6 December 2026 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”” Mark 1:7–8
Isaiah 40 opens the “Book of Consolation”. After decades of exile God speaks tenderly: “Comfort, O comfort my people… Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.” The punishment is over; a road is to be built in the desert for God to lead his people home; valleys raised, mountains lowered. And the God who comes is a Shepherd who “will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom”.
Mark begins his Gospel with no birth story. Its first words are a title: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Then he quotes Isaiah and Malachi, and John the Baptist appears in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People come from all Judea and Jerusalem, confessing their sins. John points away from himself: “The one who is more powerful than I is coming… he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Peter's letter explains the delay of the Lord's return: “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years… The Lord is not slow about his promise… but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” God's patience is time given for conversion. So: “Since you are waiting for these, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish.” Advent is the time to straighten the crooked road of our hearts.
Theme: “Prepare the way of the Lord.”
God comforts; repentance prepares the road; John points to Christ who baptises with the Spirit.
“Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.” Isaiah 40:1–2
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
Apply: Speak tenderly to someone who is discouraged.
“A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”” Isaiah 40:3
“John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Mark 1:4
Apply: Make an Advent Confession.
“He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.” Isaiah 40:11
“He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”” Mark 1:7–8
Apply: Do one good deed without seeking credit.
God's patience is time for conversion.
Prepare the road; the King is coming.
Take-home resolution: Begin the conversion you have postponed.
Dear brothers and sisters, today the prophet Isaiah begins with a beautiful word: “Comfort, O comfort my people.” After years of exile, God's first word is not anger but tenderness.
And then a voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord.” Every valley lifted up, every mountain made low. In ancient times roads were repaired before a king's visit. Isaiah says: God himself is coming; prepare his road!
Mark begins his Gospel with John the Baptist in the desert. People come from everywhere, confessing their sins and being baptised in the Jordan. That is how the road is prepared: not with decorations but with repentance.
What are the mountains in us? Pride, stubbornness, the refusal to forgive. What are the valleys? Discouragement, laziness, the feeling that I can never change. Advent asks us to bring both to God. Confession is the bulldozer that levels the road!
And John points away from himself: “One more powerful than I is coming… he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” A true Christian is like John: a finger pointing to Jesus.
St Peter tells us why the Lord seems to delay: “The Lord is not slow about his promise, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish.” This Advent is God's patience with us. Let us not waste it. Make a good Confession. Comfort someone who is low. And prepare the road for the King.
Children, when an important guest is coming, what do we do? We clean the house!
John the Baptist told the people: Jesus is coming; clean your hearts!
How do we clean our hearts? By saying sorry to God in Confession, and sorry to people we have hurt.
This week, say sorry to someone and make them smile!
Almighty and merciful God, may no earthly undertaking hinder those who set out in haste to meet your Son, but may our learning of heavenly wisdom gain us admittance to his company. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
This Sunday all four readings speak about a road. In Isaiah a voice calls for a highway in the desert, so that God may lead his exiled people home. The psalm says that righteousness will go before the Lord and “make a path for his steps”. Second Peter explains why the road seems so long: God's delay is his patience. Mark opens his Gospel with the same voice from Isaiah, now in the mouth of John the Baptist at the Jordan. The key words are comfort, way and repentance. God is on his way to us, and the road he asks us to level runs through our own hearts.
Setting.
Chapters 40–55 of Isaiah, often called the Book of Consolation, speak to the Jews in exile in Babylon, in the years before Cyrus of Persia took the city (539 BC) and allowed them to go home. Jerusalem and its Temple had been destroyed in 587 BC, and a generation had grown up in a foreign land. These chapters are generally attributed to a later prophet in the tradition of Isaiah, and the Church receives them as part of the one inspired book.
Today's verses are the opening of that message. It seems that the prophet overhears God's heavenly council giving orders: speak, cry out, build, climb. The Lectionary omits vv. 6–8, on the grass that withers and the word that stands forever.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.” (40:1)
“My people” and “your God” are the words of the covenant. After the exile the relationship still stands.
