Year C Advent II Baruch 5:1-9

(Baruch ben Neriah (Hebrew: ברוך בן נריה Bārūḵ ben Nərīyā; c. 6th century BC) was the scribe, disciple, secretary, and devoted friend of the Biblical prophet Jeremiah. He is traditionally credited with authoring the deuterocanonical Book of Baruch.

“Take off the garment of you sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory of God.”

The prophet, Baruch, speaks to the children of Israel, so long held captive in Babylon, and promises that their time of suffering is about to end. To prepare for this incredible moment, they must now “Put on the robe of righteousness that comes from God,” and on their heads, “the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting.” They are about to go from slavery to joy, and they must be in a fit state to receive this blessing. They must shine with divine glory, and “God will show their splendor everywhere under heaven.”

The words are beautiful, but most of us are probably wondering what we could possibly have in common with those ancient Israelites who first heard them. They were a people held in slavery. Many of them were suffering terrible hardship, while most of us live in comparative ease and comfort. However, not all of them were in distress. Years of living in Babylon had opened doors. In fact, while some of the Israelites still suffered, others weren’t doing badly at all.

Baruch continues, “For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make level ground, so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.”

For those who were suffering, this was ecstatic news. The path to freedom would be level and easy to travel, God’s glory would surround them, their prayers were to be fully answered. However, for those who had been to some extent absorbed by Babylonian society, this joyful news no doubt sounded much as it does to us. Always a pleasure to hear good news, but what has it got to do with me?

It is Advent, the beginning of the Church year. During this season, we too hear the words of a prophet (Isaiah) encouraging us to “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” Like the ancient Israelites, we can’t help but wonder, what has this got to do with me? After all, the baby whose birth we “anticipate” was born long ago.

We are no longer slaves to sin, but have been bought and paid for. Being among the followers of Jesus, and already knowing the full story, it is often difficult for us to enter into the expectant joy of the Advent season. Like the comfortable Jews in Babylon, the ones who were not suffering, we have adjusted to our society, and it is this adjustment that has made us blind to the Truth.

Without realizing it, we have been absorbed by a society which is not based on our faith, and have conformed our values and beliefs to fit into a secular system. We know that Advent is meant to be a season of prayer and preparation, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense, and we often can’t find the time.

During this season of the Church, we are overwhelmed with secular concerns, shopping, the sending of and receiving of cards and gifts, the baking of cookies, the planning of family celebrations. This is meant to be happy season, so we search for happy feelings within ourselves, all the while feeling stressed, and somehow off center. We have more to do than we can possibly find time for, so with grins pasted on our faces and a general sense of confusion, Advent passes us by.

The mere suggestion that the holiday season is the time to slow down and take it easy sounds ludicrous. And indeed it is, because the “holiday season” is being engineered by marketing executives. Advent, however, requires silence, interior and exterior silence. What makes it real and personal for each of us, is reflection on suffering, ours and that of others, compared in our hearts with the peace and joy that is soon to be born.

After a year filled with hard work, stress, upset, disappointment, pandemic and all its fear and restrictions, and all the various miseries which stress each of our souls, we are invited to savor a few weeks of sweet anticipation. In place of the stress of a society committed to commercial values, we are asked to instead take a deep breath, look within ourselves and without at the world around us and exhale. Advent is a time for reflection and waiting. Unfortunately, like children, we have been conditioned to want everything now. Our society encourages us to demand immediate gratification, and this is how most of us choose to live.

This is exactly the mindset and lifestyle that Advent is meant to counteract. Though we have heard it before, it helps to remember that Jesus cannot fill with Love the heart that is already full. He cannot dwell within the harried, hurried heart. He cannot direct and enlighten the preoccupied, distracted mind, nor calm and illuminate the impatient soul. When we permit ourselves to live in a distracted state, we are not prepared for His coming. He enters into the world today, and we fail to recognize Him.

We who call ourselves His followers are commanded to be ever alert, to be always doing works of Love. We are meant to be always seeking Him, watching for Him, waiting for His appearing. Yet, on the streets, and in hidden places in our cities, men and women live, sleep, and struggle to survive. While we sit distracted in our warm houses, drive our warm cars, and shop in comfortable stores, the baby we claim to be waiting for suffers, starves, and dies. People just like us, forced Jesus’ mother to give Him birth in a stable. Today we turn our back on Him, unaware that the poor, the hungry, the destitute, the needy, are Christ among us.

Advent is a time of awakening. It is a season, like Springtime, in which our hearts are meant to come alive, to bloom with Love, as we await the coming of a baby who will bring joy into the world. Alone, among all peoples, we are given the gift of life, hope and joy, through the recognition of Jesus Christ our Lord. On Christmas day we will celebrate the anniversary of His birth. This day, we are called to find and serve Him among the poor, the suffering, the lonely, the needy, and the unloved. So this day let us reflect on our calling to love and serve the Lord in, as Mother Teresa put it, whatever “distressing disguise” He presents Himself to us.

And this is my prayer, [said St. Paul to the Philippians, and to us] that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.” Amen