Prepare the Way of the Lord – 2nd Sunday of Advent  

 Prepare the Way 

Prepare the Way: that’s our mission during Advent.  It’s possible to read too much into the similarities between Advent and Lent. The liturgical color is purple, the Gloria is absent from the Mass, there is a penitential character to both liturgical seasons.  And yet, something is different.  Look at today’s readings, for instance. The first reading is from the Book of the Prophet Baruch. Here’s the opening line:

Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery;
    put on the splendor of glory from God forever . . . (Baruch 5:1)

The very first thing we hear is an exhortation to take off our “robe of mourning.” Tell it to the priest in the sanctuary wearing his purple vestments! Mourning and misery, it seems, is not what the Second Sunday of Advent is all about.

The second reading, from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians strikes a similar note:

Brothers and sisters:
I pray always with joy in my every prayer for all of you . . . (Philippians 1:4)

There it is again.  We expect joy next Sunday, of course, Gaudete Sunday, when St. Paul explicitly exhorts us to “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4). But that’s the exception, isn’t it? Isn’t Advent supposed to be a “little Lent?”

 Directing Hearts and Minds 

Well, yes and no. The USCCB page “What is Advent” tells us that

The Advent season is a time of preparation that directs our hearts and minds to Christ’s second coming at the end of time and to the anniversary of Our Lord’s birth on Christmas.

Advent, then, is primarily about preparation. Penitence is part of that preparation, of course, but it’s not as pronounced a feature of Advent as it is of Lent. While Lent is a season of preparation for the Resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday, our observance of the season is actually much more focused on Holy Week and Jesus’s suffering and death on Good Friday.  In our Lenten mortifications we are “making up in our own flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Colossians 1:24). We can’t really contemplate the joy of Easter without first working through the enormity of Calvary.

See Also: Lo, How a Rose

2nd Sunday of Advent: Lo, How A Rose

 A Voice Crying in the Desert 

There is no comparable hurdle between Advent and Christmas.  Yes, there is a spirit of penitence because we want do be ready to meet the Lord, like the wise virgins in Matthew 25:1-13. The wise virgins are practicing austerity, however, because they want to be ready for a joyful event, the arrival of the bridegroom.  During the season of Advent we await the arrival of a baby . . . a very, very special baby.

We can also see a good illustration of the difference between the seasons of Advent and Lent in today’s Gospel reading.  The desert is an element in both seasons.  In Lent, Jesus goes into the desert, to be tempted by Satan.  Today, a very different figure, John the Baptist, calls out to us from the desert. As does Baruch in the first reading, John echoes the words of the prophet Isaiah:

“Prepare the way of the Lord,
        make straight his paths.
    Every valley shall be filled
        and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
    The winding roads shall be made straight,
        and the rough ways made smooth,
    and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” (Luke 3:4-6)

 Preparation is our Watchword 

So, preparation is our watchword.  Prepare the way. The Christ Child isn’t here, yet.  But He’s coming.  Make straight the ways, keep the oil in your lamps, be on watch.  The Lord is coming: let’s be ready.

Featured image top of page: John the Baptist Preaching, by Mattis Preti, 1665

 Advent Hymn: “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”