Homily Second Sunday of Advent

The other day I was watching TV and I saw a commercial for, what seems like, the latests gizmo or gadget.  You might have seen this too.  I must admit that I was rather puzzled after I saw it.  The commercial was for a new vacuum for your ear. 

When I saw this I wondered...
It just had never crossed my mind to clean out my ears with a little vacuum.  I asked myself do I really need this?

I think that something very similar happens to us today, especially as we hear these readings from Scripture.  When we hear the word "Salvation" I wonder if we don't have the same response that I had to the ear vacuum.  We might not know what it is.  

I know that the majority of people who take their Christian faith seriously know that they need "salvation" but I'm not too sure if we really know what it is?

I know for certain that most people, in our world today, don't know what salvation really.  I also think that their reaction to the idea is the same as my reaction to the ear vacuum.

"I don't know what that is... and so I almost certain that I don't need it."

So what is it?  We hear it being promised over and over in the readings.  In the first reading from Baruch we hear that God is promising to His people salvation.

At the time that this was written to the people of Israel they were in the midst of the Babylonian Exile.  The Jewish people lived at a time where they were surrounded by their enemies.  Their families had been ripped apart and they had been conquered. 

In the ancient world the easiest way to destroy a nation that was conquered was to take their children out of their homes and raise them in the homes of the conquering nation.  When a people loose their children they loose their future.  There was no easier and quicker way to destroy a culture than to take and raise their children in a different land according to a different culture.

So when the people of Israel heard the promise of God saying, "Up, Jerusalem!... look to the east and see your children Gathered from the east and west....God will bring them back to you!" They knew what salvation meant.  They heard clearly what God was promising.

God was going to deliver them from their misery.  He had promised that he would reunite them with their children.  He would establish peace with their neighbors and He would end the wars that had ravished their land.  But not only that.  But not only that the promise of salvation was also a promise of peace with one's self and God.

God's salvation is also forgiveness of sin and a healing of your heart.

Who doesn't know the pain of a wounded or broken family?  Who doesn't know the need to forgive a family member or need the courage to ask for forgiveness?  Who's family doesn't need the grace of God to help heal and restore? 

But more than that... who doesn't need to be forgiven for their own sin?  Who among us is without the need to have our relationship with God and ourselves healed and strengthened?  Can anyone of us say that we do not know the pain of a broken heart, sorrow, suffering, sin, guild, shame, pain or any other deep wound of life?

Who doesn't need the grace of God to heal their broken heart?  You are not alone.  We all carry this pain.  We all suffering this way.  God's salvation can heal us and our family.

Consider God's eagerness to offer us this gift.  The first reading says that every mountain will be made low and every valley will be filled in.  God will not allow anything to come between us and His gift of salvation.

Consider what John the Baptist is crying out in our Gospel reading.
He said, "Prepare the way for the Lord, [for]... all flesh will see the salvation of God."  He was preaching repentance and the forgiveness of sin.

The thing that this Advent season is about is coming to understand what is really being offered to us by God.  We are preparing to celebrate Jesus' birth.  He came to us to offer us salvation.  This salvation is a message that peace is possible.  Wars can be ended, families can be healed, your heart can be made whole, and your sins can be forgiven.  God has come to put this world right!  He won't allow anything to stand in His way.  No tall mountain, no deep valley, no winding road, nor rough path will prevent God from offering us the gift of salvation.

We need salvation.  Its not like some unknown or unwanted gizmo on TV.  Salvation is something that we long for... even if we didn't know what the word meant.