Second Sunday of Advent
Year B
Mark 1:1-8
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
“Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;
he will prepare your way.
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.’”
John [the] Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins. John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey. And this is what he proclaimed: “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the holy Spirit.”
Upon Reflection: Sometimes poetry can be the best means to call forth meaning in life and to draw out deeper awareness of what is real. So why don't we give some poetry a shot this week as a means to reflect on the Gospel?:
The Baptist's Cry
Black is evaporating.
The horizon is cleansed into blue.
Stars have flickered
In a long, cold waiting room,
"Kicking at the darkness"
Only to fade into night's abyss.
But no more!
There is an awakening!
There is a sign.
There is a hope.
There is light!
Morning is near.
Look, a softening ahead.
A materialization of pure Spirit.
A reaffirmation of a first judgment.
Can you feel it?
Do you notice?
Shall I point it out?
There! Right there!
It is more blue than black.
Can you feel it?
Do you notice?
Look to the water.
It too is a pointer.
It prepares you for the looming light.
Be enveloped by it.
Arise from it anew!
Let it remind you to turn around
And go back to the beginning,
To the place where you started.
Do you remember?
There was no obstacle course,
Just a highway between you and the Light.
Do you remember?
Are you ready to go back?
Because it all begins Now.