As a young boy, my favorite Christmas decorations to find their way out of the tightly packed boxes during Advent were my first Christmas stocking and a number of “snow globes” that were acquired through the years. My favorite “favorites” were globes that depicted Santa sticking one leg over the top of a chimney, children skating on an icy pond, and the Holy Family in a classic depiction of the Nativity scene. A day in Advent or later in the Christmas season wasn’t complete if I hadn’t taken a moment to give those globes a good shake, to watch the “snow” create its intended effect until it settled back to the bottom, and then to contemplate for just a moment the joy of becoming part of the scene, each in its turn. Eventually I realized how great but how limited these favorites really were and are. Each told a story that meant something in my life, but each would be forever contained within that glass globe. Each story depicted there could only become “real” as it was given flesh, freedom, and true life in my life. This Second Sunday in Advent John the Baptist calls to his hearers, including us, that we make every effort to see, hear, and live freely. The Long Awaited now comes. What are the sins and sinful patterns, the fears, the resentments that build a wall or globe of glass to keep His Coming contained at a distance? To keep us at a distance from His Coming truly in our flesh? To keep us at a distance from His Coming with Truth to shake us and set us free? To keep us at a distance where we are focused more on swirling snow than on Him? The consolation we hear from the Prophet Isaiah today is not meant to make us content and complacent, but rather to strengthen and urge us on. John the Baptist doesn’t cry out in the wilderness to simply stop the guilty in our tracks, but heralds a coming for which we have the chance to prepare. This is the moment to let the scene we cherish and celebrate give us a shake, so that as the “snow” settles, we can not only contemplate but more clearly and freely live the Mystery within us! Fr. Tom