Feast of the Holy Family, Sunday December 29th 2013

December 29^th 2013. FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY 2013

Gospel: Matthew 2:13-15;19-23

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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We continue to pray for Christians that are suffering terrible persecution in Syria, Iraq, and many other places

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

GOSPEL:                                Matthew 2:13-15;19-23

 After the wise men had left, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him'. So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him left that night or Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: 'I called my son out of Egypt.'

 After Herod's death, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother with you and go back to the land of Israel, for those who wanted to kill the child are dead'. So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, went back to the land of Israel. But when he learnt that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as ruler of Judaea he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he left for the region of Galilee. There he settled in a town called Nazareth. In this way the words spoken through the prophets were to be fulfilled: 'He will be called a Nazarene.'

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary  . . . . This passage recounts an event from the life of the Holy Family. Joseph is in a difficult situation because he wishes to protect his family whose very existence is threatened by Herod. In a dream he receives a revelation from God. His obedience to the promptings of the Lord enables him to protect his family.  .  . There is a great crisis of manliness in modern society because we have constructed a model of masculinity that is cut off from God. Men try to base their mission in life on their own capacities and abilities. The result is often aggressive and disordered actions, or completely inactive men who allow their wives to do everything. By contrast Joseph placed himself before God in his moment of vulnerability. His relationship with God and his obedience to the promptings of God were the source of his extraordinary capacity to be a father. Each of us is confronted on a daily basis by the many Herods that threaten our family stability and security. In the face of these difficulties, all of us, men and women, must exercise our role in the family by founding our actions on our relationship with God and obedience to him.

This passage speaks to us about the role of the father in a family

The Sunday after Christmas is traditionally the Feast of the Holy Family. The Son of God becomes incarnate and grows up at the heart of a regular human family. The family is not just some sort of functional institution. It is an existential reality. The ideal way to raise a child is as part of a family with a mother and father, but this feast speaks also to people who are not part of an ideal family in this sense. In order to live authentically, all of us have a definite role to play. This passage from Matthew speaks to us about the role of the father in a family, a role that is in a state of crisis in the modern world. The father’s role is to have custody of his family. Divine Providence ordained that this role for the Holy Family would fall to Joseph, a man of great humility and obedience. It is essential that the men of today rediscover their mission and importance.

Joseph is a difficult situation and must make a decision

Joseph has certain revelations from the Lord while he is dreaming. This does not refer to subconscious activity, but to a state of being in which we go beyond ourselves, allowing God to act on us in our weakness.  Joseph is confronted with problems that he cannot resolve with his own natural capacities. The men of our generation, too, do not know how to carry out their mission properly. Many women today are angry and aggressive for various reasons, and men find that they do not know what their role is anymore. This can lead to unhappiness and violent behaviour on the part of men.

Joseph listens to the angel of the Lord in his weakness. Thus he enters into collaboration with God. The crisis of masculinity that besets modern society is that we have constructed a masculinity that does not collaborate with God. As such is it destined to collapse.

Joseph feels weak in the face of the terrible spectre of Herod who threatens the existence of his wife and child, the only things in the world that matter to him. In this situation of weakness, Joseph does not retreat or run away but allows the angel to speak. Thus Joseph enters into collaboration with God. The men of our generation need to discover how to exercise their masculinity, not a masculinity founded on themselves but founded on a relationship with God. It is the exercise of a masculinity without God that has led to the current crisis. The strong, courageous and protective attitude that men ought to exercise is not just reserved to fathers. All men, whether single or in the consecrated life, are called to develop attitudes of help, support, clarity, decisiveness and generosity. Why did Joseph succeed in his mission to be a father of this sort? Because his departure point was obedience to the Lord. In the weakness of his sleep, which represents his not knowing what to do, the angel speaks to him and reveals the correct course of action. Instead of turning to the Lord, we can try to rely on ourselves, but this often results in aggressive and disordered actions. Or we can end up like a piece of furniture in the house, taking no action at all, while our wives have to do everything. And women do not want to have to exercise the authority of the father in their homes. They would prefer to have the space to carry out their own proper role in the family, whilst being supported, consoled and confirmed by their husbands.

