2nd Sunday Advent

2 ^nd Sunday in Advent
 
“A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.” I absolutely love that image. We have all walked on the trails through the woods. There we see a dead stump of a tree all covered in moss, all dead and lifeless. Then when we look a little closer we see new life pushing its way to the surface. The dead lifeless thing in the Bible is the actual prophecy of the Messiah which appeared to lay dormant for hundreds of years. People must have wondered if this Messiah will ever come. We have heard about Him for generations but nothing every happens. We are not waiting anymore. We are moving on.  The holy remnant, named in the Bible as the Anawim were the only ones who cherished the prophecy because lots of people just forgot about it. Now suddenly things are warming up. Now John the Baptist, the crazy man from the desert is shouting and people are wondering what all the commotion is about. Our preference is to have someone in livery holding a scroll making a grand announcement in beautiful English. Instead we get crazy man.  “Prepare the way of the Lord.” What’s he talking about? What Lord? Who Lord? Who is coming? He must be very important if John the Baptist is not worthy to carry His sandals. The whole thing is making me kind of nervous if I was being honest. We are asked to consider the prophecy of the Messiah. In this time and place the Lord Jesus is coming into our midst. This will be a transforming event in our lives. We will never be the same again. Instead of hanging about maybe some of us should be lighting our lamps or trying to get enough oil, or something. Now is the time of harvest when we should be bringing into barns. Now is the time for the leaven to rise in the bread. Now is the time to put the lamp on the lampstand. Getting ready is fun. Nearly always anticipating the thing is as much fun as the thing itself. Winter days and dark nights have come. Lights begin to shine on our streets. There is a festive spirit even though we can’t quite say what that is.  There is a lot of getting ready and we kind of like it. Our preparation is spiritual and temporal. For our spiritual bit we should have deep thoughts about life. We should think about our human condition and what it means to say “I need saving. I need myself a Savior.”
With love, Fr. Pat