There are few texts more consoling than the one we heard in the first reading. It is not known exactly when the Book of Baruch was written or who wrote it. Exegetes say that it was written at the latest in the second century before Christ’s birth. If we follow the indications at the beginning of the book itself, then it was the prophet Baruch who wrote the book at the beginning of the Babylonian exile. It was read to the deported. The book was then sent to Jerusalem, which had recently been burnt down, to console even the people who had remained there.
And that is also the reason why the Church included it in the canon of Holy Scripture: The book contains God’s word of consolation even for us. The time of sorrow, distress and darkness, the time of our exile in the land of sin and death will end. God himself will bestow his glory and integrity on us. He will lead us home, ‘like royal princes carried back in glory’. He himself will make sure that the journey is easy and safe for us: ‘For he has decreed the flattening of each high mountain, of the everlasting hills, the filling of the valleys to make the ground level so that Israel can walk in safety under the glory of God.’
In the introduction to the Book of Baruch, it says that the exiled Israelites, to whom the book was read for the first time, ‘wept and fasted and prayed before the Lord’. They were moved by the marvellous vision of the future, but they also realised that they were still in captivity and that Jerusalem was in ruins. When will the day of salvation come? When will they finally be allowed to return home?
We can ask ourselves similar questions. Yes, we have heard beautiful verses, but the text is old and has an unclear origin. Even if we, following the Church, faithfully assume that this is God’s word, the question of when our salvation will happen seems open also to us.
But the truth is: Our salvation has already begun! The evangelist Luke describes it’s beginning with historical precision: ‘In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar’s reign, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the lands of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the pontificate of Annas and Caiaphas.’ It could hardly be more precise. The beginning of our salvation is not a vague, mystical, timeless event. It is very concrete, we have a specific date. At this particular time John the Baptist began to prepare the way for the Lord in the desert.
Luke quotes another prophet, Isaiah, to describe the content of John the Baptist’s sermon: ‘Every valley will be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low, winding ways will be straightened and rough roads made smooth. And all mankind shall see the salvation of God.’
The consoling vision of Baruch and Isaiah became reality at a concrete, historically determinable point in time. And the salvation of God was seen when our Lord Jesus Christ lived on earth and appeared in public. ‘God appeared on earth and lived among men’, as it says in another passage in the Book of Baruch. We all, who have heard the good news of the Incarnation, have seen the light of God’s glory. Our salvation has already begun.
But aren’t we still walking through a dark world? Aren’t sin and its consequences still our constant companions? How can we sinners hope for a good end?
Let us listen to what Saint Paul writes to the Philippians: ‘I am certain that the One who began this good work in you will see that it is finished when the Day of Christ Jesus comes.’ And Paul prays that the Philippians ‘become pure and blameless […] and reach the perfect goodness which Jesus Christ produces in us for the glory and praise of God.’
So, Christ himself produces the perfect goodness in us. Trusting in this, we can walk fearlessly through this dark world towards our goal, which is eternal communion with God.
We are still on the journey. But the way we are travelling together with the whole Church is our way home. Christ himself accompanies us, he is with us in the sacraments. God is guiding us home ‘in joy by the light of his glory with his mercy and integrity for escort.’
Amen.
