This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
“A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord!”
The second reading, from the second letter of Peter, provides a key to unlock how the first reading and the gospel fit together today.
The time between Christ’s first coming and our day can feel eternal to us: Two millennia have gone by, after which humanity barely recalls what happened all those years ago. It may seem like Jesus’ Second Coming, if it hasn’t occurred already, probably never will.
But Peter tells us that a thousand years are like a day for God. So, in “His time,” two days have gone by since Jesus’ Incarnation. And it won’t be long at all before He comes again.
With this key in mind, we see that today’s first reading from Isaiah and the gospel from Mark can be read on two different levels. On the one hand, they have their immediate audiences. Isaiah assures the people of Israel that the Messiah will be coming soon. John is that voice crying out in the desert, that everyone should get ready, because His arrival is imminent.
But on the other hand, these messages apply equally directly to us who live in this seemingly longer span of “God’s time.” It is no less urgent for us to prepare a way for the Lord in our hearts, because–two thousand years later–He is ready to visit us as He did the whole world at the Incarnation, and establish a very real relationship with us, as real and intimate as His relationship with humanity became when He took on flesh. And soon, very soon from God’s perspective, He is coming to take us with Him to perfect that relationship, exalt it, and bring it to definitive fulfillment.
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Reread the first reading and the Gospel passage in the light of God’s invitation to you through them to reject sin in your personal life and truly prepare a way for Him in your heart, and then walk that way in your daily prayer with Him. Recommit to Jesus that you are one hundred percent all in with Him, and ask Him to bring about His Messianic plan through you.
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