The source of the extraordinary capacity to be a father is obedience to God

What is the source of the extraordinary capacity to carry out the service of being a father? Obedience to God! Joseph knew how to be a father because he knew how to relate to the Lord as a son. He knew how to govern the home because he allowed himself to be guided from above. We do now have to search in our own limited capacities for the solutions to the many Herods that threaten and menace our lives. We must seek those solutions in our relationship with God. This is the fountain and source of all that we must do. Once we ground our family role in our relationship with God, then we become the men and women, brothers and sisters, colleagues and friends that we are called to be. All we have to do is consign our weakness into the hands of God.

Don Fabio takes this occasion to wish everyone a happy feast of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, asking that the Lord will visit everyone and through all of us make himself present to others.

December 22^nd 2013. FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Gospel: Matthew 1:18-24

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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This week we pray for the people of Syria, in particular for the many Christians that are suffering terrible persecution while the world ignores their plight

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

GOSPEL:                                Matthew 1:18-24

This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.' Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

'The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son 
and they will call him Emmanuel, 
a name which means 'God-is-with-us'. 

When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary  . . . . Joseph finds himself in a predicament. Should he denounce Mary for being pregnant or should he take her as his wife? This Gospel is a Gospel about a process of discernment. Our entire generation is afflicted by problems of discernment. The fabric of our society has become so relativistic that we no longer know right from wrong. When everything seems right then we find ourselves in situations in which we do not know what course of action to take. This problem afflicts men in particular. The male instinct is to be strong, resolute and decisive. But nowadays men are often more preoccupied with doing that which keeps people happy rather than doing that which is right. Joseph too is irresolute. He decides to take an escape route out of his dilemma, neither taking Mary as his wife, nor denouncing her publicly as required by the law. But then he has a dream. God touches Joseph in the deepest part of his being during this dream, just as God took Eve out of the side of Adam while he slept. In the dream, Joseph is asked to overcome his fear and take Mary as his wife. He is asked to put aside his own preoccupations and instead take a course of action that will lead to the salvation of everyone. We too ought to base our decisions on the noble and beautiful dream that the Holy Spirit has ignited inside us. We must use our intelligence as well for discernment, but it is also fundamental that we be silent before God and open ourselves to his extraordinary action in our lives.

This Gospel is about human discernment and the role of God in it

After the genealogy of Jesus, the Gospel of Matthew tells us the story of how Jesus Christ came to be born. This story of the incarnation of Jesus is the central adventure of human history. The passage we are reading on Sunday tells the story from Joseph’s perspective, and it is a story about discernment. Joseph discovers that Mary is pregnant and he must make a decision. Life is all about making choices. Everything we do every day involves the constant business of deciding to do one thing over another. Some of those decisions are dramatic and definitive. Joseph must decide what he is to do with this pregnant girl. If this were an ordinary situation, then the decision would be straightforward: the girl should be sent away. But this is a far from ordinary situation. Joseph knows Mary and he is well aware that she is not the deceitful or unfaithful kind. So he is presented with a decision between two things that seem equally wrong. How simple life would be if our decisions were always between what is definitely right and what is definitely wrong! But here the choice is between taking a girl as your wife who is already pregnant, or sending her away to be publicly stoned, when all the indications are that she is a girl that does not deserve a punishment of this sort.

Our generation is a generation that struggles to discern right from wrong

Joseph tries to find an intermediate way between these two extremes. His predicament is the predicament of our entire generation which suffers from a chronic inability to make clear decisions. We lack the parameters that are necessary to make decisions. The fabric of our thought is so relativistic that many young people no longer know what is right and what is wrong. They are afraid of things that are not frightening at all, and consider plausible ideas that are not credible in the slightest. People of thirty, thirty-five, forty years of age, don’t know what to do with themselves and are unable to make basic decisions. This Gospel passage can be read as a passage on marriage discernment. “Am I to marry or not?” There is always something disquieting about the decision to marry. In the case of Joseph the situation is even more difficult. The text contains a play on words: “Being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity .   .  .” A man of honour for the Jews was a man who observed the law, and a man who observed the law was obliged to publicly denounce marital infidelity. But Joseph knows that Mary is not unfaithful, so he seeks a way out, an escape clause. Large numbers of the modern generation of men find themselves in the same boat. A man is someone who should be able to act decisively. Marriage is something that requires firm resolution in the face of obstacles. Male virility (in the sense of strength and resolution) is a wonderful thing when it is administered correctly, but instead of doing the right thing we often become preoccupied with doing that which keeps everyone happy.

