2nd Sunday of Advent [B]

 


SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT [B]


If you are not already looking ahead, these readings will motivate you to concentrate on the future, on what’s yet to unfold. It seems that these readings would have some appeal for a figure like St. Philip Neri (1515-1595, Italy). Serving as an ordained priest and a religious superior, he was the kind of person that you would seek out as a spiritual director. His memoirs record him conversing with a young man who’s feeling rather good about himself. He has his life mapped out, comprehensively: studying law; starting a practice; gaining a reputation; living a life of ease. As each phase is being listed off, St. Philip Neri responds by inquiring: And then what? 


This extends the conversation further than would have been anticipated. The young man is being led into territory that has not yet been charted. What he regarded as a complete picture is now being exposed as simply a series of fleeting episodes. The saint’s approach continually begs the question of what might follow? The young man eventually comes to realize that his mapping project included everything but the Lord. The phases outlined: they reach only so far. They stop short of tapping that fundamental core of the human person. These phases form a picture that can only be described as incomplete. 


Deep down, we desire something more than just a degree, a career, a comfortable life. We desire something more than a satisfied stomach; what we really crave is a satisfied soul. We desire sanctification. We desire a sense of fulfillment that penetrates beyond the superficial. We look to whatever it is that will complete the picture. Or rather, WHO it is that will finally complete the picture. John freely admits: I am not the answer (Mark 1:7-8). The answer is the Lord,  according to the prophet Isaiah (40:1-11). 


St. Peter adds one more critical detail: the Lord has a desire of his own; he wants to complete the picture for every single person on this planet (2nd Peter 3:9). This means the person on your left, the person on your right, and also you yourself. God wants you to experience that ultimate level of satisfaction, that ultimate level of completeness. He doesn’t want anybody to miss out or to fall through the cracks. The primary difference is that God understands what it is that he wants. The point of the St. Philip story is that, all too often, we fail to understand just what it is that we really want—what we want, deep down at the core of our being. 

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