The Second Sunday Of Advent :: Op-stjoseph.org

The Second Sunday of Advent – Cycle B : December 7, 2008 Scripture Readings First: Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11. Second: 2 Peter 3:8-14. Gospel: Mark 1:1-8 Prepared by: Father Stephen Dominic Hayes, OP 1. Subject Matter 

The readings of this Sunday continue to focus upon the eschatological realities of the last four things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. The preaching of John the Baptist focuses our attention on the Christians unique position between the two comings of Jesus Christ: his first coming in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, which we celebrate anew every Christmas, and his final coming in glory, when all the world, Christian and non-Christian, will find him to be Judge and Savior.

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John the Baptist required those who came to him to undergo a bath of repentance (mikvah) of the kind prescribed for proselytes to Judaism (though this requirement is not clearly attested in contemporary Jewish sources), requiring this even of those who had been Jews all their lives - and thus prophetically, as God’s herald, commanding a sign of and commitment to conversion of heart from those who were already keeping the Law as ritual and social convention. This conversion " from the heart" is a thing fundamental to the Christian life; and the Baptist’s Gospel calls us to conversion from the depths of our being.

2. Exegetical Notes 

Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11: This passage is the introduction to the body material called DeuteroIsaiah, and is characteristic of the circumstances of his journal after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and the captivity in Babylon. This particular passage sums up the rest of this section of I Isaiah, looking forward to that day, when God, and the shepherdking of Israel, greater than any human king, will bring his people back to their home in Jerusalem. A divine voice adjures the prophet to "speak tenderly" to his people. God is speaking, not to the historic ruins of the Jewish state, but to the people of God bound now after the penance of the exile to him personally. Deutero-Isaiah, studiously avoid references to thecult or worship of the Temple and focuses on the Word formed deep within the mind and heart of God, and now received just as personally by a people humbled by their experiences. In verse 3, we find introduced a crucial and rich expression with a subsequent and rich development, "prepare the way of the Lord." John the Baptist is to announce this

way, and Jesus declares himself in fact to be that holy Way which leads to his Father, as does no other. The passage finishes with Jerusalem portrayed as a coming in eschatological reality gone on the home of God on earth in the center of world redemption. The city has only one king, God himself, with the prophet passing over any claims of the house of David to that office. Jesus Christ, of course unites both a historical and human line of kingship from David with a divine title to rule as Son of God, the title with which Mark opens his Gospel in today's reading. 

2 Peter 3: 8-14: This passage from the second letter of Peter turns her eyes forward to the second coming of Jesus. The concern of Christians as to why the Lord has not yet appeared is put down to the forbearance and mercy of God who wishes all sinners to have a chance of salvation. Nevertheless, the author emphasizes that the Day of Judgment will "come like a thief" (v.10), and seems to go back to our Lord' s own words. In Matthew 24:25. These verses (7-13) are the only scriptural passage, which hold that the world will be destroyed in a final and fiery conflagration. The message to the congregation, however it is clear: the Day of Judgment is coming, so be vigilant and watchful for it.

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Mark 1:1-8: By calling his work "the Gospel," Mark makes a claim from the outset that he is writing not a biography of Jesus, but a proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in which he is again made present, The account of John the Baptist's preaching, which begins as the setting and prologue to the public ministry of Jesus makes the connection between a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, and the revelation of the one "my year than" John, whose sandal strap John is unworthy to untie (this was work for slaves in an ancient household.) John himself identifies himself with the prophetic voice who speaks in Isaiah 40: "the voice of one crying in the wilderness."

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John is clearly portrayed in the line of Old Testament prophecy, clothed as he is "in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist." (Zechariah 13:4,) There seems also to be an attempt to identify John with the prophet Elijah by this costume (2 Kings 1:8), in fulfillment of Malachi 4:5.. John's ministry in which he calls souls to repentance and metanoia is sealed by the sign of a baptism of repentance based on the ritual bath required of converts to the Jewish religion. All Jews, all children of Abraham in faith are called now to be converted from the heart in preparation for the advent of the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. In his own person, therefore, John sums up the integrity and truth of the whole history of Old Testament prophecy which comes to a culmination in the revelation of "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” his very dress and habit proclaiming, as does his voice and deeds, his spiritual union and prophetic manifestation of the One whose messenger (GK: anggelos) and voice he is.

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church 

CCC 425: The transmission of the Christian faith consists primarily in proclaiming Jesus Christ in order to lead others to faith in him. From the beginning, the first disciples burned with the desire to proclaim Christ: "We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. " And they invite people of every era to enter into the joy of their communion with Christ…

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CCC 515: From the swaddling clothes of his birth to the vinegar of his Passion and the shroud of his resurrection, everything in Jesus’ life was a sign of his mystery. His deeds, miracles, and words all revealed that "in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." His

humanity appears as "sacrament," that is, the sign and instrument\ of his divinity and of the salvation he brings: what was visible in his earthly life leads to the invisible mystery of his divine sonship and redemptive mission. 

