2nd Sunady Advent Year C

2nd Sunday in Advent  - Prepare ye the way ( I am so tempted to sing this out at the start of the homily, “Pre-ee-pare ye the way of the Lord. Pre-ee-pare ye the way of the Lord!”)

Job-hunting! What a pain. I have spent many hours applying for jobs since I retired and many more supporting my three lads as they did the same. Part-time jobs; full-time jobs. Jobs that will stretch us; jobs that will just keep us ticking over until something better comes along.

I also worked a lot  with young people who had been out of work for a long time and coached them into looking at things – their applications – differently and to challenge themselves to change their approaches. It was hard. It was uncomfortable. But it was necessary for them to succeed.

I often told them to look carefully at feedback from their applications and to pick out the good, the bad and the ugly and to then set about doing something about this data; this feedback. But there was the rub. For in most cases they didn’t get a response never mind feedback.

Then they needed to critique their applications themselves. And this was hard. It is all too easy to get lost in focusing on ALL the bad; we become our own worst critics. It is too easy to fall into the, “Woe, woe and thrice woe OR infamy, infamy – they’ve all got it in for me” syndrome. Sorry.

Within my own work I taught people how to sit on recruitment or appointment panels. I taught them how to assess people’s good and bad points and then how to pull this assessment together in such a way that they could then give positive feedback to the applicants. They could use a “Feedback-sandwich” where they start off with something positive that they liked from the interview. They could then offer something that the person should work on for development or improvement and then finish with an overall positive. This leaves the applicant with a positive feeling from the feedback.

And it works. It works very well. It allows and keeps the applicant positive and upbeat even in the face of rejection and failure.

And so to today’s readings in which we have three very good recruiters all offering positive and constructive feedback and direction.

We have Baruch telling Jerusalem to stop wallowing in the negative and miserable and to focus on the fact that God has chosen her to be great; that God has promised to look after her to the end of time. It is this message of being a chosen people that she should concentrate on and use to build her future. He emphasises the positive to them to gain a positive outcome.

Paul echoes this message of positivity to the Philippians emphasising to them what they have achieved already and how far they have come in the taking, learning, receiving and building on the messages of the “One who began this good work in you.” He praises them and acclaims them and encourages them to continue this good work. He has a fantastic chance of success through this approach rather than shouting at them for their worries.

And then we have John – “a voice crying in the wilderness” that “all mankind shall see the salvation of God”.  At this time it would have been easier for him to bemoan the lot of the Jewish people and to tell them off for their lack of faith. But he didn’t. He didn’t. He told them that the Lord was coming. He told them that they would all see the salvation of God. He gave them hope for what happens next. He gave them energy to look forward.

He pushed them positively to change. To work together within the message of the Lord to change. To support and drive each other to and through this change. To make it that much easier for all of them to change by working positively and constructively.

And that is our feedback for this Advent. We need to change. We need to build on the positive traits that we each have and help each other with the areas of development to become better, stronger and more aligned to Christ.

Look to the services on offer – the Holy Hours each Sunday afternoon; the services of Reconciliation and most importantly the sacrament of Communion. We all need to change. We all need help to change. In the words of Cardinal Newman: “To be human is to change. To be perfect is to have changed often”.