Sunday 09 December 2018: Second Sunday of Advent

All people shall see the salvation of God

...John the Baptiser is a prominent figure in the liturgies of Advent. After a long period in which the voice of the prophets was not heard, the Lord’s Precursor – praised by Jesus as ‘more than a prophet’ (Mt 11:9) – made his appearance. Luke’s introducing of John is dramatic and skillful. Situating John’s heralding in the midst of the real world’s history, he names contemporaries who foreshadow the tragic conflict that is soon to be enacted – Pilate who will authorize Christ’s death, the petty rulers of the nation under occupation, the high priests whose hostility seals the fate of Jesus. But the gloom of this introduction gives way immediately to the vision of hope and promise that inspired John’s mission. The Baptiser – remembered as a man of the desert – is presented as inaugurating a new Exodus for God’s people, as foretold by the prophet Isaiah...

Extract by John Thornhill sm - read more at The Emmaus Series | Image courtesy of pixabay.com