HOW TO PREPARE THE WAY OF PEACE.

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT. YEAR B.
December 7, 2008.
(First reading: Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11) (Psalm 85:9-14)
(Second reading: 2 Peter 3:8-14) (Gospel: Mark 1:1-8)


HOW TO PREPARE
THE WAY OF PEACE.

How do we prepare ourselves for the coming of the Prince of peace?
- By cleansing ourselves of anything that keeps us from fulfilling the goodness of our human nature.

- By acknowledging and bringing to an end our wrongdoings, our evil deeds, our sins.

- By becoming servants to one another, advocates for peace and justice and mercy for all human beings.

This process of human cleansing and preparation is what John de Baptist proclaims as a "baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins", baptism which we, individually and collectively, must undertake in order to "prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths" (Mark 1:3).

The prophet Isaiah compares such task with the work of "filling in every valley, ... making low every mountain and hill, ... leveling the rugged land,... smoothing the rough country" (Is. 40:4).

The task of preparation has been assigned to all; just like it was assigned to John the Baptist.
By working on this task we will be "hastening the coming of the Lord"; we will be hastening the realization of the "new heavens and new earth [where we will] be found without spot or blemish before [the Lord], at peace" (2 Peter 3:12-14).

Today the gospel urges every person and every nation to cleanse themselves from the horrors of injustice, sin, war and death by repenting and listening to the voice of God saying: "Surely the Lord will speak of peace to his people" (Psalm 85:9).