Every once in awhile, all of us run into words and terms that we’ve never heard of before. And when we hear these words, it throws us all off, because you are so busy trying to remember the word or term that you didn’t know, that you actually miss what the person is trying to say. And sometimes we have the guts to ask the person “What does that mean?”. And sometimes we don’t have the guts to ask, and we just pray that we can remember the word until you get home and can look it up in the dictionary. This can happen with lawyers. It can happen with your auto mechanic or your plumber. It can even happen with Catholic theology. We, Catholic, have words like “extreme unction” or “transubstantiation” or “deuterocanonical”, just to scare non-Catholics. That’s not true. I AM kidding. But they are scary words, aren’t they? Those words even scare most Catholics. And so they’re fun to throw around. For example, “Hey, I’ll come visit your father in the hospital and I’ll bring along a little extreme unction” – Sounds scary, doesn’t it? Or “How about meeting on Sunday morning for some transubstantiation?” Or, “Let’s get together next weekend and read some of that controversial deuterocanonical stuff.” How many people are going to have the guts to ask what those words mean, when we throw them around like we use them all the time? Probably the worst at this are the medical terms. Doctors, nurses, hospitals, even the medical shows on TV throw around terms all the time, like we’re all supposed to understand them. My favorite is on just about every “E.R.” show on Thursday nights, they use the word “rapid infuser”. It seems like, on that TV show, that whenever things are really not looking good for the patient, somebody yells for the “rapid infuser” right before they die. Let me tell you, if I’m ever in the E.R. and somebody yells for the “rapid infuser”, I hope I have time to pray an Act of Contrition before it gets there. I have no idea what a “rapid infuser” is. But it sounds bad, doesn’t it? There for awhile, anytime things would get stressful in our Parish office, and yes, sometimes things do get stressful in our Parish office, I would just love to yell for the “rapid infuser”. It sounds good. And…and… it would make me feel better.

It’s good for us to know what we’re talking about. It’s good to ask what words mean, if we don’t understand them. Quite obviously, back in the time of John the Baptist, nobody knew what Baptism was. Oh sure, there were many Jewish ceremonial washings, which were the basis for Baptism. But when all of Judea and all of Jerusalem, were talking about going out into the desert and getting Baptized by John the Baptist, Baptism was new. They had never heard of this before. Can’t you imagine the conversations: “Hey, you want to go out to the Jordan River and get Baptized with me today?” “What’s Baptism?” “I don’t know. But everybody’s doing it?” “Then let’s go!” They didn’t know what they were getting themselves into. They got out into the desert, and then John the Baptist had them. He made them aware of their sins, he reminded them of their guilt, and he got them to repent and change. And in this way, John the Baptist laid the foundation for Jesus’ ministry.

Two thousand years ago, the people that John the Baptist was talking to, were pretty clueless. John opened their eyes and helped them to see that they needed to return to God. And that’s exactly what they did in the waters of the Jordan River. John started a whole renewal movement that brought many back to God and prepared the way for Jesus. Two thousand years, are we not just as clueless as the people of Judea and Jerusalem? Sometimes, I think we are worse. We pretend that we don’t sin. We explain away our sins as “errors in judgment” or “moments of being lax” and we just love to pretend that we haven’t offended God. Guess what? We’re wrong. We are all sinners. We have broken God’s commandments – not His suggestions – His Commandments! Today, John the Baptist is talking to us when he says “Repent! Repent!” We need to understand this. We’ve got to be very clear here about what’s going. On this second Sunday of Advent, we are being warned and condemned by this wild man of the Judean desert. And today, we’ve got to do something about it.

Now is our time to return to God and make things right. And we’ve already been Baptized so what are we to do? Well, this Tuesday evening, at 7:00 PM, there’s an Advent Communal Penance Service that is taking place right here at St. Maria Goretti. Today, John the Baptist would tell each one of us that we need to be here on Tuesday evening and hit Reconciliation. Today, this is what we need to do to prepare the way for Jesus. Some Catholics haven’t been to Reconciliation for months or even years! What a missed opportunity to experience God’s love and healing. We all need to be here on Tuesday night. Hopefully, this church will be packed just like the banks of the Jordan River were two thousand years ago.

It’s what we must do to get ready. No big words. No misunderstood terms. Nothing that we can’t handle. Just the chance to get things ready for Jesus, as we await His return.

God bless us on our Second Sunday of Advent, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… AMEN !!!