When we seek to discern the right course of action, we must be silent before God. We must allow God to touch us in the deepest part of our being and awaken us to what is most noble, most beautiful and most upright.

How does Joseph escape from this quagmire of doubt and inactivity? How can the modern male escape from the hesitancy and indecision that plagues our generation? Joseph was considering the course of action he would take when an angel appeared to him in a dream. This messenger of God touches Joseph in the very deepest part of his being. In a similar way, it was while Adam was sleeping that God took the rib that formed Eve. In the weakness and vulnerability of sleep, when he is silent and unable to decide anything, Joseph receives enlightenment from God. Dreams are very positive things in life. We manifest incredible imaginations while we dream. Often they put us in touch with what is beautiful. What is revealed to Joseph in his dream is something that is the highest, most beautiful and noblest of all! He is asked to overcome his fear and act in a sublimely noble way, taking Mary as his wife. Joseph is asked to put aside the preoccupations he had for his own life, and instead do what must be done so that the people will have salvation. All of this will bring to fulfilment what the prophet Isaiah foretold: the extraordinary response of God to our impoverishment – a young girl will become pregnant and give birth to a son whose name shall mean “God with us”.

We will achieve nothing in life if we are not faithful to the noble and beautiful dream that has been placed in us by the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes we struggle to discern the correct course of action in our lives. We remain bogged down until we open ourselves to the work of God. All of us need to wake up, as Joseph did, and be obedient to the enlightenment that comes from God. It takes courage to follow a way that appears irrational or unconventional. But let us be honest. Can a marriage be saved unless the spouses are obedient to a beautiful ancient dream that they once shared? Is it possible to maintain a vocation in life unless we are faithful to that immensely noble flame that burned within us when we began our particular vocation journey? Is it possible to construct a church or to do anything worthwhile in the world if we do not believe in the good? If we are to do anything then it is essential that we believe in the supreme good! If the human being is just reason and will, then he will not get very far. We can walk forward taking our longest strides, but the things we do will always be small. The solutions we come up with will always be mediocre, the compromises and escape routes that were the ways of Joseph until he was obedient to the dream and opened himself to the extraordinary. The Lord wants us to use our intelligence for discernment, but we have to be conscious of its limits, and we must always remain open to the extraordinary. Christmas is upon us now and we are right at the doors of the extraordinary!

December 15^th  2013. Third Sunday of Advent.

Gospel: Matthew 11:2-11

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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GOSPEL                          Matthew 11:2-11

John in his prison had heard what Christ was doing and he sent his disciples to ask him, 'Are you the one who is to come, or have we got to wait for someone else?' Jesus answered, 'Go back and tell John what you hear and see; the blind see again, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life and happy is the man who does not lose faith in me'.
As the messengers were leaving, Jesus began to talk to the people about John: 'What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the breeze? No? Then what did you go out to see? A man wearing fine clothes? Oh no, those who wear fine clothes are to be found in palaces. Then what did you go out for? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet: he is the one of whom scripture says: Look, I am going to send my messenger before you; he will prepare your way before you.

'I tell you solemnly, of all the children born of women, a greater than John the Baptist has never been seen; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is.’

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . John the Baptist is perplexed by the actions of Jesus. John himself had focused on preaching penitence and austerity. But Jesus seems absorbed in healing people’s infirmities. John must open himself to the fact that the Lord’s solutions to our problems is radically different to our own solutions! And we must be ready to leave our own projects aside too and accept the way of Jesus in our lives. What does Jesus do? He heals the blind, the lame, the lepers, raises the dead and preaches the Good News to the poor. I too am blind and cannot see God’s way in my life. I too am deaf and do not listen to the message of salvation. I am a leper and live in isolation from others. I am lame and unable to walk in the way of conversion. I am dead and in need of the transforming power of the Good news. Sometimes we think that if we change the material conditions of our lives then everything will be rosy. The ideologies that led to such bloodshed in the last century all sought to transform the condition of humanity by changing the structural conditions of life. We too have our structural projects, our ten step plan to sort ourselves out, but what we really need is the transforming power of the Lord! We need to open our eyes and see the action of God in our lives. We need to develop the capacity to listen to the Good News. We need to learn to walk in the way of conversion, be purified of our isolation from the Christian community, have the condition of death within us removed by the Lord. John was no reed swaying in the wind. He was a man of integrity who did not bow to the expectations of others. He was not dressed in finery – his beauty did not depend on his external image. If John was beautiful, then Jesus is even more so! His death on the Cross is the most attractive spectacle of history! The love of God fully revealed to us!

