Hear the beautiful words of the Prophet Isaiah: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” (Isaiah 40:3-5)
These familiar words from chapter forty of Isaiah describe the return of the children of Israel from exile in Babylon to the Holy City Jerusalem more than five hundred years before the birth of Christ.
These words were then echoed by Baruch, private secretary to the Prophet Jeremiah, and we heard his words in today’s first lesson. And finally, these same words of consolation are recorded in today’s Gospel from Saint Luke to announce the arrival in Israel of the last and greatest of the prophets, the brilliant and enigmatic John the Baptist.
News of John’s advent was announced by an angel to his father, Zechariah, who was a priest of the Old Covenant, and the message of John’s conception arrived while Zechariah was in Jerusalem offering sacrifice in the Temple.
Zechariah was already advanced in age, and his wife, Elizabeth, was beyond child bearing years, so Zechariah doubted the word of the angel that they would have a son, causing the old priest to lose his voice until the promise was fulfilled.
But upon Zechariah’s return home, his wife Elizabeth did indeed conceive a child, and to relieve the difficulty of this unexpected and unusual pregnancy, Elizabeth was visited by her young kinswoman Mary, who was by that time also pregnant with her son, a son conceived without a human father because he was God the Son made man.
Even as a babe in the womb, John knew the presence of Jesus and leaped for joy at the nearness of our salvation, and in the silence of their mothers’ wombs, the two boys communicated.
The Word made flesh revealed himself to his cousin who would be the last prophet of the Old Covenant and the first evangelist of the New, and then John moved his mother Elizabeth to cry out in faith, as she said to Mary: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
When John at last was born and given his name, his father’s voice was restored, and then Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and sang a great hymn of praise which the Church still sings every day in Morning Prayer:
“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty savior, born of the house of his servant David.
“Through his holy prophets he promised of old that he would save us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us. He promised to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant.
“This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.
“You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.
“In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on the those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:68-79)
These words of Zechariah were fulfilled by his son John, whom we call the Baptist because John baptized Jesus in the River Jordan to signify the beginning of the Messiah’s mission to redeem the human race from the grave. The Lord Jesus later described John as the greatest man of woman born and the prophet who completed the mission of Elijah as a requirement for the arrival of the Messiah.
John the Baptist thus stands as the pivotal figure between the Old Covenant and the New, between the first Israel of the Twelve Patriarchs and the New Israel of the Twelve Apostles, between the Torah and the Gospel. John was the last prophet of Abraham’s stock and the first preacher of Jesus Christ. And in the fullness of time, John came in from the desert, moved by the Word of God to proclaim a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Please note that Saint Luke went to great pains to tell us that John’s mission took place within history, in a specific time and place. Luke provides the details of geography and chronology and gives us the names of the key political and religious leaders of the day to assure us that John was a real man who lived and worked in one time and place but with a mission of universal scope and significance.
And the same is true, of course, of the Lord Jesus, for whom John served as forerunner. In other words, these two men and their work are not mythical or fictional; they are real, and human, and historical.
But even though John and Jesus are not mythical, they are mystical, meaning that their persons, their words, and their deeds reveal the Paschal Mystery, the Passover Sacrament, the sacred and saving truth that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Lamb of God, the Way, the Truth, and the Life who reveals to the entire human race the Father’s eternal plan of salvation.
Because that plan is eternal and because God is the principal author of all of Holy Scripture, the words of Isaiah and Baruch, spoken hundreds of years before the conception and birth of John and Jesus, can truly announce the identity and explain the mission of both John and Jesus to every age of the world.
“Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
Friends, these words tell us what must happen inside each of us if we are to follow the Lord Jesus in the Way of the Cross and find our way out of exile in sin and back to the Holy City of the New Jerusalem.
The holes in our souls must be filled up, and the mountains of our pride must be brought low. The crooked roads of our twisted hearts must be made straight, and the rough ways of our rebellious nature must be made smooth. Only then can we see the salvation of God. And that is why the preaching of Jesus began with these words: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” (Mark 1:15)
In Holy Baptism, we are washed clean of our sins, the life of grace begins in us, and we receive the supernatural gifts of faith, hope, and love. But even after Baptism, we return again and again to our sins, and so the Lord Jesus provides for the forgiveness of sins not only in Holy Baptism but in three other sacraments as well: Anointing of the Sick, Confession, and the Most Holy Eucharist.
In three weeks, we will celebrate the birth of the Messiah, in anticipation of which the world is busy with preparation. But shopping, baking, and decorating will not by themselves prepare us to stand at the Christmas crib with joy because only the forgiveness of our sins can do that. So let us prepare for the celebration of Christmas by going to Confession and receiving the loving mercy of God.
That is how we prepare the way of the Lord, and that is how we fulfill the precept explained by Saint Paul to the Philippians in today’s second lesson: “This is my prayer: that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:9-11)
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
This is the text of my homily for 8 December 2024, the Second Sunday of Advent.
Fr Jay Scott Newman