December 10, 2023
Many of us experience today a “desert” of loneliness and barrenness in our lives. How can St. John the Baptist’s life help us when we are “in the desert”?
Key Points
- What was St. John the Baptist’s life like in the desert?
- How do people experience a “desert” in their spirits?
- With the desert is the “delay” of God.
- What is the reason for the desert?
- What can help us survive it?
This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable. It has not been verified by the author.
“In the desert, prepare the way of the Lord.” In the desert, prepare the way of the Lord. This great passage from the prophet Isaiah, that we have today, preparing St. John the Baptist, who, as the gospel said, appeared in the desert. And we don’t know a lot of details, but it seems St. John, well, he was obviously still, a young man, may be very young, when the Lord called him in such a mysterious way to leave his parents, his elderly parents, and go out into the desert, and live in the desert. What was that like? Scripture doesn’t give us many details. But the desert, of course, is a place of deprivation, of loneliness, and where in which our comforts are stripped away. It’s a dangerous place where it’s hard to survive. The elements of doubt, there’s what can be so hot, and also can be so cold. For the for the key place for the Israelites that the testing in the desert. So it’s a very painful thing. All those years in the desert. St. John the Baptist said to a mystic, “I walked the desert for many years, as a sign for all men, of what fidelity to the Lord entails.” a sign of what fidelity to the Lord entails. That’s not what we want, right? We say, Well, Lord, I did this for you. So you should do this for me, right? We want immediate rewards, right? Well, I went to Mass on Sunday, so the week should be a great week. You know what, why isn’t the Lord You know, we want the Lord to respond immediately. To give us a reward immediately. And so here’s St. John the Baptist, faithful to Lord, he goes out into the desert, but he has this long time, and it shows how much courage that it takes for this young man to go out by himself to the desert. And not just to go out now, but to live there for a long time. So this continued to be a sign for all men of what fidelity to the Lord entails, of the barrenness, that absolute obedience brings about the barrenness. And we want the opposite, that if I’m obedient to the Lord, there’s to be all sorts of fruits. And there will be fruits, at their time. But often we first have to go through this long barrenness. That’s what the desert speaks of, barren, barren, “years of the barrenness, that absolute obedience brings about before and until the offering pierces the heavens, and the torrents of grace pour down upon parched souls.” As Mother Magdalene said as the hymn we will be singing, the special Advent hymn, Bharati Celli speaks to this call, asking God to open the heavens and pour down His dew. And that’s what this is speaking about this. This bareness “until the offering pierces the heavens, and the torrents of grace pour down upon part souls.” So this is John the Baptist. So the Lord didn’t just tell him to go start preaching. His great preaching in which he would be the one announcing the coming of Jesus, was preceded by this long barrenness in the desert, alone, suffering. Imagine you’re suffering often, a lot, and this passage, which is speaking to this mystic he said, “you too live this desert in your spirits,” in our spirits. And that’s very important for our little Mission of Divine Mercy. Those of you who are close to the mission, I think, are aware that, you know, our mission is not a little, it’s not a parish. We’re a mission and our mission has a particular mission. God has given us a particular mission. So the name mission is not just a nice name because there’s the Spanish missions in this area, but it’s because God has given us a mission, for this time in history, for this unprecedented time of trials and tribulations that we’re going through right now. And so our little mission has, has experienced for now 22 years or so, the desert, the spiritual desert. And a lot of you have experienced a spiritual desert. And that’s why in our Encounter with Jesus, we added a talk on the desert. And it’s striking how many people at the end of the Encounter say how much that talk helped them, because they experience also a desert in their lives. And many people living in a world today are experiencing this desert of the Spirit. Many people are experiencing it in the Church. I remember when I was growing up, growing up in the 60s and 70s, that our parish, the parish I was going to was not very inspiring. And I was going to Catholic school, it wasn’t very inspiring, either. And it often seemed to me when I, when I began to get more interested in my faith, that it was kind of like a desert, that even the Church and that areas as growing up in West Virginia, not a Catholic stronghold. And so it seemed kind of like a desert, a spiritual desert. And so a lot people may be, you are in a sense in this desert in your life. And the worst of the desert, is when God hides. Because if God made you’ve experienced His presence in the desert, and even though it’s a desert, His presence can compensate for all of that. But the worst desert is when it seems like God himself seems absent. That’s the terrible desert. And many are experiencing this today. And so this reading, say, John the Baptist, how does he prepare the way of the Lord? That’s what Isaiah says, Isaiah says to prepare the way of the Lord. But how does He say to do it, he says, in the desert, the desert the way the Lord has been prepared in the desert. Of course, that’s such a contrast with all the Christmas spirit, right that we have in our society right now. But Advent is reminding us of the reality of the preparation for the Lord. And it was in the desert. And I think that’s happened a lot today. That’s actually a message of hope, or experience in a desert. That was, as we see here, through