2nd Sunday of Advent (Cycle B)

Isa 40:1-5, 9-11                  2Pet 3:8-14                  Mk 1:1-8

A woodsman was once asked, “What would you do if you were given eight hours to chop down a tree?” He answered, “I would spend the first six hours sharpening my axe.”

Rigorous preparation is the key to success for many endeavors. There will be no effect without a cause. No effect will happen without a cause. Similarly, no organized event would become an actuality without being preceded by a preparatory stage. Whether it be a marriage event, a birthday celebration, a farewell function, all have its own preparations prior to it. So also, our forthcoming celebration of Christmas. In view of that, today’s liturgy provides meditative points for us to reflect in order that we may worthily prepare ourselves to approach the historical event of Christ birth.

Our Church provides the icon of St John the Baptist, to instruct us towards a need for change both within and without. Straightening the herky-jerky, unsteady, uneven, coarse, rugged paths of the Messiah was the mission entrusted to St John the Baptist. The path that would be travelled by the saviour is the path of the human soul. The human soul is at a loss of peace within due to its herky-jerky, unsteady, uneven, coarse, rugged nature. Its path needs straightening. We go to parlours to straighten our hair to appear good. As humans, we give good importance to the externals than the internals. This tendency is because of our fragile nature. Therefore, this gives a priority call to straighten the path of our soul.

We always complain about the uneven roads because it makes our journey tiresome and annoying. Even if it is cost effective, we like to take the toll roads to have smoother journey and also to reach faster to the destiny. Similarly, our journey towards the celebration of Christ birth needs a smoother travelling experience. As a matter of preparation, our mind and attitude need to be shaped, evened, flattened, straightened before we encounter the celebraton of Christ birth.

Anything that does not allow change, has to face the state of stagnancy. Anything that stagnates, is prone to vanish and become extinct quickly. Hence, change is inevitable for any being in this universe. All the more, it becomes vital for a human being to change towards betterment. Without change, nothing would encounter growth or betterment. Change should not be towards the worst, rather, its movement should be towards the best. We do not like monotony. We become bored of a song, when we listen to it again and again, however we have liked it in the beginning. This applies to anything that we are attracted towards in the beginning. Therefore, we look for change in our surroundings to keep ourselves happy. But the secret of happiness lies in our positive change within. A refreshed mind each day is the secret to happiness.

When we go to a shop to buy some product, it is our usual experience that if the shop keeper hands a product in which its outer cover appears unclean or little damaged we ask him to give another one. In such cases, we do not even check the actual product inside a box cover rather we are very particular about the outer cover. The important thing is to check the actual product that resides inside the box whether it is working in good condition. Most often, we check the actual product after returning home and make a complain about our carelessness of not checking it at the right spot. What does this tell us? We have a tendency to be quick in worrying about the peripheries and the superficials rather than the foundations and internal matters.

This awareness is expected of us in the light of today’s gospel to march towards real repentance and transformation. Our growth consists in becoming nobler and nobler each day. There should be change in us for something better. That is why there is difference between a primitive man and a modern man. A modern man is not similar to a primitive man. There is a lot of progress in a modern man in comparison to a primitive man. But we cannot speak about the difference between a primitive lion and modern lion, a primitive buffalo and modern buffalo. Human beings alone possess the capacity to become better every day.

Robin Sharma makes a powerful statement in his spiritual novel, The Monk who sold his Ferrari: There is nothing noble about being superior to some other person. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.

It is true that every day we need to become superior to our former self by refining our own self, our inner thoughts, our soul. Every time we need to ask these questions:
- Am I better in my attitudes at present compared to my past?
- Am I better in my thoughts today compared to yesterday?
- Am I better in my motives now compared to the earlier moment?
If we ask these questions and positively act according to it, PEACE IS NEVER AT A DISTANCE. We need strenuous effort on our part to become better in our attitudes, thoughts and motives.

In such efforts, we also become tired sometimes saying to ourselves: However, I try my best to become better, my surroundings remain the same and people around me are no better. Therefore, we ask the question: To what end this change is helpful? What is the point in me alone or one person changing oneself, when the whole world is acting contrary to what I desire, the desire for peace and love? Is it just for my personal spiritual advancement alone without leaving any effect in my surroundings? Let us not forget what natural law states: Any change will not stop with a single entity rather it creates ripples of changes in the other entities and the surroundings, like the single stone thrown in the lake creates continuous ripples in the layer of the water. No social change will occur in mass level without being initiated in a single person.

Let me conclude by sharing with you the story that was told by Noble Laureate Kailash Satyarti from India in his Nobel Lecture while he received Nobel Prize for Peace for the year 2014, along with Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani young girl: A terrible fire had broken out in the forest. All the animals were running away, including the lion, king of the forest. Suddenly, the lion saw a tiny bird rushing towards the fire. The lion asked the bird, “what are you doing?” To the lion's surprise, the bird replied “I am on my way to extinguish the fire.” The lion laughed and said, “how can you kill the fire with just one drop of water, in your beak?” The bird was adamant, and said, "But I am doing my bit.”

Let each one of us do our bit!