Second Sunday of Advent

Today's Mass Readings

We are in the second half of the football season. A lot of the players are getting hurt, getting tired, and the person who helps them stay fit is a person critical in sports—very critical, it’s the trainer.

A trainer works with an athlete. They get the athlete physically ready, exercising with them every day. The trainer helps the athlete with their diet. They make sure that the athlete is taking in the right kinds of food, getting enough nutrition. Sometimes a trainer has to be like a tough parent and get after an athlete for not taking care of themselves. Or get after the athlete for getting out of line. Sometimes the trainer has to correct the athlete. Sometimes a trainer has to put on their counseling hat to help if their athlete comes to them asking for assistance.

A trainer does all these things for one purpose, so that at game time, at that next big event, the athlete that they been working with is ready. Period.

And when that athlete does his or her best and wins that game, who gets all the glory and attention? the PLAYER, the ATHLETE! Nobody from the media is running to the trainer to interview them. There are no jerseys in the pro shop that has jerseys on the back of them that say TRAINER. It’s all about the player!

The trainer is basically your behind-the-scenes-guy or girl. Who, if they do their job right, will have a fit and well-trained athlete for the next big event.

Brothers and sisters, we ourselves are gearing up for our big event to look forward to in just a couple weeks. All of us do. It’s not a competition, not a match, actually it’s a union. It’s an event where we, will all be united forever to the one, and mean THE ONE, THE CHRIST.

And to help us gear and get get ready for this big event, this union, we have by the grace of God, a trainer. A man whose sole purpose in life was fueled by one burning passion, to prepare and to point others to Jesus Christ and to his kingdom.

Moses prepared a way for the Exodus, the prophet Isaiah prepared a way for the second return from exile, and now we have another prophet who is preparing a way for the advent of the Messiah.

This trainer of ours is John the Baptist. And he’s got some work to do with us. Some of us are out of shape, some of us need some talking to and some correcting, some of us need to work off some bad habits, and some of us need a wake-up call. Our trainer is going to help us do all that by pushing us. He’s gonna put us in the right path. He’s gonna get us focused and ready for what is to come.

John the Baptist, like all trainers, wants our big event to be a win, to be successful. He wants us ready to meet our Lord, with cleans hearts and souls. And for that to happen it’s going to take each of us to take make an examination of self, and question the kind of lives that we have lived, and question the decisions we’ve made. We have to look at all that. And if it’s stuff we find that we are not proud of, now is the time to make things right. For some this may be easy to do, for others a little more difficult.

The important thing to remember is that we should not be afraid of doing this. We have a beautiful piece of literature in our first reading taken from Baruch that gives us consolation. It says, “take off your robe of mourning and misery, and put on the splendor of glory from God.” AND, “God is leading Israel in joy by the light of his glory, with his mercy and justice for company.”

When we are able to hand over to God, our problems, our struggles, our doubts, and when we make things right, that’s when we find peace. Total peace and total joy.

Friends, slow down from that holiday busyness, and look at yourselves, are you ready to see our Lord?

Reflection by Fr. Macario Martinez, OSB