LECTIONARY READINGS
First reading: Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 84(85):9-14
Second reading: 2 Peter 3:8-14
Gospel: Mark 1:1-8
Link to readings
COMMENTARY
The scripture readings for this Second Sunday of Advent (as also those of next week too) focus on John the Baptist and his summons to repentance given the coming of the Lord.
John, of course, is mentioned only in the Gospel but the Lectionary provides the context for his preaching by choosing as First Reading the passage from Isaiah (40:1-5, 9-11) which the Gospel writers employ to indicate his role in the history of salvation. John is the ‘voice that cries in the wilderness, "Prepare a way for the Lord"’.
NEW EXODUS
The First Reading comes from the beginning of the section of the Book of Isaiah (chapters 40-55) attributed to the great prophet of Israel’s return from Exile in Babylon. This ‘Second Isaiah’ sees the return from Exile as a ‘New Exodus’. The prophet’s role is to ‘tell the good news’ of Israel’s coming liberation and to describe the wonders that will attend the return of the captives across the desert to their land. Because they are God’s liberated people and because God will be at their head, leading them home like a shepherd, nature will transform itself to ease their path. A ‘way’ is being prepared, not just for Israel, but for God, whose ‘glory’ will be made manifest to all humankind. (The detail about ‘Jerusalem’ [= the people] having received ‘double punishment for all her sins’ simply underlines the sense of completion [‘more than enough!’]; the sufferings of the people are interpreted, in conventional mode, as punishment, but this aspect is not the main point.)
The Gospel, Mark 1:1-8, takes us to the beginning of Mark’s Gospel, which, omitting any account of Jesus’ earlier life, begins the story of Jesus simply with the ministry of John the Baptist. For Mark – and for the early Christian tradition generally – the appearance and proclamation of John follows the ‘script’ indicated by the passage of Isaiah quoted as the First Reading.
There is a slight difference in that, whereas (Second) Isaiah had a voice crying, ‘Prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord’, in Mark (as already in the Greek translation of Isaiah [LXX]) ‘the voice’ (John) cries out in the wilderness: that is, the wilderness is the location, rather than the object, of the cry. Nonetheless, John’s appearance and his voice indicate the fulfilment of what Isaiah had foretold: the ‘good news’ (‘gospel’) of the coming of the Lord, for whom ‘a way’ has to be prepared.
CONVERSION FROM SIN
‘The Lord’ is, of course, Jesus himself, Messiah and Son of God (1:1) and the ‘way’ that has to be prepared for him is no longer a path through the desert but a way constructed in human hearts. The ‘way’ is the conversion from sin called for in John’s message, enacted in the water baptism that he celebrates for the crowds. John’s appearance – his clothing and his diet – portray him in the guise of Elijah, the great prophet traditionally expected from Mal 3:1; 4:5-6, to return to earth to preach repentance before the coming of the Lord.
But, beyond the summons to repentance, John has a Christological confession to make. He points to the One who is to follow him as One of far higher rank. In Jewish rabbinic tradition, students carried the sandals of their teachers as a mark of respect, but John is not worthy even to untie the sandals of the One who is to come.
Unlike John, who baptises with water, this coming stronger One will ‘baptise’ with the Holy Spirit. He will bind up the ‘strong man’ (Satan; see 3:22-27), who currently holds human beings captive alienating them from God and from their own true humanity. Empowered by the Spirit (1:10-11), Jesus will reclaim human lives from all the captivities (sin, ignorance, disease, etc.) that hold them bound and draw them into his own life-giving intimacy with God. This is the meaning of ‘baptising with the Spirit’.
HOME-COMING
Thus the ‘good tidings’ of ‘home-coming’ (from Exile) that (Second) Isaiah proclaimed concerning Israel has become the ‘Gospel’ of humanity’s return to its true home within the ‘family’ of God. Each Advent invites us to revisit a longing for that ‘home-coming’ existing in the depths of our souls.
In the Second Reading, from 2 Peter 3:8-14, features typical Jewish apocalyptic imagery of the ‘Day of the Lord’. It provides a symbolic portrayal of the Christian sense that Christ’s victory over sin and death will take time to be fully worked in the world as a whole. Believers must not lose heart, nor allow themselves to be simply absorbed in the present shape of the world, which is destined to give way to ‘a new heaven and a new earth’. There they and their faithful pattern of life (‘righteousness’) will truly be ‘at home’.
Brendan Byrne, SJ, FAHA, taught New Testament at Jesuit Theological College, Parkville, Vic., for almost forty years. He is now Emeritus Professor at the University of Divinity (Melbourne). His commentaries on the Gospels can be found at Pauline Books and Media