In last Sunday’s reading from the Letter to the Romans (13:11-14), St Paul told us to wake up, clean up and get ready for the Coming of the Lord. Now on this Second Sunday of Advent we have two roaring prophets, Isaiah and John the Baptist declaring: “Get ready now, because Christ is coming!”

The Prophet Isaiah in today’s First Reading (11:1-10) announces that from this dead stump of Jesse the Messiah will arise. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon Him, and He’ll bring justice to the poor and judgment to the wicked. This is not guesswork. It’s divine prophecy. The great Archbishop Fulton Sheen (1897-1979) loved to point out that JESUS Christ is the only founder of a world religion who was preannounced. He was described centuries before His coming in prophecies that fit Him like a glove. After all, anyone can stand up and say they are sent by God, but one of the ways God let us know that Christ was the promised Messiah, is that there are over 450 prophecies in the Old Testament that are fulfilled exactly in Him. This is no coincidence.

Then seven centuries later, John the Baptist enters the scene. He is the final prophet before Our Lord begins His public mission. He was like the megaphone of the Holy Spirit preaching in the wilderness of Judea. John was no soft touch, and he called sin what it is, and warned of judgment and the urgency of repentance. Why? Because what Isaiah saw centuries earlier was about to be fulfilled. Therefore, says John, “Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand … Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.’”

Then in the midst of all this, we celebrate on Monday the great Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady. And the timing is perfect, because God’s work of salvation didn’t begin at Bethlehem. It began in the Garden of Eden. Mary’s Immaculate Conception is the fulfilment of the prophecy in Genesis 3:15, when God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between thee and the Woman, and between thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” Immediately after the Fall of Adam and Eve by which Heaven became closed to the entire human race, God promised Satan would not have the last word, and He prepared Mary, “full of grace” from the first moment of her existence to be that ‘Woman.’ She is God’s masterpiece, conceived in the mind of God from all eternity. Then, at the appointed time, she was created to be the spotless vessel through whom the promised Redeemer, the Word made Flesh, would enter the world.

So let Mary be our model. She shows us what it’s like to say ‘yes’ to God without compromise. She shows us what it is to cooperate with grace. So the best way we can prepare the way and clear the path is by responding to God’s grace, and making a good, honest confession of our sins this Advent. Renounce the slavery of sin and return to the freedom of God’s grace. The King is coming. Make sure your heart is ready to receive Him!

Fr Paul Gillham IC