"Prepare the way of the Lord"! We hear these words at Mass today both in the First Reading from Isaiah and in the Gospel. The Gospel describes the appearance of John the Baptist and his role as the one that Isaiah speaks of, the one who will go before the Lord at His coming, to prepare His way. John the Baptist does this in the most literal sense possible by calling people to conversion, to turn their hearts back to God. He also does this by pointing forward to the arrival of Christ. He says, "One mightier than I is coming after me."
John the Baptist becomes for us the very model of this Advent season. This season is about preparing the way of the Lord, and John shows us how to do that. First, we do it by making room for God in our
own life. This is the conversion to which John calls his audience, to turn away from sin and back to God. The best way for us to prepare for the coming of Christ this Christmas is to turn our hears back to Him and away from the things that stand in the way of our relationship with Him. This is something we don't just do once but that we keep doing over and over again. For every time we fall, God is waiting for us to turn back to Him.
The second way of preparing the way of the Lord is to point Jesus out to others, as John does. We can do this by reminding people of the true reason we celebrate Christmas. I'm all for the songs, movies, food, and presents, but underneath our celebration is there must be the true cause of our celebration: that our Savior has come, that God has become one of us. We prepare for the coming of Christ by opening our own hearts to God and by inviting others to do the same. We can't, however, give what we don't have, which is why it is necessary that we first make room for God in our own life.
This season is ticking by, but there are still two good weeks left until Christmas. I invite you to use that time to prepare the way for the Lord, so that when He comes he may find a place in our hearts and in the hearts of those around us.
Pax Vobiscum
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