St. Mary's Church Elizabeth, IL

Prepare the Way of the Lord Advent P2

I found a story about Leonardo da Vinci who while working on this famous painting “The “last Supper”, had an argument with a certain man. He lashed out at him with bitter words and threatening gestures. When the argument was over the man left and DaVinci went back to his canvas where he was working on the face of Christ, but he couldn’t make a stroke of his brush. He realized what the trouble was. He put down his brush, sought the man he had offended, asked for forgiveness, then returned to is work and continues painting the face of Jesus.

True or not, the story is a part of our life. Like da Vinci we are trying to put Jesus into the masterpiece we call Christmas. We want Jesus to be the center of our Celebration. With His birth only a few weeks away, we hear a strong voice of John the Baptist crying out:” reform your lives because the reign of God is at hand?”

The Greek word for repent is ‘ metanoeite’ which in the modern English means “think differently’, ‘change the inner man’-with reference to acceptance of the will of God. It suggests conversion, real reform of lives, total turning to God.

When John proclaimed the baptism of repentance, the Jewish people were expecting a savior, a Messiah. Much as we await the coming of Christmas. The biggest obstacle for the coming of Christ to us and, to being able to receive him, is SIN”-the disobedience to the will of God. We must prepare the way for Lord by getting rid of sin, acknowledging that we are sinners, repenting, confession, reforming ourselves.

Just as da Vinci couldn’t work on the face of Christ because of hostility toward another person so we cannot really work at putting Christ into Christmas so long, as we do not recognize our sinfulness, so long as we are not truly sorry for having offended God in so many was. We must return to the Lord if Christmas is going to have any meaning for us!

Is it missing Sunday Mass without a valid reason? Am I neglecting prayer? Causing upset in the family by treating its members badly? Drinking and driving, driving and texting? Hurting a person with my words? What am I not doing that I should have done?

There are way preventing Christ from coming to see at Christmas. There are barriers that must be removed. Then we will be able to see the face of Christ clearly and give Him a warm welcome. We need God’s healing mercy and love.