John the Baptist decided early on to lead a life of holiness.  He came out of the desert because this is the place where prophets, holy men of God, are formed. The desert is a vast wilderness and only the strong of spirit can even survive. Without any distractions, he is honed and hears God calling him to prepare for the coming of the Messiah.

The Jewish people prayed for over two thousand years and it was their great hope that God would send the one promised by Moses, the one spoken about by all the prophets, the Holy and Blessed One of God that would set the captives free.

And so, dressed in camel’s hair, existing on locusts and honey, he came to the people of Israel with a strong and simple message: “Get ready for the coming of the Lord. Make open your hearts to receive him.”

In short this is what he is saying: “Hear my voice. It is time to turn your lives around.”  He came preaching the gospel of repentance.

Repentance comes from the word “metanoia.”  It means more than just repentance, it means to get down on our knees and truly seek forgiveness for our sins. It requires a complete change of heart. 

This is what John the Baptist is referring to when he speaks “make straight his paths and every valley shall be filled”.

St Paul gives us a clue of this in the second reading, “that our love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help us determine what is best, so that we may be pure and blameless when we meet the Lord.”  As you can see, we should be constantly growing in love.  Not only that, our Lord loves us too much to keep us in our current state.

And, of course, Advent is a time when we should be focusing on this type of growth.  It is a time we reshuffle our lives to look at what is important and what isn’t, to strive to become holy and all that our Lord desires of us.  This is the purpose of the Advent season.

My friends, when we prepare our hearts, and cooperate with God’s grace in this time of Advent, even though it can be difficult, come Christmas we will fully experience the presence of Christ in a very profound and personal way.  It is a gift from God more than anything else, more than all the distractions that Christmas tends to be focused on in our society today. 

Jesus is that gift to each one of us.  And it is up to us to open that gift, receive it wholeheartedly and truly embrace our Lord.  It is not something that is embraced with a lukewarm heart.  My dear friends, it is God’s will that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life.  To believe in our Lord means to have true repentance of heart, metanoia, to make a 180 degree change towards Him and His ways. 

All glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Deacon Mike Seguin