“A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (40:3)
In the Hebrew, the wilderness is where the road is to be built. The Greek Old Testament joins the words differently, “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness”, and that is how Mark quotes it. Babylon was famous for its Processional Way for the god Marduk. Isaiah imagines a far greater road, across the desert, for the living God.
“Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together” (40:5)
The return from exile is more than a local event. In the Hebrew the phrase is “all flesh”: the whole human race is the audience.
“Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”” (40:9)
Zion, who sat in mourning, now climbs and shouts. The whole Advent message fits into four words: Here is your God.
“He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.” (40:11)
The arm that “rules” in v. 10 is the same arm that carries the lambs in v. 11. Power and tenderness are one in God. Jesus takes up this image for himself (John 10:11).
How the Church reads it.
All four Gospels apply Isaiah 40:3 to John the Baptist (Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23). Origen, preaching on Luke, says that this road is to be prepared within the human heart, which is wide enough to receive the Word of God (in substance). The Catechism teaches that when the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent she makes present the ancient expectation of the Messiah (CCC 524). And Isaiah's “Comfort” is heard again wherever a broken life is told that its term is over, as in the sacrament of Penance.
Setting.
Psalm 85 is a prayer of a people who have been brought back but are not yet whole. The opening verses remember that God “restored the fortunes of Jacob”; the middle asks “Will you be angry with us forever?” Many scholars place it after the return from exile, when the land was poor and the rebuilding slow, which is exactly the situation Isaiah's joyful promise left open. The Lectionary keeps only the last part, God's answer. The verses here follow the numbering of the Lectionary, one higher than the NRSV.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people” (85:9)
The first act of the listening community is silence. The whole psalm hangs on someone waiting to hear.
“Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other.” (85:11)
These are qualities, but the poet makes them meet like friends on a road. What sin keeps apart, God brings together.
“Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky.” (85:12)
Heaven and earth meet. The Latin reads “truth has sprung from the earth” (veritas de terra orta est), and this verse came to be heard as a Christmas prophecy.
“Righteousness will go before him, and will make a path for his steps.” (85:14)
The psalm ends on the theme of the day. The road in the desert appears again, and righteousness itself goes ahead like a herald.
How the Church reads it.
St Augustine, preaching on this psalm, took “truth has sprung from the earth” as Christ born of a woman (in substance). St Bernard of Clairvaux, in a sermon for the Annunciation, imagined these four virtues as sisters who argue over fallen humanity and are reconciled in the coming of the Son (in substance). In the Mass today the psalm is the people's reply: “Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.”
Setting.
This letter comes in the name of Simon Peter. Many scholars think that it was written later than the Apostle's lifetime, in his name and to guard his teaching. The Church received it as inspired Scripture. Its readers were being troubled by scoffers who asked, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (3:4). By then the first generation of Christians had died and the Lord had not returned. The reading gives the Church's answer to that disappointment.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.” (3:8)
An echo of Psalm 90:4. The saying is not a code for calculating dates; it is the reason why we cannot calculate them.
“The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” (3:9)
This verse changes the question. We ask why God is late. Peter says that the time between is a gift, and that we are the ones being waited for.
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief” (3:10)
The image is from Jesus himself (Matthew 24:43). A note on the text. At the end of this verse the manuscripts differ. Some of the oldest Greek manuscripts read that the earth and its works “will be found”, and the NRSV renders this “disclosed”: everything will stand uncovered before God. Other manuscripts and the Vulgate read “will be burned up”, which the Malayalam POC follows. The first says that nothing can hide; the second that nothing will last. Both serve the letter's point.
“But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.” (3:13)
The promise goes back to Isaiah 65:17 and 66:22. The goal is a home, not an escape. Righteousness, restless in this world, at last finds a place to live.
“Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish” (3:14)
Christian waiting is active. The fruit of the day of the Lord, peace, is meant to appear already in those who wait for it.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes v. 9 when it teaches that God predestines no one to hell, and that the Church prays that all should come to repentance (CCC 1037). It takes “new heavens and a new earth” (v. 13) as the Scripture's name for the mysterious renewal of the universe (CCC 1043), and says that the message of the Last Judgment calls us to conversion while God still gives us time (CCC 1041). St Cyril of Jerusalem taught his catechumens that we preach not only one coming of Christ but a second, far more glorious than the first (in substance). That is the double vision of Advent.
