Isaiah
40:1-5; Mark 1:1-8
Today
as we begin the second week of Advent we hear the prophet Isaiah challenge us
to "Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God." Isaiah continues by saying that if we fill in
the valleys, level the mountains and hills, work the rugged and rough lands to
become broad valleys and plains, then "The glory of the Lord shall be
revealed, and all people shall see it together." John the Baptist embraced
the Call and radically responded to God.
He set out to level mountains of pride, fill in areas where there was
ignorance, knock down the hills of hatred and division and soothe and restore
hope to the rough and rugged of heart. The
Gospel account proclaims that the “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.” These people finally found someone they could
listen to and believe in and so they began to make their lives straight for the ONE who was coming soon.
Like
John the Baptist, we need to take responsibility and respond to our Call with firm determination and seriously
help make our world straight by living our consecrated life with a holy
simplicity, a holy charity and a holy humility.
We need to allow God to form His image in us so that the "The glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together."
What
will be my response to this Call to "Make straight in the wasteland a
highway for our God"? How am I
preparing the ground to receive the ONE in my life? How am I helping others prepare their “ground"?
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