Make Straight The Way of The Lord

On the third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, the Gospel reading during that Mass is from John 1:

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John 1:19 This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” 22 Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said.

24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands One whom you do not know, 27 the One who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of His sandal.” 28 This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

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John the Baptist is quoting from the prophet Isaiah. It comes from Isaiah 40, and the entire chapter is worth reading, but interspersed in this post will be verses from this chapter.

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Isaiah 40:1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice of one calling:

“In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

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We hear this said multiple times every year, but have you taken the time to really ponder what it means to “make straight the way of the Lord”?

The obvious answer is to clear out the path for Our Lord and welcome God as He arrives. The passage mentions that valleys will be raised and hills lowered. Rough places shall be made level and smooth for travel. Travel at this time was mostly by foot and people walked where they were going. But we are talking about Our Lord who is also our King. Royalty travelled with an entire company of people; from soldiers, officers, supplies, court officials, and a hundred other people to attend to the King. So travel for these large royal caravans was difficult. A small group of people walking can travel through rough country. But a caravan of chariots, wagons, soldiers, weapons, supplies and everything else needed wide lanes to travel. If passages were rocky or narrow, they were very tough to traverse. If there was a steep elevation change, it made travel with wagons and chariots difficult. So both prophets are telling us to make it easy and accessible for Our Lord to arrive.

Another thing to remember is that roads surrounding a city were guarded and defended by the people of that city. They set up guard posts and watchmen to keep a lookout for any approaching armies. They installed defensive measures and traps to slow down and hinder any army that might approach. These blockades or traps would allow extra time for the city to prepare for the arriving army.

So when the prophets tell us to “make straight the path of the Lord”, they are telling us to not only smooth out the road leading to our city, but also to pull out and lower our defenses for the King who is arriving. So how should we do that? Let’s come back to that in just one minute.

Going back to Isaiah 40, the rest of the chapter serves as multiple prophecies about the arrival of Christ at varying moments in history. (When a verse from the OT is cited, they are not just reminding everyone of that verse, but the entire chapter it came from.) He arrives to us at His birth in the Nativity. He arrives to mankind for His public ministry at His baptism by John the Baptist. He arrives to us in His entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He arrives to all mankind in the Eucharist every single day at Mass. And He will arrive triumphantly to the entire cosmos at His Second Coming at the Final Judgment.

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Isaiah 40:9 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10 See, the Lord God comes with might, and His arm rules for Him; His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him. 11 He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs in His arms, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

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Note that it is a message of hope and good news, but also a warning. Our Lord is coming with His reward for those who love Him, but He ALSO comes with His recompense for those who do not love Him.

So how can we smooth out the road and lower our defenses for Our Lord? Obviously this is a spiritual process, since John the Baptist was baptizing people with a baptism of repentance. So we must repent. We need to go to Confession and say an Act of Contrition regularly. We must do acts of penance and prayer to clear out the sin and wickedness in our souls. We must clean out all that is unholy in ourselves by relying upon Christ’s grace in the sacraments and through prayer. We need to always look to keep ourselves holy, as this is not a one time event. Every day we must pick up our cross and follow Him.

We also must fill our souls with God Himself, because as Christ warned, a house that is cleaned out but left empty and unguarded is ripe for demonic possession. We must not only clean out our souls, but fill them with Christ and His grace. We must receive the Eucharist and the other sacraments with a holy and humble spirit. We must learn about Our Lord and His Catholic faith through reading of Scripture and the saints.

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Matthew 12:43 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but it finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation.”

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Just look at the entry of Our Lord into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as an example of preparing the way of the Lord. They people cleared the road and entrance for Him and they laid down palm branches to give a clean entry for Him over the dirty roads. We should prepare ourselves constantly to be ready for His arrival at every Mass. This should also be a warning because those same people shouting “Hosanna in the highest” and laying down palm branches on Sunday, were crying out “Crucify Him” just a few days later.

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Isaiah 40:28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. 30 Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; 31 but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

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Matthew 21:1 When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” 4 This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,

5 “Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your King is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and He sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of Him and that followed were shouting,

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

10 When He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”