Prepare a way for the Lord. Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Advent, Year C.

Luke has anchored his narrative within a specific historical context. This is his way of saying that the good news that he is sharing with us is not myth or legend like, for example, Homer’s Illiad which tells the story of the siege of Troy, or the Odyssey, which tells the story of the Greek hero Odysseus and his journey home after the fall of Troy. Nor is it like Vergil’s Aeneid, which tells the story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy and became the ancestor of the Romans. Luke is telling us that Christianity is an historical religion that makes very real historical claims. He is saying that the saving events that he’s about to tell us are not divorced from everyday life. They didn’t occur “once upon a time.” They took place in a very specific time and place. The incarnation means that the Son of God became flesh and dwelt among us in a particular place and at a particular time.