On that day…So begins the eleventh chapter of the Book of Prophet Isaiah, the content of which is the prophet’s vision of a kingdom transformed by a spirit-endowed governance of a Davidic king (a king who will be guided by wisdom and fear of the Lord in governing his subjects). The prophet’s vision is of what has widely been described as an ideal world, a world that we nostalgically identify with the pristine state of the Garden of Eden prior to the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve. It is a vision of a sinless world, that is, a world in which creatures not only have knowledge of the Lord but have also retained the fraternal bond that ties them one to another ( the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them). Isaiah’s vision is of a world where creatures live in harmony and peace as had been intended by the Creator ( there shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain). However, inasmuch as Isaiah’s vision describes the state of things prior to the fall, it is also a vision of a transformed world that will be ushered in by the God-fearing Davidic king. To the ears of a people living in a world torn apart by strife, chaos, and disharmony, the words of the prophet are a description of a world to which we all look forward. It is a vision of that world which will come about when the peoples of the earth shall have sought out the Lord God in order to bow before him as their Savior Lord and ruler. 
For us who are reading about this particular vision of the Prophet Isaiah as part of our Advent reflection, we are full of confidence that the almost too-good-to-be true world described by him shall be realized. This is because  on that day, the Lord God shall appoint a special judge whose responsibility will be shepherding the peoples of the world under their one Creator God. This judge will be able to accomplish this because the Spirit of the Lord shall be upon him, and his mission will be the restoration of justice. For us living in the Common Era, this prophecy has been fulfilled in the life and ministry  of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the special judge in whose name all the tribes of the earth are being blessed (Responsorial Psalm). While in his birth and resurrection he has certainly given new life to the world and set it on the path to full restoration, it is in his second coming (understood as the deliverance of the created world from its present bondage to corruption [cf. Romans 8:21]) that will bring this restoration to completion. This is why until that happens, as the Gospel Reading for this Second Sunday reminds us, we have to join the Baptist in announcing the nearness of that world.
This news of the nearness of a world transformed by God (the kingdom of God) must have excited the Baptizer’s audience since the coming of the kingdom was long overdue. The people had waited for a long time for God to intervene in their lives and to bring to an end their suffering (which at the time included their nation being invaded and put under occupation by the Roman empire). John’s proclamation of the nearness of the kingdom of God was thus a welcome announcement and was received as good news by the community. This is perhaps the reason why, in response to his preaching, crowds flocked the Jordan to be baptized by him. They couldn’t afford to miss out on this wonderful thing that was soon to befall them. And as each of them approached John to be baptized, he reminded them that they had to make a resolve to never again turn their backs on God. Their willingness to plunge themselves into the waters of the Jordan was to be an external show that they had become a new people worthy of the kingdom of God. 
John’s preaching and the people being baptized was just the beginning. By accepting John’s baptism, they had made one step closer to the kingdom. The real deal was to be accomplished by how the people would lead their post-baptism lives. Having been baptized (the implication being that they had renounced their sinful past), it was now their responsibility to prepare the way for the reign of the Lord in their land. It was now their responsibility to make the paths of their hearts straight in order to ready themselves for the ushering in of the kingdom by the Davidic king. The kingdom of God for which they had been longing would not be fully inaugurated until their hearts were straightened out. May we too hear and heed the voice of the Baptist calling on us to make straight the paths of the Lord so that he may find us ready when he comes to usher in his kingdom.