Prepare A Way For The Lord

Election campaigns are highly organized events meant to convince us of the nobility and worth of the person contesting the election, be this person the party leader or simply a candidate for a constituency. From the preliminary speeches to the entrance of the candidate all is arranged to ensure that the desired message is delivered and accepted.

As I read the gospel passage given for our meditation this weekend, I remembered our last election campaign because just as the politicians were trying to convince us that their political leaders held the secret to our salvation, so St. Mark is trying to ensure that we understand that Jesus is in fact the person worthy of our admiration, imitation and discipleship, that Jesus is in fact the Son of God. To do this St. Mark begins by quoting the prophet Isaiah and linking this prophetic word to John the Baptist: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert:” Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” John in fact enjoyed great success, many people listened to him and followed him and as we know from the biblical story many of John’s disciples did in fact become disciples of the man whom John pointed out as being “mightier than he was and whose sandal strap he was not worthy to loose”. John was in fact like an arrow pointing to the one who was greater than he was.

In a very real sense every baptized Christian is meant to be a John the Baptist. Like John the Baptist, every baptized Christian is meant to prepare the way by removing all the obstacles so that Christ can reach the hearts of others and is also meant to point out to others the Christ. Removing the obstacles to Jesus Christ reaching the hearts of others means that like John the Baptist we preach “repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

The proclaiming of repentance for the forgiveness of sins has to be done by all both by lifestyle and by word. By lifestyle because we must be permanently reforming our lives, bringing them more and more into line with the teachings of Jesus; by word because we must be people of encouragement, helping others to overcome any barrier to the ongoing reformation of their lives so that their lives fall more and more into line with the teachings of Jesus.

When we do these two things we become truly witnesses to the fact that Jesus Christ is in fact the person worthy of our admiration, imitation and discipleship, that Jesus Christ is in fact the Son of God. We become persons bringing hope to a world which needs to have someone in whom it can hope. This how the saints, whom we are called to imitate, lived. We see this in the life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, in the life of Blessed John Paul II, in the life of St. Maximilian Kolbe; these saints in the witness of their lives and in their words transmitted hope to persons who needed to hope. Today it is important for us to remember and thank God for the bearers of hope in our land and at the same time to be bearers of hope ourselves.

Prayer

All powerful and ever-loving God, we thank you for the lessons which you leave us in this Gospel passage. We recognize our responsibility to work like John the Baptist for repentance and the forgiveness of sins. Give us the grace we pray Father to be fearless in our proclamation and steadfast in our desire to point out your Son Jesus to the world. We ask this through the intercession of Mary, our Mother and the same Jesus your Son. Amen

Gospel Mark 1: 1 – 8

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert:” Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.” John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins. John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey. And this is what he proclaimed: “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”