Second Sunday of Advent

Four minute homilies

Second Sunday of Advent

Today we follow Saint John the Baptist in our way to Bethlehem. He is going to lead us to baby Jesus. But his path is not going to be easy for us because it goes through the most difficult terrain, the desert. He was inspired by the Holy Spirit to retire into the wilderness. There he devoted himself to prayer and to live a penitencial life, where he could meet God without distractions from other people. Origen says that “he went into the desert, where the air was more pure, the heavens more open, and God more familiar, that till the time of his preaching was come, he might employ himself in prayer in the company of angels.”

During this time of Advent we need to follow John the Baptist to find our hermitage in the wildernes; a place where we can encounter the three s’s of the spiritual life: silence, solitude and simplicity. We are called to disengage our hearts from the ties of this world and to fix our eyes into what’s important. We are too caught up in the things of this earth and we need some distance to have the right perspective. By holy retirement, the fascination of its enchantments disappears. We have the experience that to seek happiness in the world is like looking for flowers among thistles; their beautiful colours only prick and wound our hands.

The most difficult sound is silence. We are surprised when we can hear nothing. It troubles us, surprises us, we stop to hear the absence of sound. It happens when we are surrounded by nature, far away from society, and we can only hear the sound of the wind. The most expensive head phones to buy are the ones which can cancel every noise. We need to shut down one by one the noises that separate us from God. Some of them are very difficult to identify. They are like ringing in our ears, not knowing where they come from, or what produces them.

Solitude is related to silence but it is not the same. It is difficult to handle when we are not use to it. Farmers and people working in the bush love it. We are not used to being alone, not having anyone to talk to, without being able to rub shoulders with others. We are afraid of loneliness, having fear of being left out, looking to be among people in a shopping center for example. To have quality time with God we need solitude, recollection and time to be alone with him.

The last s we learn from Saint John is simplicity. Saint Jerome says that “he lived in the desert, and disdained to behold other things with eyes which coveted to see Christ. His raiment was coarse, his food locusts and wild honey; all of which are conducive to virtue and continence.” We don’t need much to live with. We create for ourselves thousands of necessities and we complicate our lives. Detachment from things gives is the true freedom to follow Jesus more closely.

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