The Gospel reading for the Second Sunday of Advent continues the theme of waiting and preparing for the coming of the Son of Man.  John the Baptist heralds the coming of Jesus into our midst and urges us to prepare a way for the Lord. 

As we reflect on the reading we can identify with John the Baptist, when we or others we know have been like him – simple, humble, yet confident in delivering a message, who have spoken to us when we were in the wilderness bringing us comfort and healing so that we can welcome the Lord into our hearts.

I think of the many great leaders and writers, modern day prophets, who have imparted values and alternative, creative ways of thinking and acting – Mohandass Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Walter Rodney, Mother Teresa, Lloyd Best, Angela Cropper, Hazel Brown.

They exhort us by their words and action to challenge the wilderness of the world we encounter, to change it, to transform it, “to prepare a way for the Lord, to make his paths straight”.

Lloyd Best challenged us always to put country first, root our economy in the culture of our peoples, he reminded us that our communities are full of innovators and thinkers who have the solutions to take our country out of the high dependence on non-renewable energy resources – alas a voice who cried in the wilderness.

Hazel Brown, one of our contemporaries, continues to challenge our society to come to terms with gender discrimination. Her recent local campaign to “Put a Women” – part of the UN’s campaign on increasing women’s representation in our Parliaments seem to be bearing fruit.

Ms Brown’s simple lifestyle, constant lobbying on environmental and other social issues constantly reminds me of John the Baptist – a voice crying in the wilderness and often times persecuted.

The programme with which I work funds projects by community groups who are seeking to change the wilderness reality in their communities – the provision of homework and supervision centres for children, especially those who are at risk for lack of proper supervision at home, agriculture projects to teach people to fish, sporting and cultural projects to engage the restlessness of youth.

All of these people and projects are creative responses as we wait and prepare for the Lord and make his paths straight. They are prophets telling us to relax, despite our loneliness, despair and feelings of abandonment; God will reveal himself to us.

The passage also leads us to reflect on the humility of John the Baptist. As community leaders, social activists, development workers, yes, even managers of large corporations and businesses, we are challenged to understand that our work is fulfilling a higher purpose, that in fact it is God’s work.

We understand others who are more powerful than us will follow and like John recognise that while we baptise with water, there is one who is coming who will baptise with fire and the Holy Spirit.

Lord we pray for those who bring the gospel message to others experiencing wilderness moments in their lives – drug abusers, widows, alcoholics, prisoners, persons with disabilities, the homeless.

Like John the Baptist, we will do it in humility; we will wear the garments of the prophet and nourish ourselves with simple knowledge of our culture where many of the solutions to our problems lie, knowing that there are others who will be more powerful than us.

Help us to be content to baptise in water, confident that others who follow us will baptise with fire and the Holy Spirit.

Gospel Meditations for December are by Gary Tagallie of the parish of St Philip &St James, Chaguanas. The Programme Manager of the Poverty Reduction programme of the Ministry of Social Development, Gary and his wife Sheila Maria are the parents of four young children.