Weekly HOMILY for December 9, 2007: "My Name is John the Baptist"

2nd Sunday of Advent, Cycle A
Our Lady of Grace
December 9, 2007

“My Name is John the Baptist”
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


“My Name is John the Baptist”

My name is John the Baptist.

You just heard about me in the gospel passage. Now, it’s true that I am a bit controversial.

Some people just cannot get beyond my appearance: my shoulder-length hair and scraggly beard; my faded jeans with holes in the knees; and my vegetarian diet, which of course includes lots of tofu.

That’s just the way I am and I guess it turns some people off.

But there are others who look beyond my appearance. They come out here to the banks of the Jordan River and are willing to listen to what I am saying, and I do have something to say!


My Sense of Mission

You see, I have a strong sense of mission about my life.

In fact, it’s because I am so driven by this sense of mission that I don’t spend very much time on my appearance. As you just heard, my message is “to prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight.”

“Making the Lord’s paths straight” is something like your spending millions of dollars to build Interstate 83. You spent these “big bucks” so that you could have the fastest route from Harrisburg to the Inner Harbor and all the places in between.

Well, at least it’s fast outside the morning and evening rush hours!

Now I believe that God wants you to build a spiritual I-83, a spiritual Harrisburg Expressway, to him.

You need to prepare yourselves to let God come into your lives as fully and as directly as he is ready to do. And you need to do this (1) In your own personal lives and (2) For your community and society-at-large.


Personal Preparation

On a personal level, you need to live with an awareness that there is “one more powerful than you.” It what I just said about myself this morning: “There is one more powerful than I who is coming after me.”

You know, sometimes our American culture leads us to think that we have to be completely independent and make it 100% on our own.

The truth of the matter is that we are all dependent. We are dependent on God for our lives and we are depended on God for everything we have.

And so, every day, you need to (1) Thank God for what you have. Every day, you need to (2) Ask God for what you need and every day, you need to (3) Listen to God for what you are to do.

Simply put, this is praying. It’s what praying is all about.

Perhaps you can do this when you are driving alone in the car, or before eating dinner, or before going to bed, or even by taking five minutes a day simply to read slowly and reflect on a few verses of Scripture.

I’m telling you, you need to do this if you are going to remember that there is “one who is greater than you are.”


Community Preparation

Then, you also need to do what you can to let God enter this parish, this community of Northern Baltimore County more fully.

The prophet Isaiah in today’s first reading foresees a very ideal society. He imagines that “the wolf and the lamb, and the cow and the bear will all live together peacefully.”

It’s beautiful, this picture of peace and harmony, but it’s only going to happen if you care for the people in your community. I think especially of the children.

The most recent statistics that I have seen tell us that there are over 5 million children under the age of 12 in your country who are suffering from hunger. There are 1 million children who are homeless.

There are many children who lack adequate health care and there are millions who are denied birth each year because of abortion.

So, perhaps, you may start simply with caring for children: your children, neighbors children, children in local classrooms.

And then go beyond the children you see every day to children in dire need. You can help these children by buying a gift for the parish Advent Tree or making a blanket for the babies in our outreach efforts or reach them through our outreach appeals or through the poor box.

All are important ways for letting God enter our community more fully.


Conclusion

I guess that’s it. (Turn and leave the “stage.”)

Before I leave, I do want you to have a good Christmas but I caution you, you must get ready. You must, “Prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight.”

Make an effort in the next three weeks remaining to build your spiritual I-83.

Building it through prayer and concern for others will find the Lord coming to you in the very building. It won’t take completing the expressway to arrive somewhere.