Second Sunday of Advent, December 8, 2024

Sunday Homilies

2024 Dec 8 SUN: SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT Bar 5: 1-9/ Ps 126: 1-2. 2-3. 4-5. 6 (3)/ Phil 1: 4-6. 8-11/ Lk 3: 1-6

I imagine that many of us, when we're trying to read the Bible, find a particular frustration in that we would like for the Bible to be sort of like journalism or a history book that mentions dates. We want to know when certain events happened. And the Bible is not good about that. These [issues] are not a priority.

We do, however, have today the Gospel of Luke. It is using a lot of different data points to fix a particular event in history. And essentially to say that this event is for the sake of rewriting all of human history. Luke does this in the beginning of chapter two. We always hear at the Christmas Mass during the night about the first census of the Roman Empire and the fact that Jesus was born during that time. Luke then turns to a much more recent event, and he has a lot more data points. So we hear about who the emperor was and who the empire's governor was and various kings and high priests. So he fixes a particular time when John the Baptist began his proclamation of good news. And people have studied this, and it would seem then that John the Baptist began his work in the year that we call AD 27 or Common Era CE 27. And scholars have further determined that Jesus must have been crucified in AD 30, thus allowing for what we have traditionally understood to be a three-year public ministry by Jesus.

And Luke is saying, pay attention. God is entering human history definitively through the Son of God, the Word made flesh. And thereby human salvation is assured, union with our God is assured. And that is the way in which history gets rewritten. This passage quotes Isaiah, who uses an image similar to the prophet Baruch in the first reading. And it must have seemed utterly fantastic what he was describing. I mean, we in our day have earth-moving equipment. But the idea of leveling mountains and filling up valleys, that's still a stretch for us to imagine.

And these images are being used to say God wants to give us a straight path to Himself. And this is cause for joy. You know that in recent weeks I've been talking about the idea of the end of the world, which idea really does not appear in the sacred scriptures. The Bible does not focus on an end so much as the beginning of eternity. And we know that our hearts must be convicted of this joy that is open to every human being. And we know we are preparing ourselves well to welcome the fullness of the kingdom of God when in accord with St. Paul we seek to discern what is of value. There's another translation I like that says to discover what really matters. And that is the good news that you and I are hearing today. I need to make a transition now because Keith Detmer is going to speak to us about the Centennial Campaign, which is the responsibility of every one of us to participate in. So I will stop there and let Keith continue.