2ND SUNDAY OF ADVENT YEAR B GOSPEL REFLECTION AND COMMENTARY. “HE WILL BAPTIZE YOU WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT” (Mk 1:1–8).

• 2-3 The Gospel quotes Isaiah in particular perhaps because he was the most important of the prophets who foretold the coming of the Messiah: that is why St Jerome called Isaiah the Evangelist of the Old Testament.
• 4 St John the Baptist presents himself to the people after spending five years in the desert.
  • He invites the Israelites to prepare for the coming of the Messiah by doing penance.
  • The figure of St John points to the continuity between the Old and New Testaments: he is the last of the prophets and the first of the witnesses to Jesus. Whereas the other prophets announced Jesus from afar, John the Baptist was given the special privilege of actually pointing him out (cf. Jn 1:29; Mt 11:9-11).
  • The baptism given by the Precursor was not Christian Baptism: it was a penitential rite; but it prefigured the dispositions needed for Christian Baptism — faith in Christ, the Messiah, the source of grace, and voluntary detachment from sin.
• 5 “Confessing their sins”: by seeking John’s baptism a person showed that he realized he was a sinner: the rite which John performed announced forgiveness of sins through a change of heart and helped remove obstacles in the way of a person’s acceptance of the Kingdom (Lk 3:10-14).
  • This confessing of sin was not the same as the Christian sacrament of Penance. But it was pleasing to God because it was a sign of interior repentance and the people performed genuine penitential acts (Mt 3:7-10; Lk 3:7-9).
  • In the Sacrament of Penance, in order to obtain God’s forgiveness one must confess one’s sins orally. In this connexion John Paul II has said: “And keep in mind that the teaching of the Council of Trent on the need for confession of all mortal sins still holds and will always hold (sess. XIV, chap. 5 and can. 7). The norm taught by St Paul and by the same Council of Trent, according to which the worthy reception of the Eucharist must be preceded by the confession of sins when one is conscious of mortal sin, is and always will be in force in the Church (sess. XIII, chap. 7 and can. 11)” (Address to penitentiaries of the four major basicilas in Rome, 30 January 1981).
• 8 “Baptizing with the Holy Spirit” refers to the Baptism Jesus will institute and shows how it differs from the baptism of John.
  • In John’s baptism, as in the other rites of the Old Testament, grace was only signified, symbolized.
    • “By the baptism of the New Law men are baptized inwardly by the Holy Spirit, and this is accomplished by God alone. But by the baptism of John the body alone was cleansed by the water” (St Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, III, q.38, art.2 ad 1).
  • In Christian Baptism, instituted by our Lord, the baptismal rite not only signifies grace but is the effective cause of grace, i.e. it confers grace.
    • “Baptism confers the first sanctifying grace and the supernatural virtues, taking away original sin and also personal sins if there are any, together with the entire debt of punish­ment which the baptized person owes for sin. In addition, Baptism impresses the Christian character in the soul and makes it able to receive the other sacraments” (St Pius X, Catechism of Christian Doctrine, 295).
    • The effects of Christian Bap­tism, like everything to do with the sanctification of souls, are attributed to the Holy Spirit, the “Sanctifier.” It should be pointed out, however, that like all the ad extra actions of God (i.e. actions external to the intimate life of the Blessed Trinity), the sanctification of souls is the work of all three Divine Persons.

In today’s gospel reading (Mark 1:1-8), the evangelist Mark cites the prophet Isaiah, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” (Isaiah 40:3) Advent is, indeed, the time to prepare ourselves to be worthy of receiving our Lord and be recipients of His gifts.In the first reading (Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11), the following verses guide us in our preparation. First, “Every valley shall be lifted up.”