Walking In Peace

Imagining Sunday’s Gospel

Click here for the readings for the second Sunday in Advent 2023

This week we go right to the beginning of St Mark’s Gospel and a quote from what Mark identifies as Isaiah but is really a combination of Malachi, Isaiah and Exodus. Mark then moves on to introduce John the Baptist. Matthew on the other hand, begins with the genealogy of Jesus starting from Abraham. Luke begins with the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist and John’s Gospel, after his prologue also begins with John the Baptist.

So, at the beginning of each Gospel except for Matthew we get a taste of John the Baptist as the forerunner of Jesus. 

John the Baptist is certainly an interesting character, with his preaching of repentance and baptisms to his clothing (camel’s hair-which I imagine is not too comfortable). His diet consists of locust and wild honey. Wild Honey was an interesting love song from The Beach Boys in 1967, equating the love of a woman to wild honey collected by bees.

Honey is mentioned throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Most often in the description of the promised land as the “land of milk and honey”. The Hebrew word for honey could be seen as the drippings from dates or grapes as well. Deuteronomy makes reference to honey that is stored on rock crevasse and covered with a wax made by the bees.

As John the Baptist was fed by God as part of his diet with honey, we too are fed by God in the Eucharist where we get a taste of heaven. Reawaken your prayer life through the eucharist.