Repentance And The Spirit.

 Is 40:1-5, 9-11

Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.  A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! 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, and all people shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.  Go up on to a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news!  Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God!  Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who rules by his strong arm; here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care

Gospel Mk 1:1-8

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.  As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths."  John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People of the whole Jourdan countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.  John was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist.  He fed on locusts and wild honey.  And this is what he proclaimed: "One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.  I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." 

To understand the Prophet Isaiah and his message of comfort, we really need to look at the prophet Jeremiah, and his message of warning to Israel about sinning against God.  Time and time again Jeremiah warned the people of God that if they continued in their sins they would find themselves in exile.  Instead of heading Jeremiah’s message, they killed him and decided to listen, instead, to the false prophets who said, “Peace, peace.”

As a result, the people of God found themselves in exile in Babylon.  Only by God strong hand did they return.  Historians still scratch their heads wondering how a captive people simply walked away from Babylon without one shot being fired.  Now instead of saying, “I told you so” or “See what happens when you don’t listen!”  Isaiah’s message is surprisingly different, "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.”

The people of God must have looked pretty haggard walking back to Jerusalem, but that is what sin does to us, and if we think there is no consequences to sin we are only fooling ourselves.  John the Baptist is shouting in the desert - why is he in the desert feeding on locus and honey?

The metaphor of locus & honey is to represent the notion that life is both bitter and sweet.  If we except life to be nothing but sweet all the time we will find ourselves living in bitter disappointment.  I think it is safe to say we are living in some pretty bitter times, and no matter how the economists and experts try to give a reasonable explanation for the cause and effects of the recession the one thing they never mention is sin; individual sin, corporeal sin or structural sin. 

The bottom line is that sin is the cause for most our troubles, but we do have hope, and in reality the only solution available to us is to live by the power of God’s Holy Spirit.  However, that requires willingness to turn away from sin and to trust in the power of the Spirit.  A terrifying prospect for some because it means giving up control. 

Father Marie-Eugene was a Carmelite friar who lived in France in the early 1900’s.  His father was a miner who died unexpectedly in 1904 when Marie-Eugene was not yet ten.  The family then experienced the hardships of poverty, but his mother managed to raise all five children by herself.  Speaking of the Holy Spirit, Father Marie-Eugene wrote, “Before enlightening your heart, The Holy Spirit sheds light through events and situations, light in darkness; you don’t know where it’s going, you don’t know where it’s coming from.”  When he came to the end of his life, a life dependent on the Spirit, he was able to happily state, “The Holy Spirit has always foiled my projects, but for the better.”

That cannot ever be said of sin which will not only ruin our projects, but our lives as well.  Instead, the better alternative is to be willing to open our hearts and minds to the Spirit so as live better, freer lives in Christ as children of God.