John is perplexed in the face of the actions of Jesus. The Lord always reveals himself in ways that go against our expectations.

The third Sunday of Advent is dedicated to the theme of joy. John the Baptist is in prison and approaching the end of his mission. He will shortly become a martyr for the truth. However the final part of his mission also involves the act of publicly asking Jesus who he really is and thus bringing him to the very centre of the stage. So John sends his disciples to enquire of Jesus if he really is the Christ. As we shall see, there are two aspects to this question: on the one hand it is a simple question formulated in words; but on the other hand it is an act of submission before the acts of Jesus which speak louder than any words. If the Lord is to come into our lives, then we must set aside our own ways of doing things and follow his way. Even John the Baptist had his own way of doing things, his own preoccupations and emphases. He too must submit before the acts of Jesus that show him an even better way. The preaching of John the Baptist, we remember, was of a very austere sort. He called for penitence, justice and uprightness. But Jesus always manifests himself to be different to what we expect him to be. How many times we pray to God, asking him to intervene in our lives, but then he acts by means of something that we had discarded or considered unimportant! The providence of God touches our existence in ways that are often very surprising to us. John is a bit perplexed in the face of the actions of Jesus. Jesus seems less concerned with moral demands than with healing people and transforming their lives. So John must open himself to the fact that the Christ is different to what he expected, and he must now permit Jesus to come to the forefront.

The work of Jesus is a work of transformation of our lives from within

What kind of person is this Christ that John has prepared the way for?  This is how Jesus describes his own mission: “The blind see, lepers are cleansed, the dumb hear, the lame walk, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor.” In other words, the Gospel is a work of transformation of people’s lives. That is why we call this Sunday the Sunday of joy! The Messiah is not someone who lines everybody up, demands obedience and punishes the guilty. Instead he is someone who takes the person from his condition of incompletion. What is a blind person? Someone who cannot perceive things as they are. What is a leper? Someone who is in need of purification. In the Old Testament the leper was someone who had to live in isolation. Only purification could permit him to live in the company of others. The deaf are those who cannot receive what others say to them. All of these conditions refer to a kind of  death in which the human being exists. Each one of us has challenges and difficulties in our lives. And we also have a plan of action with which to deal with these difficulties. The Messiah is someone who deals with these difficulties in way that we do not expect, in a way that utterly overturns our plans. He brings healing to our lives. We think that we need to change certain arrangements in our lives, but in reality we need to be healed. We are blind and do not see what God wishes to do with us. We are lame and do not know how to walk in the ways of conversion. We are lepers and exist in a state of isolation from the Christian community. We are deaf and are unable to listen. All of us have a condition of death within us. We are the poor to whom the real Good News is preached.

No change in the material conditions of our lives can bring the transformation that Christ brings

John the Baptist was preparing the way for something even greater than he expected, something that changes people from within. We try to solve our problems by adjusting the material conditions of our lives. All of the great ideologies that led to such terrible bloodshed in the last century are systems that sought to transform the condition of man by structural changes. We can give the human being an amazing political system, a beautiful home and a great job; but if he remains a leper, deaf, blind, lame and dead inside, then that person will destroy everything. The human being must be purified from within. As Pope Francis said at the end of World Youth Day in Brazil, the world can be changed, but it begins from me and from you. What the Lord wants is a transformation of our being. If our physical illness goes away, another one will come eventually. Not many people die in good health! The Good News carried by Jesus is that a more important wholeness is possible and this begins from within. I can acquire real vision; I can listen truly to the message of life; I can walk in the way of conversion; I can escape my isolation and death; and I can do all of this because I am a poor person to whom the Good News is announced. The “rich” do not listen to the Good News because those who are full of themselves and reliant on their own solutions are not open to the healing intervention of Jesus.

