Reflection

On the 2nd Sunday of Advent, the personality that stands out in the readings is John the Baptist. He becomes our guide in understanding the mood and style of the Advent season: Waiting on Jesus. We cannot fully understand the mystery of the birth of Jesus without listening to the words of John the Baptist.

How is the John the Baptist described? He appeared in the desert! His place is the desert. He and desert go together. The desert is a place mentioned in the Bible many times. Moses spends time in the desert especially during the Exodus of the Israelites. Jesus spends time in the desert at before beginning his ministry and public life. St. Paul, too, spends time in the desert.

Why the desert? It is a place of truth and honesty. Remember the book “The Little Prince”? it says that what makes the desert beautiful is that it hides a well. As a place of honesty and truth, It affords us no distractions, no luxuries, no comforts of life. It just gives us the basic things of existence and simple truths of life. No lies about ourselves, no delusions about what we are and no deceptions our own past.

The philosopher Blaise Pascal tells us most of us spend our time looking for distractions and diversions: distractions about questions of death and life, about human sinfulness and forgiveness, about our human relationships. They are painful and dreadful things and we would rather avoid them. So we look for diversions from them. We work all the time, we have fun all the time, we are busy all the time.

But who and what do we find at Advent time? John the Baptist and the desert. We come face to face with the essential things of life, things that matter. During this time of Advent we follow John the Baptist to the desert. And what does he say?: I proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins! He invites us to undergo a change, not only things outside us, but a change of heart. He tells not think about change but to let it penetrate every part of who we are. To see things differently, to have different attitudes, different ways of doing things is the desert experience he invites us to undergo.

Response

When people went to John the Baptist in the desert, they confessed their sins and repented. They confronted themselves, who they really are, where they are at that point in their life and what is wrong in their life. This Advent season, we can examine of our consciences, seek and grant forgiveness, and enter into the desert of our human heart.