Second Sunday of Advent: A New Exodus

by the Rev. Francis T. Gignac, S.J.

he first reading is taken from the little-known book of Baruch (5:1-9) that now constitutes part of the Catholic Old Testament but was actually written about A.D. 70. It deals with the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians six centuries earlier. The Babylonian kings Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar are used as symbols of the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus, who once again conquered Jerusalem.

Reflecting on scenes from the Babylonian exile, the author promises an ultimate restoration of Jerusalem to the Jews of his day dispersed through the Roman Empire. But the Jerusalem he promises is a proverbial one, the City of God. In today's selection, the author asks and responds to a series of rhetorical questions addressed to them. Do they, he says, exiles all, want to live in peace? Then let them practice justice. Do they want to be crowned with glory? Then let them be faithful to God. For God alone can reconcile all humanity and gather his people into the new city, where light and joy will shine brilliantly.

The second reading is from the first chapter of the Letter to the Philippians (1:4-6,8-11), a relatively early letter of Paul that centers markedly on the theme of Christ's second coming. Today's section is Paul's introductory prayer for the Philippian Christians. His prayer is joyful because of their partnership in the gospel and their growth in love, knowledge, and discernment, all ordered to moral wholesomeness for the day of judgment, when Christ was expected to come again.

The gospel reading comes from the very beginning of the story of Jesus' public life in the gospel according to Luke (3:1-6). The author adopts the story of the preaching of John the Baptist found in Mark, expands it, and changes it to situate the story of Jesus amid events of Palestinian and Roman history, to cast the call of John the Baptist in the form of an Old Testament prophetic call, and to present his particular theme of the universality of salvation.

The quotation from chapter 40 of the book of Isaiah, familiar to us from the opening tenor recitative of Handel's Messiah, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God," is used to express the Christian conviction that in Jesus God brought about a new exodus for his people Israel.

An unidentified speaker cries out in the heavenly council, "Prepare ye the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God!" God himself is pictured leading the people across the desert in this new exodus and the speaker imagines that every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill made low. Early Christians saw in this lyrical description a deeper meaning: that in the person of Jesus all peoples, not just Israel, have a new exodus and liberation, not from a hostile political power but from slavery to sin; and so they repunctuated this verse to have the voice cry out in the desert in order to apply the voice to John the Baptist.

These last two weeks of Advent give us some time to prepare our hearts and minds in a suitable way for the coming of Christ at Christmas. May we all be motivated to seek to experience in our personal encounter with Christ that liberation, that freedom from selfishness and sin, that peace and joy which has been promised to all who believe in him and commit themselves to values that he taught.

The Rev. Francis T. Gignac, S.J., is a professor and chairperson of the Department of Biblical Studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. A photo is available.

To the Top of this page
Return to the Commentaries main page
The Catholic University of America home page

Any questions or comments? cua-public-affairs@cua.edu

Revised: 11 November 1997

All contents copyright © 1997.
The Catholic University of America,
Office of Public Affairs.