Jesus tells us who John is: A man of unswaying integrity whose beauty is not dependent on his external image

In the second part of the Gospel, Jesus asks, “What did you go out in the desert to see, a reed swaying in the wind? A man dressed in fine clothes?” In the first part of the Gospel, John seeks to understand Jesus. In this second part, Jesus tells us who John is, who this man is that has prepared the way for the transforming power of the Lord. John is no reed swaying in the wind, a man with no substance who follows every current that is popular. Neither is he someone dressed in fine clothes. Is it the case that we are attracted by those who are luxuriously dressed and well-presented? No. It is a curious feature of history that people of genuine holiness are immensely attractive and draw people to themselves. We are fascinated and struck by the Holy Father because he manifests the same radical beauty as his predecessors. We discern something admirable and genuine in them. Sometimes we are given the impression that the attractive people in the world are those who are willing to modify their way of doing things in the face of the latest trend. We are led to think that the people with the greatest beauty and most fashionable clothes are those that deserve the greatest attention. But these things only attract jealousy and feelings of intimidation. What is truly attractive is personal integrity. What draws people’s attention is fidelity to the Gospel. Young people are much more drawn by worthwhile challenging things than things that are frivolous. We must propose to them something even greater again. If John the Baptist was immensely attractive, then Jesus is even more compelling! His cross, his humiliation, becomes the spectacle towards which the attention of all of history is turned. The ultimate expression of God’s love for us, this is what is the most attractive of all!

December 8^th 2013. SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

Gospel                           Matthew 3:1-12

In due course John the Baptist appeared; he preached in the wilderness of Judaea and this was his message: 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand'. This was the man the prophet Isaiah spoke of when he said:     

 A voice cries in the wilderness: 
 Prepare a way for the Lord, 
  make his paths straight.

This man John wore a garment made of camel-hair with a leather belt round his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judaea and the whole Jordan district made their way to him, and as they were baptised by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins. But when he saw a number of Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism he said to them, 'Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is coming? But if you are repentant, produce the appropriate fruit, and do not presume to tell yourselves, "We have Abraham for our father", because, I tell you, God can raise children for Abraham from these stones. Even now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees, so that any tree which fails to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire. I baptise you in water for repentance, but the one who follows me is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to carry his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fan is in his hand; he will clear his threshing-floor and gather his wheat into the barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.'

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary  . . . . This week the Gospel reading in Italy is for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. In the English speaking world, we have a different reading and it tells of the coming of John the Baptist. I have adapted Don Fabio’s homily from two years ago to fit our Gospel for this Sunday. John the Baptist cries out in the desert, “Prepare ye the ways of the Lord!” The word “prepare” means “to turn your face towards”. This Advent we are asked to turn our face towards the way of the Lord. In reality, we are fixated with our own ways, our own plans, our own needs. To get ready for the Lord is not just a matter of sorting out a few bad personal habits. It requires turning ourselves towards what God wants to do with us. It means to make ourselves open to his saving action in our lives. We have made the Lord’s ways crooked in our lives! We have domesticated him, relegated him to forty five minutes on a Sunday! We have based the structure of our daily existence on our ways, our needs, and these ways are certainly not the ways of the Lord! They effectively block his entrance to our lives. Advent is a time for straightening the ways and letting the Lord enter. This involves the conversion demanded by John the Baptist. Conversion is the painful detachment from old ways. It involves a period of transition and transformation. That is what Advent should be all about, not talk about toys and presents, nor listening to Christmas carols long before Christmas has come, nor hanging up snowmen, reindeers and colourful lights! Someone is coming who is greater than John, someone who is the Lord of the universe and Saviour of the world! Let us leave aside our own ways and turn our faces towards him this Advent!

Whose ways must be straightened? The Lord's, or ours?

God enters our lives through this character, John the Baptist, who has been given the role of preparing the way, of straightening the path. Whose ways does the text intend to refer to? Sometimes when we hear this Gospel we think that it is our ways that need to be straightened. We surmise that we are being asked to straighten out a few personal problems and bad habits. But this is not the full story. The fundamental point is that we must prepare the way for Him. In the ancient text from the prophet Isaiah, the verb "prepare" ("prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord") means to "turn one's face" to the ways of the Lord; to stop being fixated with our own ways and to be attentive to the ways of the Lord. To begin to turn away from our own projects and plans and to turn towards His plans. To "prepare the way of the Lord", thus, does not so much mean to sort out a few bad habits before the Lord comes, but to make ourselves available for what He wishes to do with us, what He wishes to accomplish in our lives. So we have to make the Lord's way's straight. But why? Are the Lord's ways crooked? They are only crooked in the sense that we have twisted them! We have "domesticated" the Lord's ways and subordinated them to our own designs. The human being tends to view the world from the point of view of his own interests, and he tries to manipulate reality towards his own ends, his own rewards, his own needs. In this way, he transforms reality into a thing into which the Lord cannot enter. Man organises his existence in such a way that he has as much control over it as possible. In this way he makes crooked the way of the Lord and impedes God from entering. On the face of things, God might appear to have a place in this world of our own making. Perhaps we have relegated Him to forty-five inattentive minutes on a Sunday. Often, we domesticate God into an artificial corner of our lives and prevent Him from having a significant influence on our existence.

