We are John the Baptists
Do we have to be like John the Baptist, eccentrically dressed and scavenging for food, to prepare the way of the Lord? No. You and I are called to be a John or Joan the Baptist, preparing people’s hearts in our own time and place.
But we have to allow God to prepare our hearts for this role. John the Baptist challenges us to ‘Repent’, i.e. to turn around our own lives seeking God’s forgiveness. John then challenges us to see the big picture which is that ‘All who live shall see the salvation of God’.
Pope Francis is the exemplary universal pastor inspiring us to become ‘les mercifuls sans frontieres’. And young people through social media are already saying ‘We are one community of human beings on this fragile planet’.
The challenge for most of us is more immediate and apparently of smaller scope. The challenge this Advent is to identify the one person whose heart you can help prepare to celebrate the coming of the Lord Jesus in three weeks’ time. The best method is to let that person see your faith and joy centred on that little Jewish baby lying in a manger.
Do that, and who knows what may happen because that little baby is in fact the Sovereign Lord of history and of the whole cosmos. With God’s grace, you don’t have to be as eccentric or bizarre as John the Baptist to play your part in changing the course of history!
We could take a moment to pray that, repenting of our own sins where necessary, we may prepare the heart of at least one person so that the Lord Jesus may enter in this Christmas, helping him fulfil his mission that all who live shall see the salvation of God.
Reflection by Fr Michael Tate - © Fr Michael Tate; mtate@bigpond.com Source: https://www.liturgyhelp.com/calendar/date/2024Dec08/0/RefMiTa