The Advent Desert
A repost from last year about the figure of St. John the Baptist and the desert. The second Sunday of Advent presents to us t he figure of St. John the Baptist as the ‘voice’ which cries out in the desert. It is a solitary voice. However John knows that he is the one who prepares the way and continues with this certitude. In the Year of Faith opening Mass homily, Pope Benedict spoke of the “desertification” of the world, and of the rampant godlessness that surrounds us. “But it is in starting from the experience of this desert, from this void, that we can again discover the joy of believing, its vital importance for us, men and women. In the desert we rediscover the value of what is essential for living; thus in today’s world there are innumerable signs, often expressed implicitly or negatively, of the thirst for God, for the ultimate meaning of life. And in the desert people of faith are needed who, with their own lives, point out the way to the Promised Land and keep hope aliv...