Advent Daily Devotionals - Finding God in the Wilderness - 9th Dec

FINDING GOD IN THE WILDERNESS

9^th December 2018: 2^nd Sunday of Advent

First Reading: Baruch 5:1-9

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6

Second Reading: Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11

Gospel: Luke 3:1-6

First Reading: Baruch 5:1-9

Jerusalem, take off your dress of sorrow and distress, put on the beauty of God's glory for evermore, wrap the cloak of God's saving justice around you, put the diadem of the Eternal One's glory on your head, for God means to show your splendour to every nation under heaven, and the name God gives you for evermore will be, 'Peace-through-Justice, and Glory-through-Devotion'.

Arise, Jerusalem, stand on the heights and turn your eyes to the east: see your children reassembled from west and east at the Holy One's command, rejoicing because God has remembered. Though they left you on foot driven by enemies, now God brings them back to you, carried gloriously, like a royal throne. For God has decreed the flattening of each high mountain, of the everlasting hills, the filling of the valleys to make the ground level so that Israel can walk safely in God's glory. And the forests and every fragrant tree will provide shade for Israel, at God's command; for God will guide Israel in joy by the light of his glory, with the mercy and saving justice which come from him. A copy of the letter which Jeremiah sent to those about to be led captive to Babylon by the king of the Babylonians, to tell them what he had been commanded by God.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6

When Yahweh brought back Zion's captives we lived in a dream; then our mouths filled with laughter, and our lips with song.

Then the nations kept saying, 'What great deeds Yahweh has done for them!'

Yes, Yahweh did great deeds for us, and we were overjoyed.

Bring back, Yahweh, our people from captivity like torrents in the Negeb!

Those who sow in tears sing as they reap.

He went off, went off weeping, carrying the seed.

He comes back, comes back singing, bringing in his sheaves.

Second Reading: Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11

Every time I pray for you all, I always pray with joy; for your partnership in the gospel from the very first day up to the present. I am quite confident that the One who began a good work in you will go on completing it until the Day of Jesus Christ comes. For God will testify for me how much I long for you all with the warm longing of Christ Jesus; it is my prayer that your love for one another may grow more and more with the knowledge and complete understanding that will help you to come to true discernment, so that you will be innocent and free of any trace of guilt when the Day of Christ comes, entirely filled with the fruits of uprightness through Jesus Christ, for the glory and praise of God.

Gospel: Luke 3:1-6

In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar's reign, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the territories of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, and while the high-priesthood was held by Annas and Caiaphas, the Word of God came to John the son of Zechariah, in the desert. He went through the whole Jordan area proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the sayings of Isaiah the prophet: A voice of one that cries in the desert: Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight! Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be levelled, winding ways be straightened and rough roads made smooth, and all humanity will see the salvation of God.

Writer’s Reflection

The Word of God came to John the son of Zechariah, in the desert.

At the start of December, there was a post going around social media encouraging people to read a chapter of Luke each day in the lead up to Christmas Day, as there are 24 chapters (and 24 days till Christmas...). Since starting that journey, I’ve come to learn more about John the Baptist, realising what a special man he was, but also how God used his life to reveal His divine plan for humanity.

Luke’s Gospel begins with the foretelling of John the Baptist’s miraculous birth; being born from Elizabeth, a barren woman very advanced in her age, as well as her husband Zechariah. Before Elizabeth conceived, Zechariah was told in a vision by the Angel Gabriel that they would bear a son, who would be “great before the Lord”.

“he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” – Luke 1:15, “and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and the power of Eliijah… to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” Luke 1:16,18

As the Angel Gabriel foretold, even before his birth, John the Baptist was bringing others to realisation of Christ’s coming into the world. Indeed, filled with the Holy Spirit, he ‘leapt’ in the womb of his mother Elizabeth the moment Mary arrived at the visitation, carrying Jesus in her own womb. Elizabeth was then too filled with the Holy Spirit, immediately coming to the knowledge that Mary was the Mother of the Lord – ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb’. Luke 1:42

Later at John the Baptist’s birth, another miracle takes place when Zechariah regains the speech he lost because of his original disbelief of the Angel Gabriel’s words to him. At this, people wondered “What will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him’ Luke 1:66. But Zechariah, now himself filled with the Holy Spirit, proclaimed the truth of his son’s birth, and his chosen role by God to fulfil the promises and prophesies made: “you child will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins” Luke 1:76-77 The last we are told of John the Baptist in Luke’s Gospel, before today’s Gospel reading, is that ‘the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publically to Israel’ Luke 1:80.