CCC 523: St. John the Baptist is the Lord's immediate precursor or foreigner, sent to prepare his way… Going before Jesus "in the spirit and power of Elijah," John bears witness to Christ in his preaching, by his baptism of conversion, and through his martyrdom.

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CCC 524: When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior's first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming. By celebrating the precursor’s birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his (John’s) desire: "he must increase, but I must decrease."

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CCC 720: Finally, with John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit begins the restoration to men of "the divine likeness, “ prefiguring what he would achieve with and in Christ. John's baptism was for repentance; Baptism in water and the Holy Spirit will be a new birth.

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CCC 1696: The way of Christ "leads to life"; a contrary way "leads to destruction." The Gospel parable of the two ways remains ever present in the catechesis of the Church; it shows the importance of moral decisions for our salvation: "There are two ways, the one of life, the other of death; but between the two, there is a great difference." (Didache, 1,1)

4. Patristic Commentary 

The Venerable Bede (In Marc. 1,1): The beginning of this gospel should be compared with that of Matthew, in which it is said, The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David the Son of Abraham. But here he is called the Son of God. Now from both we must understand the one Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, and of man. And fitly, the first Evangelist names him son of man, then second, son of God, that from less things our sense may by degrees mount up to greater, and by faith and the sacraments of the human nature assumed, rise to the acknowledgment of his divine eternity.

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Pseudo-Chrysostom ( Vict. Ant. E Cat. In Marc.): Otherwise it can be said, that he has compressed into one, two prophecies delivered in different places by two prophets; for in the prophet Isaiah, it is written after the story of Hezekiah, The voice of one crying in the wilderness; but in Malachi, Behold, I send my angel. The Evangelist, therefore , taking parts of two prophecies has put them down as spoken by Isaiah, and refers them here to one passage, without mentioning, however, by whom it is said, Behold, I send my angel.

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The Venerable Bede (In Marc. 1,3): What he is revealed, in which is subjoined, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. For whosoever preaches a right faith and good works, what else does he but prepare the way for the Lord's coming to the hearts of his hearers, that the power of grace might penetrate these hearts, and the light of truth shine them? The paths he makes straight, when he forms pure thoughts and the soul by the word of preaching.

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Pseudo-Jerome (Genesis 24, 61.; Psalm 95:6): Now by John, as by the bridegroom's friend and a the bride is brought to Christ, as by a servant Rebecca was brought to Isaac; wherefore there follows and there went out to him all, &. And the bride leaping down from her camel signifies the Church, who humbles herself on seeing her husband Isaac, that is, Christ.

But the interpretation of Jordan, where sins are washed away, is” an alien descent”. For we, heretofore aliens to God by pride, are by the sign of Baptism made lowly, and thus exalted on high. 

St. John Chrysostom: Because indeed John preached repentance, he wore the marks of repentance in his garment and his food, wherefore there follows, And John was clothed in camel's hair.

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St. Gregory the Great ( Moralia 31,25): Or, by the kind itself of his food he pointed out the Lord, of whom he was the forerunner: for in that our Lord took to Himself the sweetness of the barren Gentiles, He ate wild honey. In that He in His own person partly converted the [Judeans], he received locusts for his food, which suddenly leaping up, at once fall to the ground. For the [Judeans] leaped up when they promised to fulfill the precepts of the Lord; but they fell to the ground, when by their evil works they affirmed that they had not heard them. They made therefore a leap upwards in words, and fell down by their actions.

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The Venerable Bede (In Marc. 1,7-8). Thus then John proclaims the Lord not yet as God, or the Son of God, but only as a man, mightier than himself. For his ignorant hearers were not yet capable of receiving the hidden things also grab a Sacrament, that the eternal Son of God, having taken upon him the nature of man, had lately been born into the world of a Virgin;… to these words, however, he subjoins, as if covertly declaring that he was the true God, I baptize you with water, but each about place you with the Holy Spirit. Who can doubt, that none other but God can give the grace of the Holy Spirit?

5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars 

Father Arthur MacGeoheghan, O.P. was martyred for the Catholic faith in 1713. He had joined the Order in Spain, and, while a member of the convent of Holy Rosary in Lisbon, was sent to Ireland to procure religious vocations there in his native country. While passing through England, he was arrested and tried for the crime of being educated abroad, which was one provision of the English penal laws against Catholics. Father Arthur took the occasion of his trial to boldly proclaim himself a Dominican, and that he was on his way to Ireland to obtain more young men to be trained as Dominicans, and that he was perfectly willing to die for the true faith. He was found guilty, hanged, drawn, and quartered. His bold testimony in court became so well known that eligible young men from all over Ireland, hearing of his case, said goodbye to their families and took ship for Spain and the Netherlands, risking death. So that they might come back to Ireland as priests and martyrs themselves. In this way, we see how the preacher can bring Christ to those who hear his message, even at the distance, because the preaching itself contains and manifests the Word of God who saves sinners, purifies hearts, and transforms lives.

