Second Sunday of Advent - The Road Not Taken

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both


And be one traveler, long I stood


And looked down one as far as I could


To where it bent in the undergrowth;





Then took the other, as just as fair,


And having perhaps the better claim,


Because it was grassy and wanted wear;


Though as for that the passing there


Had worn them really about the same,





And both that morning equally lay


In leaves no step had trodden black,


Oh, I kept the first for another day!


Yet knowing how way leads on to way,


I doubted if I should ever come back.





I shall be telling this with a sigh


Somewhere ages and ages hence:


Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -


I took the one less traveled by,


And that has made all the difference.


(Robert Frost)





The theme for this Sunday's Mass certainly has parallels to this poem from Robert Frost. Both the first reading and the Gospel have to do with preparing and traveling on roads. The historical context of each reading provides us with a rich background for better understanding their theological meaning.


Baruch is writing to the Israelites who are in captivity in Babylon. The nation of Israel has been brought low due to its following of false gods and the injustices they commit against others. The prophet provides a message of hope by envisioning a road back to a restored Israel from their place of captivity. Baruch has no timetable for such an event; only the hope that God would someday restore his people and liberate them from outside oppression and from their sins. Following the road to Jerusalem - the road made by God - is the way of salvation.


The Gospel reading from Luke is situated within a very specific time period offered by the Evangelist. Luke reminds the readers of the oppressive times in which John the Baptist came preaching. The Jewish people were under harsh occupation by the Romans, and they suffered much at the hands of Pilate and Herod. During this time the image of the road had a specific context: only the Romans build roads, and they did so to prepare a way for their army and the coming of the Emperor's reign in a land. The Jewish readers saw these roads being built and knew what those roads brought.


Now, however, John the Baptist comes and proclaims the coming of the Messiah using the prophetic image of the road from Baruch: "Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight his path." The Lord here is not the Roman emperor but the coming Messiah. The message John preaches - and one that Luke reiterates fifty years later - is a direct challenge to the Roman occupation: the peace and salvation of Israel will not come from Roman roads but from the way of the Lord.


Jesus is the Messiah the prophets foretold and expected. If we put aside our false hopes that we put in political leaders and place that hope in Christ, we will find the blessings of the promised Messianic age. These blessings Paul prays for in the new Christian community: "that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception to discern what is of value so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God."


What road will we choose to travel upon? Will we choose the popular road of worldly expectations and political messiahs, or will we choose the road less traveled by, the road upon which Christ traveled to Calvary where we find our salvation and our hope? May our prayer be that of St. Augustine's: "Only one thing do I ask, only one thing, I say, do I desire: that you scorn not the works of your hand. Preserve me in your good work, not mine; because by looking at mine you may condemn me; looking at yours, you will give me a crown. Since whatever is good in me all comes to me from you, it is therefore more yours than mine...Through your goodness I have been saved by means of faith, not through any merit of mine, but through your gift; not in virtue of my works lest I become proud. I am your creature, fashioned by your grace together with my good works" (St. Augustine, Commentary on the Psalms, 137, 18).