is a fascinating character - a guy who knew who he was, why he was here and didn't give a hoot what anybody else thought about it. The very definition of a 'man with a mission'. 

Bishop Barron points out that John lived in the desert for a reason. In the desert there aren't any distractions - no comfortable house to live in, no delicious foods to enjoy, no 'other stuff' to occupy your mind. There's only you and God. And although John never engaged in self-promotion, yet the word got out about this strange guy out there away from the center of everything, acting for all the world like a madman, and telling people, 'Repent - reform your lives! Get ready - God is doing something big - here, now!' It would have been very easy to write this man off as a nut job - but instead, people took him seriously. That says to me that they were desperate - not just for a political solution to their oppression by the Romans - John didn't even address that - but desperate for the presence of God in their lives.

We're all looking for more of God in our lives, too. It may be that we have to go out into the desert to find Him, out to that place where there aren't any distractions to disturb our focus. Out to where John is, the last of the Old Testament prophets, the herald of Emmanuel - living simply, focused on his mission......St. John the Baptist, pray for us.