Isaiah, that was preparing the way of the Lord, that desert, where it seemed like the absence of the Lord was actually preparing the way of the Lord. And so the readings talk to us of the desert. And they also talked about something else that we don’t like, which isn’t popular, desert and delay. Advent is a time of waiting and sharing this long wait, of the forerunners of Jesus. You know, we have the saying, “how time flies when you’re having fun.” But what’s the inverse of that situation when you’re not having fun? When you’re not having fun? When things are difficult? What does time do? It drags on, and on and on, it seems to never end. That’s this terrible delay that Scripture speaks so much of. In fact that the reading from St. Peter today is talking to the early Christians who are struggling with this delay. They’re waiting for the Lord to come. And where is He? They’re going through a lot of trials. Where is the Lord? They’re waiting for him. And so their faith is being tested. Because the Lord is not there. And so he has to talk to them and encourage them in this delay. He said, “The Lord does not delay His promise. As some regard delay.” Yeah, Lord, how are we, pretty much it seems like a delay. So he’s, well, it’s nice, and it’s not really a delay, but it really seems like a delay. And so what does he say? He says, “but He is patient with you. Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” So you’re saying that this what feels to us like the delay is actually a mercy of God. But we don’t feel it that way. Right? It seems just the opposite. Why doesn’t He just act and hurry up and act. And so when you put these two things together, the desert and the delay, again, how time flies when you’re having fun. But when you need a desert, how time drags and drags and drags, the desert and the delay. In what’s happening, it’s, it’s aging us, it’s like stripping our lives, leaving us with nothing but the essential. And so this desert, what’s the reason for it? It’s to prepare the way of the Lord. To help us understand that our suffering is effective, because it’s forming us. It feels like it’s destroying us, but it’s forming us. It’s humbling us, making us more humble. It’s as if emptiness, emptiness is forming our faith. It’s a trial of faith that forms us in our faith, teaching us to believe without seeing, without feeling. It’s forming us in true love, a love, a gift. As Jesus says to St. Faustina, a love of a silent day to day martyrdom, of not loving because it feels good, of what we were experiencing, but a love of giving, and fidelity and giving. That’s one of the things which is so important, is a love, which is not just a love, a momentary passing, intense feeling, but a love which is faithful in the deserts, and in the delays where the love is being tested. And so this bit, as, as Isaiah says, this is preparing the way of the Lord. And St. Peter says in reading today, that it’s actually hastening His coming. St. Peter says, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of the Lord, that it’s not just a waiting for. But by doing this, we’re actually hastening preparing His way, preparing His way, when His great return and glory, but also preparing this way, for the ways He comes right now, at this time, like when He comes through the graces of the Holy Eucharist. But how do we survive? When we’re in the desert? That’s great, that is gonna come, but how do we survive in the meantime? I think one thing that’s so important is to take one day at a time, not imagine the future. I mean, think it was John the Baptist, it could have been they said, Well, if this drags on forever, you know, how am I going to survive all these years in the desert? To take one day at a time, trusting that God will help, God will help us get through each day. So that’s really important, making an act of trust, God will help me get through today. And I leave the future in His hands. Isaiah also said, comfort, give comfort to my people, says, well, it was actually the Lord who says comfort, “give comfort to my people, says your God, Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.” And that’s one of the roles of prophecy. We often think of prophecy as a warning. And that’s part of it. But more than warning, God likes to comfort, to console, to speak tenderly to His people, to help encourage us in these times. And I know we’ve talked so much here at the Mission of Divine Mercy about the importance of prophecy, and the importance of God’s prophetic messages for the world today, like the great example, through Saint Faustina of the word of mercy. That’s God wanting to comfort His people. The great revelations of Divine Mercy, as Mother mentioned, where we had yesterday is the feast of St. St. Juan Diego, and preparing for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. And that’s also God wanting to comfort His people, comfort His people through the love and presence of His mother. And so we need, that’s why prophecy is so important because we need that comfort, that consolation to realize that God is with us. He hasn’t abandoned His people. He is with us and all is in His hands. That even in this dark desert, in which He seems to delay, His plan is working. This is preparing His coming in the desert, prepare the way of the Lord. And so for all who are experiencing the desert and the delay today, first of all, if we’re not experiencing it, but we know someone who is, this helps us understand them, to be compassion and maybe God is not asking us to go through that right now so that we can help others who are. But woe to those who are not compassionate. Because if you haven’t helped those who are going through the desert, then well, that’s not good. That’s not good. So we ask St. John the Baptist and our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, in this desert of preparation to help us trust in the Lord. Jesus, we trust in You. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.
KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
2 Peter 3:8-14
Mark 1:1-8