Setting.
Mark is generally thought to be the earliest of the four Gospels. Tradition links him with St Peter's preaching at Rome. He has no story of the birth of Jesus. He begins with John in the wilderness, because that is where the Good News begins to be heard. Mark's Gospel is the Sunday Gospel of this new liturgical year, Year B.
The desert east of Jerusalem, running down to the Jordan, is a place heavy with memory. Israel came through the wilderness and crossed the Jordan into the land. A Jewish community at Qumran, not far from the same river, took Isaiah 40:3 as its own charter for living in the desert (Rule of the Community 8). Coming out to John meant going back to the beginning.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (1:1)
A note on the text. A few important early manuscripts lack “the Son of God”, while most have it. It is generally kept. Either way, the Gospel's structure confirms it: the voice at the Baptism says “You are my Son” (1:11), and at the Cross a Roman centurion says “Truly this man was God’s Son!” (15:39).
“As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way;” (1:2)
The first line comes from Malachi 3:1 (with an echo of Exodus 23:20), the second from Isaiah 40:3. Mark names the greater prophet for both. Later copyists, puzzled, changed it to “in the prophets”.
“John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (1:4)
Jewish practice knew ritual washings that were repeated. John's baptism seems to have been a single act of turning back to God. It pointed forward; it did not yet have the power of Christian Baptism.
“Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.” (1:6)
This is what Elijah wore (2 Kings 1:8), and Malachi promised that Elijah would return before the day of the Lord (Malachi 4:5). Locusts were permitted food (Leviticus 11:22). He eats what the wilderness gives.
“I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.” (1:7)
A later rabbinic saying holds that a disciple should do for his teacher everything a slave does, except untie his sandals (in substance). John says he is not worthy even of that.
“I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (1:8)
The prophets promised the outpouring of the Spirit in the last days (Ezekiel 36:26–27; Joel 2:28). Water can only wash; the Spirit makes new.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism calls John “the Lord's immediate precursor or forerunner, sent to prepare his way” (CCC 523), the Elijah who must come (CCC 718). It recalls that his baptism of repentance was the setting where the public life of Jesus began (CCC 535). St Augustine, in a sermon on the Baptist, contrasts John as the voice with Christ as the Word: the voice sounds for a moment and passes, and the Word remains (in substance). This is the humility of every preacher, catechist and parent: to be a voice for someone greater.
Why does Mark say “in the prophet Isaiah” when part of the quotation is from Malachi?
This was a known way of citing: a combined quotation could be attributed to the more important prophet. Mark's real interest is in Isaiah, the prophet of the road through the desert and the coming of God. Some later manuscripts changed the wording to “in the prophets” to remove the difficulty, which is good evidence that “Isaiah” is the original.
Why does Mark have no Christmas story?
He is not denying it; he begins where the Apostles' own preaching began, with John's baptism (see Acts 1:22; 10:37). Matthew and Luke add the infancy stories, and John goes back further still, to the eternal Word. The four Gospels together give the Church the full portrait.
Will the world really be burned up, as 2 Peter says?
Fire is the Bible's language for God's judgment and purification. The Church teaches that the visible universe is destined to be transformed, not simply thrown away (CCC 1047), and that we do not know how this will be (CCC 1048; Gaudium et Spes 39). Peter's own conclusion is about how we live now.
In the Roman calendar Advent has two stages. Until 16 December its prayers look above all to Christ's second coming; from 17 December they prepare directly for Christmas. This is why the Sunday readings move from the end of time to John the Baptist, who appears on two Sundays of Advent. Year B, which began last Sunday, gives us Mark. On Tuesday the Church keeps the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (CCC 490–493). The “spot or blemish” of today's second reading may remind us of it: God prepared one woman for his coming, and she was preserved from every stain of original sin from the first moment of her conception, by the merits of her Son.