2nd Sunday Advent- Year of Mercy: A Second Chance

Two prophet from different generations, Baruch and John the Baptist, preached to the people of their time about God giving them a second chance. Do you believe in second chances?

One night, there was this thief who broke into a house knowing the owners were not there. Inside the house, while shining his flashlight along the path where he was walking, he heard a voice saying: “Jesus is watching you, and he does not like what you are doing.”  The thief asks: Where are you and what’s that you say? And the voice: “I’m giving you a second chance, Jesus is watching you, and he does not like what you are doing.”

The thief searched with his flashlight for the source of the voice.  It was the parrot. The thief asks the parrot: Did you say that? And the parrot says: Yes, I did. I was just trying to warn you before anything bad happens to you. The thief replies: Warn me... why and who might you be? The parrot answers: My name is John the Baptist.  The thief remarks: “Whaaaat? What kind of people here would name their parrot John the Baptist? The parrot replies: “Oh the same kind of people who named our big ferocious German Shepherd dog.” Man asks: “So what’s the name of your big ferocious German Shepherd dog?” His name is Jesus.

Almost 600 years before the coming of Christ, the Israelites became unfaithful to God.  As a result, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by their enemy Nebuchadnezzar, and people were carried off as exiles to Babylon. Baruch was one of the prophets who wrote to encourage the people not to give up hope and turn to God once again for He will give them a second chance. The day would come when God would bring His people home. This was the word of God that had come into the mind and heart of the prophet Baruch.

“Jerusalem, take of your garment of sorrow. Arise, stand upon the heights and look toward the east, and see your children gathered from west and east. God will bring them back to you carried in glory.”

600 years later, this very same word of God came again to John the Baptist when Rome governed the land of Israel and Herod was a puppet king. Many Jews sided with the materialism of Rome. Others who opposed the regime saw salvation only in violence and arms.

John, the last of the great prophets before Jesus, preached a repentance for the forgiveness of sins even to King Herod. For he believed there is hope for everyone- God always gives a second chance.  “Prepare the way of the Lord. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth.”

Jesus Christ will be born into a world today that doesn’t look so different from the one described by Luke some 2000 years ago. And John’s mission is now our mission – to prepare for his coming and to tell the world that there is a second chance for all of us.

Fill up the valleys.....fill up those hollow moments in our lives that have been deepened by what we haven’t done: kind words left unspoken, compassionate deeds left undone, bread not shared, prayers neglected, overtures of love denied. How many times is our sinfulness not in what we do but in what we don’t do?

Level the hills and the mountains...hills of pride and self-centeredness, of arrogance and ambition, hills made high by an unwillingness to yield to the quieter and more humble ways of Christ.

Make the winding ways straight and the rough ways smooth. Let us examine and eradicate anger, impatience, intolerance, prejudice, racism and our endless judgments of others. John today reminds us of those second chances God gives us everyday.

In a 2007 film “One More Chance” a girl named Basha breaks up with the boy named Popoy. Later on Basha regrets what she did and tries to get him back. She pleaded with Julia Robert's words from Nothinghill: "I'm also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her."  But this time the boy Popoy is in a relationship with another, so he tells the Basha: “She loved me at my worst, you had me at my best. You took it all for granted. And you chose to break my heart.”  Do you think Popoy will give Basha a second chance? Maybe yes, maybe not.
But our God- He is a God of mercy. He surely will give us a second chance.

This Tuesday feast of the Immaculate Conception the doors of mercy will open to symbolize the start of the Jubilee Year of Mercy. As we stand at its doorstep may we remember what Baruch has told us today:

“For God will lead us with joy in the light of his glory with the mercy that comes from him.”