Parents often make a great effort to find a particular present that their child wants for Christmas. It doesn’t seem ridiculous for the parents, if it is done out of love for their child. The gift in time may be forgotten, abandoned at the back of a cupboard, but the love shown in the gift will never be lost. If the parents cannot find the special present then the child may be disappointed, but the disappointment will not last for ever. The promise parents make to a child doesn’t depend on providing that special present, but upon doing their best for their child by constantly loving the child. This is the greatest gift a child can be given, and without this all other gifts are empty signs.

God our Father is the loving parent who never withdraws His love from us. If we turn away from God’s love, we look for things to replace that love. We search for other presents, other presences, which we think will bring us the joy we long for. We become like a child who mistakes a Christmas present for the love expressed in the present. A child will grow in maturity be recognizing that the most important thing is not the present, but the love of the giver. As children of God, human beings had turned away from God’s love and sought other things to replace that love. Like Mary we are invited to welcome this gift that prevent us from saying yes to God’s gift, those things with which we try to replace God’s love.

The readings today proclaim joy in the near presence of God. Yet each is set against a background that militates against joyful expectation. The book of Zephaniah was written in the 7th BC at a time when Israel was surrounded by hostile nations. The call to rejoice because the Lord is in the midst of His people is almost unexpected, as it is in contrast with everything preceding it. St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians was written when he was in prison because of his missionary work. In Philippi he had established his first European church and he called the community there “my joy and my crown”. Though he is imprisoned and facing the possibility of execution, joy and peace are prominent in the latter, culminating in St. Paul’s wish for their happiness in the Lord and for the peace of God that is beyond our comprehension while on earth. When John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness and called the people to prepare a way for the Lord, and to a baptism of repentance, they were under Roman occupation with a Roman procurator and a Jewish subordinate ruler, Herod. The tax collectors had bought their positions from the Roman authorities. The soldiers gave armed protection to the tax collectors. They were in need of some protection for they were hated by both Jews and Gentiles alike, not least because many abused their authority. The people are attracted to John and his message. They go to him for baptism, and all, tax collectors and soldiers included, ask what they must do. He answers that they must act justly towards others.

From readings we see John the Baptist, Paul and Zephaniah dispelled oppressing darkness with the light that shone from God’s nearness. The Christmas trees with their glimmering candles and other decorations, which now illumine the period leading to the celebration of our Savior’s birth, can be seen as symbolizing that same light of that same light of God’s near presence among us. May we never forget that the Lord is in our midst. Christ, the Morning Star, will dispel our darkness.

The name “Baruch” heads the book from which today’s reading is taken, and there is a reasonably well-known Baruch in the Old Testament – the secretary to the prophet Jeremiah. It’s highly unlikely, however, that this Baruch wrote all of this very short book. Perhaps this Baruch wrote part of the book, but it looks as if today’s first reading came from a different source. Today’s passage shows every sign of having been written a considerable time after the exile, because the author refers to, but doesn’t directly quote, a famous passage from the part of the book of Isaiah that was written towards the end of the Israelites’ time in exile. This is, of course, the passage applied to John the Baptist in today’s Gospel.

The beauty of prophetic, poetic images in the Bible is that they allow us to apply our own understanding of what they mean to our lives. It would be unhelpful to offer a detailed list of all the ways in which we could apply the references to mountains and valleys in our lives. Those mountains of Baruch, Isaiah and John the Baptist could represent anything that blocks our awareness of God in our lives. We have to identify these for ourselves. Likewise, the valleys might represent the gulf that exists either between ourselves and God, or between ourselves and other people. Mountains and valleys might be a good way of expressing what we need to get rid of, if we are to love God with all our energy, and our neighbors as ourselves.