• Second Advent (B), December 4, 2005
• Theme: Hope in the Midst of Challenge

• Today’s Isaiah passage was made more famous by Handles Messiah
• The prophet of the exile was not consciously thinking of the coming of the Messiah.
• Rather he had in view the restoration of Israel from the Babylonian Exile around the 538 B.C.
• Cyrus of Persia (a pagan) had won his preliminary victories and the power of the Babylonians was waning.
• The prophet envisages the intervention of God to bring about the return from exile - a kind of second Exodus in which the miracles of the first Exodus would be repeated.
• “Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain made low…. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.”
• There is a sense of Hope in the midst of the oppression that the people had experienced.

• Along the same lines, today’s Gospel from the beginning of the book of Mark calls to mind an image:
• The freeways and turnpikes we travel usually have signs on their overpasses telling us the minimum clearance for passing underneath them.
• For whatever reason, a tractor-trailer occasionally gets wedged in tight underneath an overpass.
• At first, no one seems to know how to get the truck out, short of pushing it out the way it entered.
• Then someone makes the suggestion: let some air out of the tires.
• Then the truck, a couple of inches lower, can squeeze through the overpass.
• On this Second Sunday of Advent, we are challenged to deflate our egos like the tires on the truck.
• We are being called by the Gospel today to change our lives, to become less me-centered and more God-centered, so that we can squeeze into this season of repentance and expectation.
• John the Baptist was Jesus’ messenger.
• John was announcing a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins to prepare for Jesus’ coming.
• John had a unique and much needed message for the people of his time and for us today,
• A message of Hope in the midst of the trials of life
• These reading reveal something about our lives as we live them.
• Hope in the midst of Challenge and Struggle
• We live in the midst of war, violence, insecurity and doubt,
• Yet we are challenged to keep Hope alive and to open our hearts to the Lord.
• Advent is the season in which we are asked to make room for the Lord in our lives:
• To let our hearts be touched
• To point to the presence of the Lord among us

• Many Examples in our midst of the Hope that Christ instills in us.
• In our individual lives, there is the hope that the love of family and friends brings to us.
• People that tell us that God is real, and that God really cares about us.
• In the same way as a community, we see small yet powerful examples of Hope in the midst of struggle that encourage us to point to Jesus as we work for a better world for all.
• Yesterday, Saturday at Blessed Sacrament:
• The CCD retreat for parents of kids making First Communion
• Lay leaders sharing their faith and talent and time to work with parents,
• Creatively making our Catholic Faith come alive for the people of this community.
• The L. A. Voice leadership training
• In conjunctions with sister organizations up and down the state that are all members of the Jesuit founded PICO network of community organizations, L. A. Voice is working to gain health insurance for all children in California, no matter what there legal status.
• Members of six L. A. Voice churches came together yesterday to encourage one another, and to map out our strategy on the issue.
• The task is daunting in nature, but with God’s help the Valley’s will be filled in and the mountains will be made low.
• Finally – Tomorrow, Monday, we will have our parish Advent Reconciliation Service at 7:00 PM

As a people and as individuals, we admit our need for forgiveness, and we express our Faith and Hope in a Loving God

• As we continue with our liturgy today, let us pray that
• During this season of great expectation and hope, we can all make room for the coming of the Lord, and
• That we can all point to his presence by our commitment to build a world that that is more just and more loving for all.
• Amen

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