<p><em>St. Francis of Assisi famously exhorted his community to preach constantly and when necessary use words. Todays reflection offers us a similar challenge: to both speak words of Loves presence and to become that loving presence; to speak of justice and to act justly. As such Advent invites us to a greater integrity: when our words reflect not only what we believe but who we are.</em></p><p><strong>December 10 2023: Second Sunday in Advent Year B</strong></p><p>Isaiah 40:1-5 9-11</p><p>Psalm 85:9-14</p><p>2 Peter 3:8-14</p><p>Mark 1:1-8</p><div><div class=titan__email-divider>&nbsp;</div></div><h3><strong>Vocal Training<br></strong></h3><p><em>A reflection by Richard Young<br></em></p><p>What is the difference between I have a voice and I AM the voice? Our gospel for today is synced with the beautiful poetry from the fortieth chapter of Isaiah. Mark implies that the baptizer fulfills Isaiahs prophecy that he John IS the voice sent to prepare the way for the coming of the Just One. In the Gospel of John its not just an implication because there the baptizer clearly says I AM as Isaiah prophesied THE VOICE of someone crying out in the wilderness THE VOICE that says make straight our Gods road.</p><p>Do you <em>have</em> a voice? Or <em>are</em> you the voice? Over the years DignityUSA has been partially defined as THE voice of LGBTQIA+ Catholics. Dignity has had to be a voice in the media being the go-to group that news outlets frequently count on for comment when there are events that impact our community. Fundraising appeals have asked members and friends to support the voice of DignityUSA so that we dont just HAVE a voice; we ARE a voice. Having a voice doesnt necessarily mean you are using it. Having a voice is passive. BEING a voice is active. Its about putting yourself out there and embodying your convictionsembodying putting flesh on your sense of justice. BEING the voice builds the roads fills in valleys and levels mountains. It makes the rough ways smooth so that the glory and radiance of the Divine can be seen. Like John we must BE the voice.</p><p>Several years ago I attended a rally at which I heard some wonderful activists speak including Vermonts Senator Bernie Sanders. We were angry because just the night before (early that morning in fact) the US Senate passed a so-called tax reform bill that numerous independent non-partisan groups severely criticized. The Congressional Budget Office reported that this bill would add $1.7 Trillion to the national debt. Provisions in the bill would result in thirteen million people losing their health insurance. Leading economists called this bill a huge disaster for the nation actually raising taxes for the great majority of us. The list of problems with the proposal was extensive and there was nearly universal agreement among the bills critics that it simply robbed from the poor and middle class to enrich the upper one percent who clearly didnt need it. How many of us wondered could anyone with a conscience support this? We had plenty to be angry about.</p><p>One of the speakers at the rally was from a rural county a proud tough plain-spoken Appalachian mother grandmother and great grandmother who like the baptizer did not hesitate to quote Isaiah as she lambasted the politicians responsible for this scam. Woe to you who make unjust laws to those who issue oppressive decrees to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches? Thats Isaiah 10: 1-3. This lady shouted this message spewing forth her righteous anger. She named a couple of politicians who were certainly largely to blame and she said they were coming after her people so she was coming after them. Greed is a sin. That was her message and she was a modern-day John the Baptizer calling the powerful to repentance. Thats not just having a voice; thats BEING the voice.</p><p>I think of a scene from some Hollywood Bible epic depicting John the Baptizer getting arrested. He stands in the Jordan River and a bunch of Roman soldiers approach him. One says We have orders to bring you to Herod. John who is not intimidated by anybody says And I have orders to bring you to God. They go into the river after him and as they reach him he grabs their heads plunges them into the water and he shouts Repent! Repent! Now thats BEING the voice.</p><p>Prepare the way of our God. Thats what the voice says the voice which Isaiah described and which is embodied by Gods people when we live our prophetic calling. I prepare the way when I AM the voice when I speak up when I refuse to be silent in the face of injustice. I prepare the way for the coming of God when I attack and expose the corporate sins that harm Gods people. AND I prepare the way when I acknowledge the personal unloving attitudes that are in my own heart. I have to BE the voice of justice for myself as well. I have to smooth out the rough road within me. I have to look at that which makes the road rough: greed jealousy bitterness a judgmental attitude despair lack of forgiveness. I have to BE the voice that demands that my soul clear a path through my own wilderness. I have to let go of all that blocks my vision of Gods glory.</p><p>John the Baptizer as Marks gospel tells us today was a total oddball. He lived on the fringes of society maintaining a weird diet and a bizarre sense of fashion. He is truly the voice <em>in the wilderness</em> the place for outcasts where such strange behavior happens. The wilderness is the marginal world where Gods most zealous ones are disciplined; that is made into disciples. Todays story suggests that this is the place where ones voice can be fine-tuned. It is the place where we take voice lessons if you will to move beyond just having a voice to BEING the voice. It is the place where Jesus himself went for forty days and forty nights to do battle with the devil so the story says. It is there that he found <em>his</em> voice his sense of mission. And after returning from there he stayed on the margins. He entered another wilderness getting his voice trained even further among the poor the sick the tax collectors the prostitutes the ones not welcome in the Temple. He gets to know their wilderness and stays there. If he was to BE the voice that announces that the Reign of God is here he needed wilderness training.</p><p>We are blessed to be where we are: on the fringes meeting in out-of-the-way places without any official approval from church authorities labeled heretics by some gathering where sexual and gender minorities and women and the un-ordained lead liturgies that many call illicit where some of us take positions on social issues that would be condemned by good Christians and profess a faith that is way too progressive for some. We might as well be wearing camel hair and eating grasshoppers and wild honey. This is OUR wilderness. We are right where the crazy baptizer would be. We are SO blessed to be where we are because where else could we get such amazing voice lessons? Where else can we learn so well the skill of BEING the voice? The rural lady I mentioned earlier lived among some of her states poorest people. That was her wilderness. Thats where she got her voice training. I think of former Secretary of State (and the first woman to have that job) Madeline Albright. She began her life in the wilderness of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia from which her family escaped. She once observed My driving force is that I want to make a difference. It took me quite a long time to develop a voice and now that I have it I am not going to be silent.</p><p>Making a difference: perhaps it is our Advent task for today to work on developing our own voice to BECOME the voice with which we can make a difference. Perhaps our Advent task is to embrace our exile in the wilderness to learn from our fellow outcasts how to make ready the way of Our God how to clear God a straight path. Then as Isaiah said the glory of God shall be revealed and all shall see it together.</p><div><div class=titan__email-divider>&nbsp;</div><div class=titan__email-divider><img src='https://www.dignityusa.org/sites/default/files/botsrichardyoung.png'></div></div><div class=mobile-full><div class=mobile-full><p><em><strong>Rev. Richard P. Young</strong> is a retired Catholic priest and mental health counselor. He chairs the Liturgy Committee of Dignity/Daytons Living Beatitudes Community and has worked with several Dignity Chapters since the late 70s. He once served for a term on the national board of DignityUSA and has attended all the national conventions/conferences since 1981.</em></p><p><em>He is married to former DignityUSA national secretary Bob Butts. Richard was honored with a Presidents Award at the 2022 Dignity National Conference in San Diego.</em></p><p><em></em></p></div></div><p style=text-align:center><a class=btn btn-primary href=https://dignityusa.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/dignityusa/subscribe.jsp?subscription=8>Subscribe to Breath of the Spirit</a></p>