“Prepare the way of the Lord!”
Seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the prophet Isaiah wrote this now famous passage. You may know it from reading the Bible, listening at Church, or even a Broadway musical. A passage that both calls us to action, and to hope.
Here Isaiah not only foretells the coming of the Son of God, but calls us to action. To focus. To clean up our wrongs — our sins — because He is coming.
“Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God.”
Many have lost why December 25th — Christmas — is celebrated. Many of us mean well and want to put our mind and heart in the right place — to “make straight in the wasteland,” but the “wasteland” gets in the way. In our lives, in our nation. Across the world.
End of the year goals at work. Christmas lists. Eagles playoff hopes. Partisan fights in congress. Travel plans. Balancing the family budget. Phillies trades. Christmas dinner menus. Students exams. Travel plans. And tragedies around us — vicious attacks on Jews in Australia, students at Brown University, clashes in Syria, slaughtering Christians in Nigeria.
It is indeed a challenge — a struggle — to focus on why and how we celebrate Christmas. But for those who are Christians, we have been called to “prepare the way,” and we invite everyone to join us. In our minds, our hearts, our daily lives.
To prepare ourselves. To prepare our families. Always, but especially at this time of the year.
To be examples, to be inspirations, to be the “light” to all — those who are Christian, those of other faiths, and those practicing no faith.
The Bible is so many things. First and foremost, it is a book of faith — many of us believe it is a book of divinely inspired writings. It is also in many ways a history of the Jewish faith — and then Christian faith, built on the Torah. God revealing himself to us.
Genesis is written about 1400 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. It is the first book of the Bible — the first book of the Torah — and it begins with the phrase: “In the beginning…”
Fifteen hundred years later, the Gospel of John — the “Good News” of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ — begins with the identical words: “In the beginning…”
In this opening passage, St. John builds off that 1500-year-old introduction that is the beginning of God revealing himself to us. John now reveals and underscores the connection to whom Christians believe is The One: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God.”
God predates the start of Everything. And, Jesus — the Word — was there at the beginning, being with God. Being God, the second person of the blessed Trinity.
St. John the Baptist proclaims the prophet Isaiah’s message 700 years later, as told by St. Matthew in his Gospel. His Good News tells us that John the Baptist is the “voice of one calling in the wilderness: ‘prepare the way of the Lord.’”
During The Baptist’s life, the Word became flesh at Christmas — Jesus’ birth. Not with trumpets blaring. Not in robes of gold. Not carried by servants. He arrives as the servant-leader. He arrives in a manger.
St. Luke in his Gospel — his Good News — reveals it to us.
For those of us of a certain age, we also can be moved and smile as we recall that Linus (from the Charlie Brown cartoons) tells this story. Linus, a child standing alone on a stage, explains it to Charlie Brown, his friends — and any grown-ups listening. (It’s the only time in the entire Charlie Brown series of cartoons and stories that Linus puts down his security blanket.)
“An angel appeared… ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you Good News…a Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord…you will find a baby wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger.’”
Thirty-five hundred years ago, God revealed himself so that the Bible could be written. So that we might know him. And worship him. Be closer to him.
Twenty-seven hundred years ago, the prophet Isaiah told us the next chapter — that God will send the Messiah. He tells us to be prepared, to prepare the way.
About twenty-one hundred years ago, St. John the Baptist urges us, again, to “prepare the way, make straight paths for him.”
Why? Who was coming? Who was born on Christmas?
The Gospel of John has the account as told by The One born on Christmas: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish, but might have eternal life…that the world might be saved through Him.”
Merry Christmas. Prepare the way.
