Joke: A man, who thought he was John the Baptist was disturbing the neighborhood. So for public safety, he was forced to be taken to the psychiatrist. He was put in a room with another crazy patient. He began his routine by saying, “I am John the Baptist! The Lord has sent me as the forerunner of Christ the Messiah!” The other guy looked at him and declared, “I am the Lord your God. I did not send you!”

In anticipating the second coming of the Lord, this second Sunday of Advent, especially in today’s readings, the Church reminds us of a person who comes into existence to deliver only one message throughout his entire life. That message is to call people for repentance in preparing for the coming of the Lord. Through the person of John the Baptist, the voice crying out for repentance, the Church invites us to examine ourselves to see how we prepare the way for the second coming of the Lord.

The Voice of John the Baptist called for preparing the way for the Lord to come the prophet Isaiah reported in his writing saying, “Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed.” What are these images of wasteland, valley, mountain, hill, and rugged land that Isaiah mentions here? Aren’t they the conditions inside and outside of us that we need to make it straight for the Lord to come? The wasteland, isn’t that like the emptiness of the heart, the void that one cannot find the meaning of life? The condition that one might not be able to experience of being Catholic or belonging to a community of faith. How can the Lord come when our heart is just a void, a wasteland that has no life in it? The valley, does it sound like what we harbor deeply in our hearts what is to cheat our spouse, to take advantage of those under our responsibility, to ignore the needs of others to fulfill our desires and needs, and many other acts that make what is the temple of the Holy Spirit becomes the valley? Mountain and hill, perhaps, what is our pride, our self-center, our jealousy and greed that placed others under us? The rugged, dried, and rough land, does sound like what we are sometimes attracted to like pornography, drug and alcohol, liars, anger and frustration, and many other unloving acts towards others and ourselves. How would we welcome God to come into our lives when we build up these wasteland, valley, mountain, hill, and rugged land around us that block the way of the Lord to come? The Lord invites us to straighten them out so that He can come and stay with us, especially each time we come up to receive Communion, we receive Christ into our lives. How would we prepare an immaculate place for him to reside within us just as Mary was chosen to be the Mother of God that God prepared her to be born without any stain of sin, and immaculate womb to bear the Son of God and God himself?

In today’s second reading, taken from the second book of Saint Peter, Peter invites people to conduct [themselves] in “holiness and devotion, [in] waiting for and hastening [for] the coming of the day of God.” This is exactly what we ought to amend our life in waiting for the Lord to come. Not only to make the wasteland, valley, mountain, hill, and rugged land straight but also to conduct ourselves in holiness and devotion in waiting for the second coming of our Lord.

Saint Peter and other apostles, prophets, and many other church fathers and saints throughout the Church’s history experienced the presence of God in their lives when they amended their lives to the Lord. In all today’s readings, the Church put together to invite us to change and to amend our lives in preparing for the second coming of our Lord. Changing and having the heart of conversion are so crucial that Saint Mark begins his Gospel by retelling the story of John the Baptist as the voice calling for conversion in preparing the way for the Lord. As the voice, the messenger, and the forerunner of the Lord, John proclaims “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” What does that mean “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins?” Isn’t that in our baptism, we are all called to be priests, prophets, and kings? What do we do and how do we live our lives as priests, prophets, and kings? Do we live our lives as priests, prophets, and kings by putting up the walls that Isaiah mentions in today’s first reading, the wall of wasteland, valley, mountain, hill, and rugged land to block the way of the Lord to come? How do we live our lives as priests, prophets, and kings if it’s not to try to humble ourselves to acknowledge the need for God by going to confession and forgive one another, especially those who hurt us somehow and in some ways? How do we prepare the way for the Lord in anticipating the second coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ if it’s not to try to make straight these wasteland, valley, mountain, hill, and rugged land, the void of the empty heart, the doubt, the hurt and pain that this person or that person either consciously or unconsciously transmitted or gave it to us?

  In the Zen tradition of the Far East, there is a story about a professor who went to visit the great master Nan-In one day. “Master,” he said, “teach me what I need to know to have a happy life. I have studied the sacred scriptures, I have visited the greatest teachers in the land, but I have not found the answer. Please teach me the way.” At this point, Nan-In served tea to his guest. He poured his visitor's cup full and then kept on pouring and pouring so that the tea began to run over the rim of the cup and across the table, and still he poured until tea was pouring out on the floor. The professor watched this until he could no longer restrain himself. “It’s overfull! Stop! No more will go in,” he cried out. “Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you the way unless you first empty your cup?” When we are full of opinions, speculations, and even doubt and hurts, and they are like what Isaiah called the “wasteland, valley, mountain, hill, and rugged land” one cannot experience happiness, peace, and God’s presence in one’s life! Let us, then, empty our hearts of all the unnecessary and uncharitable thoughts and actions that we might harbor within our heart, mind, and soul, and clean it with the tears of repentance and conversion of sins, and so to allow it to be filled with God’s grace. With God’s grace and our effort of conversion, we can straighten out these wasteland, valley, mountain, hill, and rugged land for the Lord to come. This is also the meaning of Advent that we are all invited to prepare for the second coming of the Lord. Have you had anything that needs to be fixed or changed to prepare a place for the Lord to come this Christmas? How would you change or fix in you to prepare a place for the Lord to come? With God’s grace and your effort, the Lord would find a place to reside within you this Christmas, would you?