God Will Make A Way When There Seems To Be No Way
Fr Dexter Brereton, CSSp ThM STL
The second Sunday in Advent teaches us that God will make a way where there seems to be no way
Yesterday, Chris and Renessa (not their real names) got married, much to my great satisfaction. The story of their wedding ceremony reminds me somewhat of the convoluted, somewhat messy path taken by the Children of Israel as they left Egypt, ‘the house of bondage’ for a Promised Land, where ‘milk and honey flow.’ We can be damned officious. As a Catholic priest, I continue to be disappointed that as church people we are often so lost in our sterile rules and in our obsession with ‘order’ that we fail to recognize the movement of grace in the world. Two people want to name and welcome a child into the world, they wish to signal their love and commit themselves one to another in view of their family and the community. These are glorious tidings which we should welcome and facilitate with open arms.
I will not delve into the details about the many obstacles they encountered along the way as they tried to get married – he from deep south she from East Trinidad. Nonetheless, our God is a gracious God. The first reading for Holy Mass today from Baruch, in exquisitely beautiful prose takes up the language of second Isaiah and in the process describes the way God makes a way for us when there seems to be no way ahead:
“For God has decreed the has decreed the flattening of each high mountain,
of the everlasting hills, the filing of the valleys to make the ground level,
so that Israel can walk in safety under the glory of God.
And the forests and every fragrant tree will provide shade for Israel at the command of God.”
Luke repeats these phrases as he introduces John the Baptist. We are accustomed to thinking of the Baptist as the precursor of Jesus and the great prophet who demanded absolutely ethical and righteous behaviour from the people of his time, calling them to repentance. And indeed, that is so. John is also the prophet of God’s graciousness. The God who comes is the God who saves, the God who delivers, the God who welcomes us. Chris and Renessa experienced their God flattening every high mountain and filling the valleys so that they could make their covenant, one with the other, a life-long partnership of life and love.
God, we thank you that you are God who makes a way for us. We thank you for your salvation and your deliverance which we experience again and again. We thank you for all those people you send to us like John the Baptist, who remind us that you are indeed gracious and that you want all people to be saved. Amen.