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The foundation of the Order of Preachers was attended by a number of visions by numerous persons throughout Europe, all of which had a similar pattern: Christ was seen wrathful, ready to pour out the burning power of the Apocalypse upon a world that seemed too busy and full of itself to countenance any further spiritual progress. His hand is stayed by the Virgin Mary, who begs one last chance for humanity: the advent of her Preachers. The story points out, not only the charismatic origins of our holy Religion, but the importance of preaching in the present age of grace, as it constitutes a kind of advent of Christ in itself, making visible through the preacher and the preacher's union with Christ, a union with Christ

and the preacher’s hearers. The coming of the Order of Preachers was seen by their contemporaries as something that stood between the two Advents of Nativity and Last Judgment, enacting a moment of grace and crisis, which forced those who heard the word of truth to make a choice for or against the Christ who is its origin and fullness. 6. Quotes 

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Pope Benedict XVI (Coworkers of the Truth, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1992, pp. 390391): One single soul, in Pascal's beautiful words, is worth more than the entire visible universe. But in order to have a living awareness of this, we need conversion, we need to turn around inside, as it were, to overcome the illusion of what is visible, and to develop the feeling, the ears and the eyes, for what is invisible. This has to be more important than anything that bombards us day after day with such exaggerated urgency. Metanoite: change your attitude, so that God may dwell in you, and through you, in the world. John himself was not spared this painful process of change, of turning around. Pope Benedict XVI (Homiletic and Pastoral Review, vol. XCVII, August -- September 199, pp. 10 to 11.): Christ' s "I" is totally open to the "Thou" of the Father; it does not remain within itself, but takes us inside the very life of the Trinity. This means that the Christian preacher will not speak about himself, but will become Christ's own voice, by making way for the Logos, and leading, through communion with the Man Jesus, to communion with the living God … the ministry of the Word demands that the priest divest himself profoundly of his own self … the ministry of the Word requires that the priest share in the kenosis of Christ, in his "increasing and decreasing." The fact that the priest does not speak about himself, but bears the message of another, certainly does not mean that he is not personally involved, but precisely the opposite: it is a giving-away-of-the-self in Christ that takes up the path of his Easter ministry, and leads to a true finding-of-the-self, and communion with him who is the Word of God in person.

7. Other Considerations 

In the background of today's readings, and of the patristic analysis of the texts, runs the notion that connected to the Lord's Advent is the notion of his incarnation, on his visibility. On the surface, this may seem obvious, but the incarnation revealed at Bethlehem is intimately connected with the revelation to the whole world still coming at history's end. Tertullian quotes Isaiah 40 in his work Against Praxeas (27,6): " The Word, indeed, is God ; and “the Word of the Lord endures for ever “, by continuing in his own proper (divine) form. Since he can not be transfigured, it follows that his becoming flesh must be understood in just this sense, then he really comes to be in the flesh, and is made visible, is seen, and is touched by means of that flesh, and that all else in this matter must be understood in the same way." This same blessed flesh of Christ, born at Bethlehem in which suffered for us on Calvary will be seeing in its glorious and immortal form on the day the history closes, for it is in this flesh that the Divine has become visible, and by means of this Body the second Advent of God shall become manifest.

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The Fathers and Church tradition testify to a third Advent as well: Christ comes to us in the Sacraments and in the present age, between his first and second Advents. In this third Advent, Christ makes himself present sacramentally through baptism and confirmation, as well as the other sacraments of grace, and most particularly in the Holy Eucharist.. these

sacraments make the Body of Christ visible in the here and now, through the bodies of Christians joined in heart and soul and deed to Christ. This visible Church is the place where the world will find the” Strong One” prophesied by John in the present moment. Recommended Resources Benedict XVI, Pope. Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI. Yonkers, Ignatius Press/ Magnificat 2006. New York: Magnificat: SAS, 2006.

Copyright

Brown, Raymond E., S.S., Fitzmeyer, Joseph, S.J., and Murphy, Roland E., O. Carm. The Jerome Biblical Commentary. Two Vols. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Donahue, Jiohn R., S.J., and Harrington, Daniel J., S.J. The Gospel of Mark. Sacra Pagina Series, Vol. 2: Daniel J Harrington, ed. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1991. Dorcy, Sr. Mary Jean, O.P. St. Dominic’s Family. Rockford, Ill: Tan Books and Publishers, 1983. Jacobs, Louis. A Concise Companion to the Jewish Religion, originally published by Oxford University Press 1999. Jurgens, William A. The Faith of the Early Fathers. 3 Vols. Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1979. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels Collected out of the Works of the Fathers. Volume III- Pt. II: St. Luke. Albany, N.Y.: Preserving Christian Publications, Inc., 2001. Tugwell, Simon, OP., ed. Early Dominicans; Selected Writings. Spirituality. New York; Ramsey; Toronto : Paulist Press, 1982.

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