by Fr. Edward Foley, Capuchin<\/em><\/p>\n A number of years ago, The flight was uneventful until the landing. I was a bit shaken, but my seatmate seemed unphased. Most of us do not take surprises, especially unpleasant ones, The evangelist Mark, Unlike his students Matthew, Luke, and John This central figure in advent readings across the lectionary cycles A favorite blog from years ago uniquely captures Can anybody help John the Baptist <\/em> His parents named him John which means “God is gracious,” <\/em> He is going to offend almost everybody<\/em> He is going to insult Pharisees by telling them<\/em> He’s also going to infuriate Herod the Roman puppet King<\/em> If our prophetic friend doesn’t make a radical turn<\/em> Of course, as we all know, Is John just a shadowy mirror Or is there something more to this The Jewish mystic Abraham Heschel reportedly told the story I would contend that John the Baptist was the first of those 12. You may have seen the news that Pat Quinn, This wacky idea of pouring ice water over your head I\u2019m not sure if Pat Quinn and John the Baptist were close friends, With a prophetic word and summons to wade in the water, As many commentators recognize Unfortunately this imagery is often domesticated, Our Judean wildman, however, And isn\u2019t that precisely Mary did not only prepare the way, There is little doubt While God promises liberation through the prophet, As we await vaccines and a resurging economy For we will have been plunged into an advent spirituality As the poet reminds us, And so the poet muses:<\/p>\n With every step<\/em> It has been waiting<\/em> Look close<\/em> how it has been fashioned<\/em> how it has been created<\/em> how it has taken<\/em> Look closer<\/em> that you are part<\/em> that you are how<\/em> and a welcome<\/em> May the spirit of the Baptist keep us diligent and strong [1] Turnaround: Reflections on the Second Sunday of Advent<\/a><\/p>\n
\nwhen I was spending a lot of time on airplanes,
\nI took a flight from Chicago to Denver.
\nMy seatmate was a grandmotherly figure,
\nmeticulously dressed, including gloves and a pillbox hat.
\nIn speech and manners, she exuded refined elegance.<\/p>\n
\nWe hit the ground with a massive jolt,
\nbounced back up into the air
\nand slammed back onto the tarmac.<\/p>\n
\nAs we exited the plane,
\nwith the captain standing at the open door of the cockpit
\nbidding us farewell,
\nthis diminutive lady stopped in front of the captain,
\nwho towered over her by at least a foot,
\nand politely asked, \u201cdid we land, or were we shot down?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nso graciously.
\nWhether it\u2019s a shocking transaction on the credit card statement,
\na dead battery on a cold morning,
\nor a lost election.
\nIf there is bad or even challenging news
\nabout health or finances or relationships
\nwe usually prefer to be eased into it.<\/p>\n
\nthe guy who actually invented the gospel genre,
\ndoes not seem to have graduated from that school of thought.<\/p>\n
\nwho open their versions of this new literary form
\nwith well-constructed genealogies,
\ntales of angels and visitations,
\nmiraculous births and visitors from the East,
\nor even luminous theological reflections
\non the eternal Word becoming flesh,
\nMark hits the gospel tarmac hard
\nwith the abrupt, even audacious landing of John the Baptist
\non that spiritual airstrip in the Judean wilderness.<\/p>\n
\nis launched into our pre-Christmas consciousness
\nwith little warning.
\nOutfitted like a prophet,
\nnourished on a diet befitting some survival show,
\nhe roars onto the scene like a proverbial Judean lion.
\nApparently untutored in the ways of political correctness,
\nhe summons people to confess their sins
\nand prophesizes about the great one to come
\nwho will trade the baptizer\u2019s water for holy fire
\nin an escalating mission of purification and salvation.<\/p>\n
\nthe affrontery of this Baptist character.
\nShe does so by putting out a \u201cplease help\u201d advertisement
\ndesperately asking:<\/p>\n
\nfind another job this Advent? <\/em>
\nBecause we know what will happen to him <\/em>
\nif he doesn’t stop his in-your-face preaching <\/em>
\nand start acting like the rest of us.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nbut he is hardly acting that way.<\/em>
\nIf he keeps this up, we fear for his life. <\/em>
\nYou’d think his motto was, <\/em>
\n\u201cSo many potential enemies, so little time!”<\/em><\/p>\n
\nlike the Sadducees who make their living<\/em>
\nfrom the money people pay to make sin sacrifices. <\/em>
\nHis baptism for repentance is competition and it\u2019s free.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nthat they are not favored by God<\/em>
\njust because of their profession or their pedigree.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nwho put aside his first wife<\/em>
\nto marry the wife of his half-brother,<\/em>
\nwhich, of course, John will condemn.<\/em><\/p>\n
\ndoesn’t stop offending everyone under the sun, <\/em>
\nhe is going to be led in chains to prison and be beheaded. <\/em>[1]<\/p>\n
\nthat is precisely what happened to the Baptist,
\nwhich raises an interesting question:
\nwhy would Mark begin his gospel
\nby featuring a character
\nwho would offend so many
\nand whose life would end so tragically,
\na history that Mark had to know?<\/p>\n
\nof the one whose way he prepares,
\nexcept that Jesus\u2019 story
\nfinally pivots to glory in the end?<\/p>\n
\nalmost Halloween-ish figure?
\nSomething so critical to Mark\u2019s gospel,
\nso essential to being a Jesus follower
\nthat he not only launches the first gospel
\nbut teaches us something fundamental about gospel living?<\/p>\n
\nof the small kingdom whose only industry was its agriculture.
\nEveryone was happy and everyone had plenty to eat –
\nuntil one year, when it was discovered to everyone’s horror,
\nthat something had gone terribly wrong with that year’s crops. Something in the crops made whoever ate them insane.
