Fr. Roger J. Landry
Chapel of the Notre Dame Center, Jerusalem
Leonine Forum Pilgrimage to the Holy Land
Second Sunday of Advent, Year C (Vigil)
December 4, 2021
Bar 5:1-9, Ps 126, Phil 1:4-6.8-11, Lk 3:1-6
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following points were attempted in the homily:
- Tonight, at this vigil Mass for the Second Sunday of Advent and the final Mass of our pilgrimage together to the Holy Land, we make our own the words of the Psalm, “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy!” We are filled with joy that we were able to come, despite the many challenges of the pandemic. We are filled with joy at all we have been able to see, and hear, and touch and experience: The Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Caesarea Philippi, the Mount of the Beatitudes, Mount Tabor, Nazareth, Cana, Taghba, the Church of Peter’s Primacy, the Jordan River, Jericho, the Dead Sea, Masada, Ein Karim, Bethlehem, Emmaus, three Mass in the Tomb of Jesus and a Mass on Calvary and so much more here in Jerusalem. We are filled with joy for the new friendships we’ve made with each other. The Lord has indeed done great things for us. We’re filled with joyful gratitude for our awesome guide Rami Munayer and for our amazing driver Hamad. And we’re filled with joy for so many graces given to us by the Lord himself whose footsteps we have been following, whose words we’ve been pondering, whose call we’ve been hearing and recommitting to keeping.
- Sometimes on the last day of a great pilgrimage there’s some bittersweet feelings. Sure we’re filled with joy at what God has given, but we are like Peter on Mount Tabor trying to build a booth to keep the experience going. We’re a little afraid that the graces we’ve received are like a burning taper in the wind that is going to be hard to protect upon our return. That’s why St. Paul’s words to us in the second reading are such a consolation. “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” What God has given us here is just a down payment on the graces in store. As I’ve been saying throughout this pilgrimage, we’re just getting started. God is just getting started. He will continue to accompany us moving ahead. Every earthly pilgrimage is meant to help us on the pilgrimage of life following Jesus’ footsteps not here to the earthly Jerusalem but to the heavenly Jerusalem. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, will continue to call us to follow him to the eternal sheepfold. We need to continue to live the virtues of this pilgrimage, the virtues we talked about in our first Mass together, to stand up and lift up our heads to him, to be vigilant and pray, and not to succumb to carousing and drunkenness.
- But I’d like to give a few pieces of advice to keep the great things the Lord has given us not just alive but growing.
- In the Gospel, St. John the Baptist, whose message we pondered at the Jordan, reminds us to continue to prepare the way of the Lord, to make straight the paths for the Lord to come deeply into our life, to fill in the valleys of religious minimalism or shallow prayer, to level the mountains of our pride, to make winding and rough roads straight and smooth. Here we’ve lived a different set of priorities. We’ve been less dependent on our devices. We’ve been much more attentive to prayer, to Sacred Scripture, to communion with our companions on the journey, even to getting up early and awaking the dawn. God wants to complete the good work he’s begun. And so I’d urge you to continue to make time for prayer like you have here. To keep in touch with your fellow pilgrims and nourish the friendships that have begun here or been deepened. To share the fruits of what God has given you here with others, because it is by passing things on that they become more deeply part of us. We know that the devil is going to be doing everything he can to get us to squander the great things the Lord has done. Let’s be alert to it and stay closer to Christ and keep the habits of a pilgrim.
- The best way of all, of course, is through daily Mass, where we encounter in the flesh and blood, the same Lord whose footsteps we have been following here. Jesus has made a tabernacle in us as we talked about on Tabor. Risen from the dead, he enters into us every Mass. We have had the privilege to receive him throughout this journey, sometimes twice in a day. The great means by which he can perfect the work he has started, and to fill us with joy, is to make a daily pilgrimage to meet him at the altar, to listen to his words that will come alive after our days here, and to receive him body, blood, soul and divinity. The greatest means to make straight the path for him is to eliminate what prevents us from attending daily Mass. As we prepare to receive him today, we thank him anew. He has indeed done great things in us. And he’s just getting started!
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading I
Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery;
put on the splendor of glory from God forever:
wrapped in the cloak of justice from God,
bear on your head the mitre
that displays the glory of the eternal name.
For God will show all the earth your splendor:
you will be named by God forever
the peace of justice, the glory of God’s worship.
Up, Jerusalem! stand upon the heights;
look to the east and see your children
gathered from the east and the west
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that they are remembered by God.
Led away on foot by their enemies they left you:
but God will bring them back to you
borne aloft in glory as on royal thrones.
For God has commanded
that every lofty mountain be made low,
and that the age-old depths and gorges
be filled to level ground,
that Israel may advance secure in the glory of God.
The forests and every fragrant kind of tree
have overshadowed Israel at God’s command;
for God is leading Israel in joy
by the light of his glory,
with his mercy and justice for company.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (3) The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Then they said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those who sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Reading II
Brothers and sisters:
I pray always with joy in my every prayer for all of you,
because of your partnership for the gospel
from the first day until now.
I am confident of this,
that the one who began a good work in you
will continue to complete it
until the day of Christ Jesus.
God is my witness,
how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And this is my prayer:
that your love may increase ever more and more
in knowledge and every kind of perception,
to discern what is of value,
so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness
that comes through Jesus Christ
for the glory and praise of God.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,
and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region
of Ituraea and Trachonitis,
and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,
during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,
the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.
John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
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