Posted by Paul Edwards (Fr. Paul) on Nov 24, 2011 | Comments (0)


Advent II Mark 1:1-8. “There comes one mightier.”

According to Strong’s “Concordance” the Greek word “ischyros” for “mightier” means “one who has strength of soul to sustain the attacks of Satan.”

In this Scripture we center in on who is John the Baptist. His mission was to prepare the way of the Lord, to make straight in the desert the highway for our God. What are we talking about? Are we talking about a physical desert, and highway or a spiritual one? If we are spending time on a physical desert and highway what will come out of that today?

Think of a spiritual desert time in your life. What were some of the marks? There was the need for real spiritual not metaphorically physical water. We are dry and burned up. The hot sun of worries, fear, anger, guilt, burns pain into our souls. We are lost with no way out. We need a highway. We need to realize we are in the desert and in need of a highway. The desert is the world we see physically with our rational mind. We are seeking to find happiness in this physical world. We seek happiness, joy and Peace and love. It looks good at times but mostly the events we see are a mirage. When we get close suddenly the good times seem to disappear.

There are relationships that have started in love and trust. They have fallen apart in anger hurt and delusion. What happens to make it so? We are depending on something other than God to give us what God has already given. We are depending on someone else to give us a love that is already with us. We try to love others so we can be loved. When they do not respond the way we expect them, we become hurt. Rather than being able to return love, we return the hurt with anger. We fill our heart with anger and create a desert within us. We stay in this desert looking for a non-existent higher event to make something right that never can be made right. We need to get out of the desert. We need to seek the might that John was telling us about, The might of the soul.

When we are in the Presence of God’s Love we become loving people. Outside of God's love, trying to love others without experiencing God’s Love in us burns us out. Where is the highway that is the way out? The way is in, not out. We need to find what we are looking for inside, not outside ourselves. We do not have to build the highway. We have tried that and it did not work. We need to prepare the way for the Highway of the Lord. We do this by moving from the rational head to the conscious heart. We do it, not by thinking our way out rationally. We do it by consciously sensing inwardly an open heart that will let the highway in. A conscious act is not thinking rationally. It is wondering consciously. It needs to be done first to be proven. We need to know the difference being out and being in the Presence of God’s Peace can make. We know how it is out of the Presence and in the desert. Now wonder what it is like in the Presence and out of the desert. Once we experience this Peace we become peaceful. We also will discover a Wisdom that transforms the desert into a new and different place. “There comes one mightier than I”.


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