The Second Sunday of Advent: “One Mightier than I Is Coming after Me”, by Gayle Somers

In Advent, if we ask how we can prepare for the coming of Jesus in this new liturgical year, today’s readings are loaded with answers.

Gospel (Read Mk 1:1-8) 

At the beginning of St. Mark’s Gospel, he announces that Isaiah’s centuries-old prophecy of one who will prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah (spliced together here with Ex. 23:20 and Mal 3:1) has finally been fulfilled.  John the Baptist was the “messenger” God sent to prepare His people for this great event.  Why would the Messiah need someone to “prepare the way of the LORD”?  Why couldn’t He just come and get the work of salvation under way?  St. Mark tells us that “John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”  His somewhat eccentric mission (clothed in camel’s hair and eating locusts) was meant to get the people of Judah thinking about their relationships with God and, in particular, their sins.  ….

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