Happy second
week of Advent! The first reading from Isaiah 40:1-5, 9
-11, gives us an understanding of hope from the perspective of the Hebrew people. Isaiah was writing about the first coming of
the Messiah, and an ending to their
suffering which was caused by the sins of the previous Hebrews. We can see Isaiah proclaiming hope to the
Hebrews, saying, “In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in
the wasteland a highway for our God!” …“Fear not to cry out and say to the
cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who
rules by his strong arm; here is his reward with him, his recompense before
him.” We can see the encouragement in
hope as Isaiah tells them to wait. We also see Isaiah challenging them to
prepare their hearts for the Messiah.
The Gospel, Mark
1:1- 8, speaks to us in hope as we read about John the Baptist fulfilling
Isaiah’s prophesy. John is telling the
people to repent and be Baptized in preparation of Jesus. By this he is telling
them to wait in hope and not in shame of their sins. In the same way we now ask
to wait in hope for Christmas, the first coming of Christ, as well as for the
return of Christ. Mark tells us from our
Baptism we are made clean of our previous sins before we were Baptized. In
addition, we need to repent for our current sins, and prepare our hearts for
Jesus by getting to the Sacrament of Confession: this is how we can wait in
hope instead of despairing in our sins.
From the readings today we are asked to trust
in the Lord and wait in hope. For it is in
hope we are able to see that our God is a god who keeps His promise, a
God who keeps His word and does so by fulfilling the readings. Jesus is that
fulfillment; Jesus does for us what we could not have done for ourselves. He
allows us to enter into Heaven as co-heirs from our Baptism. He prepared the
way for us to get into Heaven after John the Baptist prepared the way for the
Lord. Let us then wait in hope as we
light the second purple candle, for it is in hope that we find encouragement,
and in hope that we are saved.
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