I truly believe it is significant that after all the miracles God had been working from the start of John’s life, he took him into the wilderness to finally prepare him for the role he had been created for. So often, God speaks loudest to us in our driest and loneliest moments. He wants us to turn away our need of the world, and turn our dependency to Him; as it is through Him alone that we find our true strength, joy and purpose.

Reflecting on my own faith journey, my biggest call to God came last year, during an inner dark period built up from months of relationship struggles and academic stress; that God eventually became the only hope I felt I had left to turn to. Reaching out to God felt like being in a wilderness full of vulnerability; not knowing if my situation would change, if an answer would come, or even if I was being listened to. Yet, it was in that moment of deciding to believe and surrender all that I had to Him that my biggest breakthrough in faith came. 

Over the next few months, I watched how each prayer became overturned and answered, like the ‘flattening of the mountains’ and the ‘filling of the valleys’ in today’s first reading. What I thought were the silent desires of my heart became magnified and fulfilled in ways I could never have imagined. I recognised for the first time the true goodness of God that I had been blind to for so long; bringing to life the words in scripture of the plans he has to prosper us and bring us hope (Jeremiah 29:11). Looking back, I can also see the importance of that dark period I had gone through, as it forced me to let go of everything I was struggling to hold onto, but decide to take the hand of God and trust Him alone.

Even in our own desert, God will never desert us. It is through the wilderness of our lives that God prepares our hearts for greater things. The greatest thing He brought me last year was to understand the true existence of Him and love that He has for his children. Sometimes, God also takes us through dark periods not only to mould ourselves, but so that we can come out shining brighter as a light to others. Just as God prepared John the Baptist in his own wilderness, to come out strong and armed with the truth to share with others, so does God call us to use our lives to lead others to Christ. As St Paul reminds us in today’s second reading, the good work that God begins within us will carry on growing until the day Jesus returns back to the world in the second coming.

God has truly sparked a flame in me that I pray is only going to keep burning brighter and stronger. Each day with my new journey in faith, I’m learning more about God’s love for me; ways I need to change, and wisdom I need to obtain. I’m no longer afraid of those moments of wilderness, as I know that God will use it to increase my faith in Him; and that is ultimately the best gift I could receive from Him.

Prayer reflection:

If you are going through your own wilderness; whether it is physical or emotional, trust that God is still working in you. Like St Paul, pray with joy, believing that God has heard your prayer, and will answer it according to His plan for the life He has created you for. Reflect on today’s readings, and the promises that God has bestowed on us; ‘for God means to show your splendour to every nation under heaven’.

Writer’s Bio: Theresita Joseph

Hi everyone, I’m Theresita, and I currently run the Y2K blog page. I’m 23 years old and am a medical student studying at UCL. I’m a big fan of journaling, science, singing in the shower, buying lots of flowers and consuming (a bit too much) wine.

2018 has taken me on a big adventure of moving to a little city in Scotland, where I’ve been undertaking a Masters project in Parkinson’s disease research; a condition very close to my family’s heart. This year has undoubtedly been the biggest and most exciting year of my life in strengthening my faith and love in God, and am excited to see where He leads me in the year ahead.

My message to all readers would be to begin your journey with God at whatever point of life you’re at now – it’s so easy to delay it for fear of the unknown, doubts or lack of trust – but once you start it’s a path you won’t want to stop following. Seek out your faith, read the Bible, talk to others; and be open to change. Take a risk and give God your worries, doubts, fears and joys – and let a mustard seed of faith begin to grow that He will transform. Be not afraid!