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Second Sunday in Advent: Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons


Venus rising over Pacific - image by Brocken Inaglory - Wikipedia

Venus rising over Pacific - image by Brocken Inaglory - Wikipedia

Advent 2 year C December 6 2015

At first Isaiah's great 'voice in the wilderness' calling for a real refashioning of nature to prepare a way for the Lord might seem a bit out of context with our very prescient environmental concerns about our endangered planet. Dismantling mountains, filling in valleys, pulling down hills seems a highly in appropriate image for a planet in grave ecological danger. Baruch in our first reading nuances this destructive image a little, in his vision sorrow and distress are removed, the splendour of Lord will surround the earth. Though here too we have a flattening of hills and mountains and the infilling of valleys, it is because a greater happening is taking place, for turning our eyes to the east, we will see the everlasting presence of God.

That shift from the trials and tribulations of today, to see the hope of a future time when all sorrow and pain will be finished is what the prophets are really trying to make us realise. In that light from the east, we see salvation dawning. 'Prepare a way for the Lord' is not a destructive call to obliterate things, but one asking us all to remove the obstacles of sin and suffering from our world so that God may be found, known and loved easily.

We need to be aware of the problems of our world and involved in alleviating the suffering of living things, we cannot go on plundering the resources of the earth without facing the consequences of our actions. For me Paul's call to the Philippians (1: 8-11) is what Baruch and Isaiah really mean, to remove the obstacles of sin, so as to increase in love for each other, improving our knowledge and deepening our perception of the Good News. That is making a rough road smooth that is helping humankind see salvation.

Here in the Northern parts of Europe the darkening days draw on, we hardly seem to wake from the deep purple of night when the day light fades again! But there are lights abounding, the winter festivals, both religious and cultural, give colour to the night, artificial stars on evergreen trees sparkle with the vaults of heaven above us in the night sky. All those stars give us hope, like the wise magi we search for one light above all else, not the Bethlehem star, nor the Northern Lights but Christ our true morning star!

Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Chaplain for the Melkite Greek Catholics in Great Britain.

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