Moments of Clarity: Reflection for the Second Sunday of Advent

by Fr. Earl A.P. Valdez

“Gets ko na!” (I get it!) We commonly say this when we come to understand something clearly, that we have gotten or grasped the idea or reason behind things that we do or things that happen to us. This is, after all, what it means to truly understand something, that unless we have a hold, whether fully or partially, of something that was previously incomprehensible for us, we cannot say that we have truly understood. 

However, when it comes to understanding things that matter in our life, they become “moments of clarity” for us. When we come to see the sense of the things that happened to us in the past which became important in the present, or of the reason why people act in a certain manner with or around us, things become “clear,” as if we are seeing the point of these experiences. And consequently, these moments of clarity seem to enable us to live differently, in such a way that life becomes more meaningful. 

The readings for this Sunday reflect several moments of clarity in the history of our faith and salvation, but these are moments that were foretold at one point, and fulfilled in another.

In the first reading, we see Israel’s expression of longing for the one whom the Lord will send to His beloved people. They look forward to the one in whom the Lord’s spirit dwells, who judges justly, and will bring the peace that they longed for. And in a way, this was a moment of clarity for them, that as a people, somebody who comes in the name of the Lord should gather them together after having been torn apart as a Kingdom by subsequent invasions and conflicts even among themselves. 

Apparently, when that moment came, there were those who were not able to see it in the person of Our Lord Jesus Christ. After all, who would believe that the son of a carpenter coming from a humble town was the one that the Lord actually sent? And yet, there was one who had seen clearly: John the Baptist. His preaching came from a moment of clarity, and this directed his way of life and his preaching to the people.

The Baptism of Christ by Domenico Ghirlandaio

His knowledge of the Lord’s promise became the message of his life, and he understood what he was saying with so much conviction and hope, sure of the fact that the Lord will come, and that his task was to prepare the way for Him. 

There may be some of us whose clarity in life is manifest in our strong sense of purpose and in the convictions that we have in our lives. But for most of us, we have yet to seek the answers to most of life’s questions: resolving our conflicts and traumas, coming to terms with our identity and purpose, or perhaps more commonly, finding the means just to be able to live. In us, there lies a need for answers, and rarely do they come in a clear and obvious manner. 

Advent is a reminder that we need these moments of clarity, but they do not come in the way that we expect them to be. Thus, in our search for them, we continue to hope, not for them to just drop from the heavens, but to be revealed to us by the Lord in our everyday experience and in our experience of growth with and for Him.

Just like the people of Israel, and just like John the Baptist, the Lord invites us to walk with Him and allow Him to lead us to these moments of clarity that would lead us to who and where we should be.

And once we arrive at that point, like John the Baptist, it becomes the defining moment of our lives that leads us closer to the Lord who walks with us. 

After all, He is the God of “endurance and encouragement,” in the words of St. Paul, which calls us to welcome one another and live in solidarity as a people who search for clarity and purpose in our lives as a community of faith. In the end, we then find this clarity in the star that shines brightly in Jerusalem, the one that leads us to Christ and to live like Him who bears a clear purpose in His life as the One whom the Lord sent.