John the Baptist asks us to confront the comprises that impede the Lord from coming

We are experts in making the ways of the Lord crooked. The fact is that we fear the eruption of God into our lives, and we expend much effort in making His entrance as tortuous as possible. Then along comes John the Baptist who says: "Stop twisting the ways of the Lord. Stop turning prayer into a supplication for what you want, instead of what the Lord wants from you. Stop pretending that obedience to the Lord consists in a few external, publicly-seen, acts. Stop pretending that your attachment to worldly goods is compatible with the message of the Gospel."

            Our lives are composed of a series of compromises that impede the Lord from entering in a meaningful way. We distort the workings of our conscience and fail to form it in an honest and healthy way. We fail to place before our consciences the ways of the Lord. The Lord cannot come into our lives because we have barricaded the entrance, and sometimes the barricades themselves are elements of our lives that we have purportedly constructed in His name! To allow the Lord to enter we must descend into the profundity of our being and confront the ambiguities that make His entrance all but impossible. It is through these small and hidden "corrections" of the twisted path that the Lord will find a way in, not in ostentatious acts or attitudes.

Conversion necessarily involves painful detachment from old ways

John the Baptist invites us to open wide the doors and to undertake a baptism of conversion. Conversion is a fundamental notion that the church places before us at significant times of the year, such as Advent and Lent. Conversion is the transformation and transfiguration of man, and we are being constantly called to mature, develop, and bring to fruition the best of ourselves. This involves abandoning the ambiguities of our lives. The word "baptism" is a Greek term meaning to "immerse oneself", and it involves the complete annihilation of that which went before. We must leave behind in the water our old stagnant ideas and false Gods. Change of this sort involves pain, the pain of detachment from old ways. It is not possible to arrive at something new without leaving behind the old. For that reason John the Baptist is a necessary step for the coming of the Lord.

The transformation from ambiguity to authenticity is beautiful and life-giving

Why did the inhabitants of Jerusalem flock to John, to hear a message so austere and severe? The human being is always searching for the clear message of John, for something greater than the mediocrity of our existence, for a message that invites transformation from the crookedness of our lives, to live a live full of beauty and meaning. When Francis of Assisi embarked upon his life of penitence and simplicity he was persecuted by the middle-class families of Assisi because their children began to follow him. These young people could see the attractiveness and beauty of the life that Francis had to offer. The mission of John the Baptist involves a similar call to live authentically, to live simply, instead of twisting the message of the Lord to our own ends. John ate locusts and wild honey and dressed in camel hair. This was a man who had returned to the life of the desert that was so much a part of Israel's history. The time in the desert for Israel was a time of transition and transformation, the transformation that all of us are desperately in need of. We are misshapen and deformed in our lives of compromise and comfort. All of us need the time of transition that is the meaning of Advent.

Someone is arriving who is greater than John

Someone is arriving that is "greater" than John, someone who alone has the right to be our spouse. The expression "I am not fit to carry his sandals" refers to a Jewish marriage custom. If a man was betrothed to a woman but for some reason was unable to marry her, then before she could be given in marriage to someone else, the new spouse had to undo the sandals of the original candidate. John's statement emphasizes the fact that he is unworthy to take the place of the true spouse. That true spouse is coming, someone who is more powerful than the cleansing water of the Jordan, one who brings the new life of the Holy Spirit.

            Let us wake up this Advent! Let us try to take our lives in hand and get rid of the ambiguities that litter our existence. How beautiful it is to get rid of the dross and return to clear and simple lives of authenticity! Let us ask the Lord for an Advent of straight ways and genuine conversion.