Second Sunday Of Advent C, Advent 2-- Crying Out In The Desert

We don’t sing the Gloria in Advent until the angels sing the "Gloria in excelsis Deo" at Christmas but we do hear a prophetic voice, crying out in the desert, which are often windy places.

The voice is from John the Baptist, carried on the whistling wind, that says, “Prepare the way of the Lord,” by repentance.

Illustration: Frank Warren wrote a book about Secrets after he handed out 3000 self-addressed stamped postcards to people on the street, asking them to anonymously mail him their deepest secrets; Frank's address got copied and millions of postcards were mailed-in. It began as a sort of public art project in 2004 and since then many other websites have copied him.

One postcard featured a man who had taken a picture of his hands praying, and he wrote on the picture: “I don’t know how to go back to God, and I want to more than anything else in the world.”

That is what repentance does; changing your mind and turning it back to God.

2). Another postcard that Frank Warren received featured an old, faded picture pasted on a postcard of a father in a Santa Claus suit with two boys next to him. On the picture were written the words, “I wish my sons would contact me.”

For this sad situation, the prophetic message says, “every valley shall be filled,” which are the parts of our lives where we feel someone or something is lacking.

God alone, and no human person can fill up our hearts and souls.

The prophetic voice in our First Reading says, “Take off your robe of mourning and misery; put on the splendor of glory from God forever.”

It was originally addressed to the exiles in Babylon by the prophet Isaiah, telling them that the way back home meant the preparation of a highway for God.

Since the adult child typically initiates the estrangement, parents are often the ones who must take the first steps toward reconciliation if they want their grown children back visiting home in a restored, healthy relationship, and for this task, the prophetic voice says, “Every mountain and hill shall be made low.”

We all experience long standing patterns of sin, self-centered attitudes that can fall away if we let our pride fall down to make a level way for ourselves and others.

3. Lastly, professional scouts and trail guides will always be particularly capable of interpreting sounds.

For example, Isaiah 52:8 says, “Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices,” and Jeremiah 4:31, “I heard a cry as of a woman in labor.”

This Sunday, we hear that “The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth.”

The verb “go” actually means walk forward, and has a biblical association for “walk straight” which is morally straight.

We need God’s help not to deviate or compromise God’s standards of chastity, virtue, and wholesomeness.

"The law tells me how crooked I am. Grace comes along and straightens me out.”

We cooperate with God’s grace for eternal salvation, purity, sobriety, love, and service.

GPS devices usually have a pleasant voice that tells you when you missed a turn and where to go to get back on the main road. Similarly, the spirit of prophecy refers to an atmosphere where the voice of God is easily heard if we tune into it.

Can we say to John the Baptist this Advent, “The Wind Brought Your Voice To Me?”

Amen.