Is 40: 1-5.9-11; Ps 84 (85); 2 Pt 3.8-14; Mk 1.18

The image of the thief recurs in the New Testament to allude to the coming of the Son of man and to his day, which we do not know. On this Sunday we hear it from the second letter of Peter, but it is present in the synoptic tradition, in the Pauline letters, in the Apocalypse. A paradoxical thief, who comes to give rather than take away, even if, in order to receive his gift, we must still be willing to let something take away: what is not essential to our life, or the false images of God that we are drawn to, the idols with which we fill our existence and our time. The coming of the Lord, Isaiah announces, opens ways even in the desert: it raises valleys, lowers mountains and hills, smooths the rough terrain, transforms the steep terrain into a valley. This is a work to do on oneself: to raise what in us is conditioned by fears and laziness, to lower the heights of proud and self-referential attitudes, to eliminate harshness, harshness, angularity, and so on. The way of the desert crosses the heart of each one of us. It is necessary to live this commitment, however, with the awareness witnessed by the Baptist: there is something that we can and must do, the fruit of a baptism of penance and conversion, while maintaining that there is a fulfilment that only He who comes can give us, with his baptism in the Spirit.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey