“Take firm hold of the rudder of faith…”
Homily from the Second Sunday of Advent 2024 preached by Fr Christopher Woods
The Second Sunday of Advent brings us to the wilderness, where a voice cries out: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” These are the words of John the Baptist, a prophet who, with fire in his soul and simplicity in his life, calls people to repentance. His voice is like a trumpet in the midst of confusion, demanding attention, action, and transformation.
We hear John’s message again in a time of new era of global instability and absurd paradox. Wars rage, economic and political systems falter, and the environment groans under the weight of human greed and neglect. And yet, just last night in Notre Dame in Paris, at the reopening Liturgy, we had Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Vladimir Zelensky and the Prince of Wales all in the pews, sitting beside each other, listening to outstanding organ and choral music in a multi-million pound renovated state-owned icon; watching young singers overjoyed to be taking part in such an occasion. Yet anxiety amongst young people is high, for many reasons, but notably following two decades of unregulated exploitation of children for commercial gain by social media companies such as Meta, Instagram, Twitter. I wonder did God make any impact to any of those immensely powerful people last night? In our personal lives, too, many of us face storms—illness, loss, fractured relationships, or the daily struggle to keep going.
In this tumultuous context, the call to prepare the way for the Lord feels both urgent and daunting.
It is here that the wisdom of Saint Ambrose of Milan whose memory we venerated yesterday comes to us as a steadying guide: “Take firm hold of the rudder of faith so that the severe storms of this world cannot disturb you.” Ambrose gives us a powerful image—faith as a rudder, the instrument that steers a ship through rough seas. Without it, we would drift aimlessly, tossed about by the winds of fear, doubt, and despair. But with it, we have direction, stability, and hope, even in the fiercest of tempests.
John the Baptist appears in the wilderness, a place that symbolizes both physical desolation and spiritual preparation. It is in the wilderness that Israel learned to depend on God during their years of wandering. And it is often in our own wilderness moments—those times of struggle and uncertainty—that we are most open to hearing God’s call. But often it is only in hindsight that we can see God having been at work.
John’s message is clear: Prepare the way of the Lord. Make the rough places smooth. Fill the valleys and lower the mountains. In other words, clear away anything that stands in the way of God’s work in your life. This is not just a call to action; it is a call to faith. It is a call to take hold of the rudder and steer ourselves toward God, even when the storms of life threaten to overwhelm us. Ambrose’s metaphor challenges us to consider what it means to steer our lives with faith. The storms of this world are real. They come in many forms: personal hardship, social injustice, and the anxieties of an uncertain future. But the rudder of faith reminds us that while we cannot always calm the storm, we can choose how we navigate it. Faith does not eliminate the waves, but it gives us the strength to keep moving forward.
John’s message of repentance is a way of taking hold of the rudder. Repentance is not about wallowing in guilt; it is about reorienting ourselves toward God and knowing, accepting his mercy and forgiveness which is given to us without condition. It is about acknowledging where we have strayed and making the decision to return to the path that leads to life.
The imagery in Luke’s Gospel—valleys being filled, mountains being made low, crooked paths straightened—reminds us that faith requires action. To prepare the way for the Lord is not a passive task.
It means rolling up our sleeves and working to remove obstacles, both in our own hearts and in the world around us. In our personal lives, this might mean carving out time for prayer, forgiving someone who has wronged us, or letting go of a burden that weighs us down. In the wider world, it might mean standing up for justice, offering kindness to a stranger, or caring for creation. Each of these actions is a way of steering the ship of faith, keeping us on course even when the waves threaten to pull us off track. John’s message of repentance and preparation is not just about the first coming of Christ in Bethlehem; it is also about his second coming and his daily coming into our lives. Advent invites us to prepare not only for the child in the manger but also for the Saviour who stands with us in every storm, the Ark from the Ocean’s Roar; the One who calms the seas and says, “Do not be afraid.”
Amen.
