OMELIE / Omelie EN

26/6/2016

10/12/2017  2nd Sunday of Advent - B 

10/12/2017  2^nd Sunday of Advent - B 

Reading 1, Isaiah 40,1-5.9-11 * Psalm 84 * Reading 2, Second Peter 3,8-14 * Gospel, Mark 1,1-8

Jesus assured his disciples that he would come back, although in an unexpected and unpredictable way. Today we are helped to get ready to this coming back considering how was prepared His first coming among His people! And here it is: John goes into the desert, in the place in which the road connecting Jerusalem and Jericho stretches, and from there goes on who knows where to; this is a place then from where a lot of people will be able to be reached by his message, brought far away by the passers-by. He reminds people of the most beautiful prophecies, and announces their imminent fulfillment. Those prophecies have been repeated for centuries during the services in the synagogue, so many times that now everybody is used to hear them. The habit made them indifferent, like they talked about very remote events, that were never to become true. Nobody, as a matter of fact, is expecting them to be fulfilled now. John instead is saying that they are now just around the corner, because the One who is going to fulfill them has already arrived.

The evangelist Mark, that is going to accompany us for the most part of this year’s Sundays while we listen to the Lord, summarises in a very few lines John’s mission. He introduces him to us like he was one of the ancient prophets: he is recognizable both because of his clothes and the types of food he consumes during his meals, but above all because of the brevity and assertiveness of his message. John does not follow men’s fashions, does not let himself be influenced and driven by their habits. So, whoever sees and hears him can easily listen to his words like they were words coming from above.

He invites to conversion, that is to say to change the way of thinking and, therefore, of acting: “ Let us not think any more that God is far away and that remote is the possibility to meet Him. He is getting near to you: open a path for Him, get rid of the obstacles, those created by your sin, by your daily disobediences, by your selfishness that shows itself in every action of yours. How very concrete have been the actions of your disobeying God, in the same way need to be concrete the steps you have to take in order to go back. Let us change your way of thinking: do not search any more for what is more convenient for you, for your comfort, for your wellbeing: search for what is more convenient for Him, who is the king of the kingdom of heaven to come. In your thinking, do not ever exclude Him, instead put always Him first, at the starting point and in the end. Let yourself be washed by the water, bending under my hand in a way in which everybody can see you, in order to compromise yourself in front of the people. In this way you will be ready to welcome the one who comes after me: he is way greater than me and he will perform tasks way more beautiful than mine. I am preparing you a little tidier, instead he will fill your heart with the Holy Spirit, with the life of God Himself, with His own breath! You can compare me to whom is washing a bottle to free it from dirt, while He will be the one to fill it with precious liquid. I point Him out for you, he will love you with an unique and perfect love like that of the groom for the bride”.

The presence and the words of John are a consolation for those who have always awaited the coming of God in the history of men. They, that do not have any power in the world and do not even want to count on the terrible power of money, are waiting for God’s kingdom: they are able to listen to John like a sign and a gift from God, of that faithful God who keeps His promises. They rush to this prophets, to the cost to get so far from the Temple in Jerusalem: they understand that he is the voice of the “messenger of Zion” and that says: “Here is your God”. They will not have to make any effort to adhere to Jesus!

John’s message consoles, opens to hope, but we still need some patience, says the apostle Peter in the Second Reading. Patience is what God has towards us, but we too need to combine it with vigilance: we will pay attention to the simple moments of the daily coming of Jesus, our savior, and we will demonstrate patience in awaiting the fulfillment of the liberation and salvation from the daily situations of suffering. Let us wait, no rush! While waiting for God’s interventions, let us be at peace. The world, notwithstanding the arrogance with which it disobeys the Father, will cease to exist. We know it, and then we do not grow attached to it in order to lose our life, but instead we will be constant in obeying the Word that does not cease to exist, that does not disappoint, that fills us with wisdom and hope.

Come, Lord Jesus. Come with all God’s power. Come like the shepherd that gathers the flock and carries the lambs on his breast, you come in order to guide us to the true pastures, where our life find fullness and relief, and, in the end, there, were the Father is waiting for us with you. We are waiting for you not only to present you with our worries and to give you our sufferings, but to give you our entire life.