Whenever any world leader is coming to visit, there is always going to be an advance team. If the president is coming to town, the week before you’re likely going to see the secret service. The advance team is there to make sure everything goes smoothly when the leader arrives. They do the hidden work that facilitates the success of the leader’s visit. Today we get to ponder one of the great saints, the one who was empowered by the Spirit of the Lord to be the advance team for Jesus’ coming: our good friend St. John the Baptist. Even when he was still in his mother Elizabeth’s womb, his father, Zechariah, was empowered to proclaim: “You, My child shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His way.” What an awesome privilege he had! St. John the Baptist was not only fulfilling his father’s prophetic words, but also the words of the great prophets Isaiah and Baruch, who both spoke of a coming time where the mountains would be made low and the valleys filled in to welcome the coming of the Lord. This job of leveling out the mountains and valleys for Jesus’ coming was a specialty of St. John the Baptist.
We all experience advance teams of our own in our lives, people who help us to welcome the coming of the Lord in a deeper way. I have two such people on my mind and heart this Second Sunday of Advent.
The first advance team person I’m thinking of is Fr. Larry Richards. Fr. Larry was an early adopter of social media, so I became aware of him as a college student in the early 2000’s. I appreciated his zeal and his ability to communicate the truths of our faith in a convincing and challenging way. His preaching really had an impact on me. So you can imagine my excitement as a young priest when I heard that Fr. Larry was coming to St. Brendan parish, where I was then assigned, to give a parish mission. I was going to be able to meet a celebrity priest as a brother priest!
When he came to St. Brendan for the parish mission, Fr. Larry was a gracious guest and very enjoyable to meet in person. But one thing you have to know about Fr. Larry is that he is a Pittsburgh man. He was born and raised there and has an edge to him. He’s not afraid to call you out if he thinks he needs to and he always tells it like it is. This is why people love Fr. Larry. So there were were at the parish mission and Fr. Larry is trying to make a point about the importance of being bold in our faith and he puts forward a hypothetical scenario. He says, “Imagine there is someone busting into the church with a gun asking who is willing to die for their faith today.” Then, very unexpectedly, Fr. Larry turns to me and says, “Fr. Tom, you would be willing to stand up to this guy, right?” And I replied, “I hope so!” Obviously, this was not the strong, confident answer Fr. Larry was expecting. He proceeded to give me a hard time about it for the next several talks he gave at that mission. He would say, “Yeah, Fr. Tom HOPES he’ll have the courage to defend the faith.” Everyone knew he was kidding, including me. But his ribbing reminded me that I needed to grow in fortitude, that gift of the Holy Spirit I have through my Baptism. I think before the end of the mission, Fr Larry gave me a chance to redeem myself. I am glad, though, for his challenge to me as a Pittsburgh man. He humbled me. And all of us need those humbling moments in our lives, those reminders that we don’t have it all figured out, that we aren’t as smart, strong, or brave as we think we are. Being humbled allows those mountains of pride in our hearts to be made low, making the way for the Lord’s coming more deeply. Thanks to the “advance team” member, Fr Larry, that mountain of false courage was brought low in me!
Another “advance team” person in my life was one of the young people I served as a counselor at Catholic Youth Summer Camp, CSYC for short. I was blessed to spend a week there as a counselor almost every summer during my time in Seminary. In case you’ve never heard of CYSC, it is a weeklong Catholic overnight camp for middle and high schoolers. During the day, they participate in high adventure activities like paintball, ziplining, and rock climbing. Then in the evenings they have what they call Club, which is a gathering of all the campers where they see skits, hear talks, and participate in adoration, praise and worship, and other prayer times. It is awesome to see how the Lord works in the lives of young people during their week at Camp.
One prayer time in particular stands out in my own walk with the Lord. As much as the campers grew in faith during their time at CYSC, we did as their counselors, too. As a counselor, I was assigned a small group of about 8 young men that I spent the whole week with–going to activities during the day and praying with at Club during the evenings. The final summer I was at CYSC as a counselor I was a transitional deacon, preparing to be ordained a priest in less than a year. To be honest, I was tired. Going into my sixth year of seminary and facing the writing of a huge master’s thesis, I was just ready for it to be over. In that spirit of weariness, I came to an evening where we had the opportunity to pray over each other and ask for a deeper outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It was beautiful to pray over these young men and see the ways that they were praying boldly for each other and encouraging each other in the faith. Then they prayed over me. I humbly asked them to pray for an increase in energy for the coming year. I’ll never forget the prayer of one of my campers. As he laid hands on me, he said something along the lines of, “Lord, I pray that you give Dcn. Tom a fireball of energy!” It was a silly prayer, but an honest one. And I can legitimately say that his prayer helped me in that moment and throughout that last year of seminary. When I was feeling overwhelmed, the Lord gave me that fiery grace from the Holy Spirit when I needed it most. His prayer in that moment filled in that valley of weakness in my heart that was keeping me from approaching my daily work with the energy that God can give, rather than my own. His goofy, but bold prayer helped to bring me into a deeper relationship with the Holy SPirit. Years later, I still think of his fireball prayer. I’m grateful to that young man for being an advance team member for Jesus’ coming to me in a deeper way through the fire of the Spirit.
Each of us needs people who can be those advance team members for us, those ones who prepare our hearts to welcome the Lord more fully. Sometimes, their cooperation with God will help them to challenge us. Our hearts, in their pride, need challengers like Fr. Larry to bring down those mountains. Other times, the advance team God sends us brings us comfort, like that camper at CYSC. In those valleys of our weakness, our hearts long for a comforting word, maybe even a word about a fireball, which can fill in those valleys.
In the first reading today we heard from the prophet Baruch. This reading ended with this beautiful line: “for God is leading Israel in joy by the light of his glory, with his mercy and justice for company.” God’s mercy and justice are both necessary in our walk. We need his justice to knock us down when our pride blocks his light and joy from shining in us. We need his mercy when those valleys of weakness make us discouraged and unwilling to look for His joy. In both these cases, people come to us as advance teams for Jesus’ coming in us. They come as messengers of God’s justice and mercy.
I invite you to think about those who have been “advance team” people for you. Thank God for them today. Also, I challenge you to ask Jesus, “Who are you sending me to as an advance team member?” You never know how your words and example, like that of St. John the Baptist, can prepare someone else’s heart to receive the Lord.
+ Heavenly Father, thank you for those who you have sent us to prepare the way of the Lord in our hearts. Jesus, help us to be the messengers of mercy and justice that our brothers and sisters need. Holy Spirit, enflame our hearts with a fireball of your energy to witness to the joy of the Gospel. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. +