\nThe kingdom was soon in an uproar.
\nSo the monarch hurriedly gathered all her wise counselors together
\nand met with them around the clock for several days.
\nThen she called the kingdom together to announce her decision.
\n“Twelve people will be set aside,” she said.
\n“The rest of us will eat the crazy-making crop.
\nBut all our food in storage will be set aside for the twelve.
\nThey will eat the old crop.
\nThe twelve will serve the very important function
\nof reminding the rest of us that we are, indeed, crazy.<\/p>\n
\nHe\u2019s not the mad one,
\nhe just looks a bit batty to us
\nbecause we\u2019re the ones eating the crazy-making crop,
\nthe crops that keep us from conducting ourselves
\nin holiness and devotion
\nas Peter notes in today\u2019s second reading.<\/p>\n
\nthe person who co-founded the ALS ice-bucket challenge,
\nrecently died from ALS at the age of 37.<\/p>\n
\nin order to promote both awareness and funds
\nto fight against this challenging neurological disease
\nexploded in popularity across the country in 2014
\nwith ordinary folks, celebrities, sports stars
\nand even an ex-president
\nchillin\u2019 it for ALS.
\nIn the process, the effort raised hundreds of millions of dollars
\nto fight ALS and support those who suffer from it.<\/p>\n
\nbut they strike me as kindred spirits.
\nFor John, too, was trying to wake people up
\nto debilitating diseases, not of the body, but of the soul,
\ndisorders that ravage not just individuals
\nbut, even more, disable the social body.<\/p>\n
\nhe cajoled his co-religionists
\nto stop eating the crazy crops
\nthat narrow our vision
\nand compress our hearts;
\nthe crops that disable us from seeing anyone
\nwho looks differently
\nspeaks differently
\nor even thinks differently
\nas a child of God and sibling in Christ;
\nthe crops that induce a kind of social coma,
\na debilitating fog that induces us to believe
\nthat we cannot make a difference,
\ncannot stop the incivility,
\ncannot stand up against racism,
\ncannot socially distance out of mutual care
\nrather than xenophobic fear.<\/p>\n
\nAdvent, in general and in today\u2019s gospel in particular,
\nis marked by road images,
\n\u201cpath\u201d metaphors and
\n\u201cway\u201d allegories.<\/p>\n
\nreduced to some social pleasantry
\nlike helping someone find a path to a better job
\nor smoothing out the way for some neighborly introduction.<\/p>\n
\nmetaphorically dumps a bucket of ice on such niceties
\nand instead of inviting us to do a little convivial roadwork,
\ndemonstrates in his own life that the advent challenge,
\nthe advent spirituality
\nthat must imbue the whole of a baptismal life,
\nis to become the path and not just walk it;
\nto become the way and not just trod it;
\nto become blessed channels of grace
\nAnd not just witness its dispensation.<\/p>\n
\nnot only what John the Baptist did in his own life,
\nbut also the miraculous gift of the Mother of God?<\/p>\n
\nshe was the way of the anointed one.
\nShe did not simply give Gabriel an ok
\non the idea of incarnation,
\nshe gave God a personal pathway for
\nthe Word becoming flesh.
\nShe not only flashed a thumbs up
\nto God\u2019s birth strategy,
\nbut wholeheartedly embraced this divine maternity
\nand in the process enabled the birthing
\nof the very kingdom of God.<\/p>\n
\nthat many of us feel like the community
\nIsaiah addresses in today\u2019s first reading.
\nPeople in exile long for a return to our homeland,
\na return to a less chaotic world,
\na return to normalcy and some peaceability.<\/p>\n
\nIsaiah also signals that life after exile will not be the same.
\nIsrael will have to live in a larger vision of God
\nand their covenant will no longer be a singular privilege,
\nbut now extended to all the nations.<\/p>\n
\nand less political chaos and more social harmony,
\nwe too recognized that we will be changed
\nwhen we emerge from the medical and even moral morass
\nof this pandemic exile.<\/p>\n
\nreshaped as living pathways,
\nspiritual roadways,
\nand baptized thoroughfares of just acting and peaceable being.<\/p>\n
\nthere is a blessing in taking up this path forging mission.
\nBut it is a blessing with a twist –
\na parabolic blessing –
\na true Baptist-like blessing
\nwhich we accept with gratitude and caution
\nas we dare once more to follow the incarnational trek
\nthat not only testifies to an ancient nativity
\nbut that actually births the Christ in our own time
\nin our own lives.<\/p>\n
\nyou take,<\/em>
\nthis blessing rises up<\/em>
\nto meet you.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nlong ages for you.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nand you can see<\/em>
\nthe layers of it,<\/em><\/p>\n
\nby those who walked<\/em>
\nthis road before you,<\/em><\/p>\n
\nof nothing but<\/em>
\ntheir determination<\/em>
\nand their dreaming,<\/em><\/p>\n
\nits form<\/em>
\nfrom an ancient hope<\/em>
\nthat drew them forward<\/em>
\nand made a way for them<\/em>
\nwhen no way could be<\/em>
\nseen.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nand you will see<\/em>
\nthis blessing<\/em>
\nis not finished,<\/em><\/p>\n
\nof the path<\/em>
\nit is preparing,<\/em><\/p>\n
\nthis blessing means<\/em>
\nto be a voice<\/em>
\nwithin the wilderness<\/em><\/p>\n
\nfor the way.<\/em><\/p>\n
\non this challenging path,
\nthat through us God\u2019s mercy may be revealed
\nand the gift of incarnation renewed throughout this fractured world, through Christ our Lord.<\/p>\n
\n