Advent

One

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

Today is the beginning of Advent, a roughly four-week period to get really focused on opening up our soul to receive Christ in a greater way at Christmas. John the Baptist is the key figure of Advent. His mission is to get us ready.

The Gospel tells us John the Baptist went through the whole Jordan district proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, crying out, “Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight…” He said to the crowds who came, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.” And to those who came to be baptized by him, he said, “Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is coming? But if you are repentant, produce the appropriate fruits, and do not think of telling yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’ because I tell you, God can raise children for Abraham from these stones. Yes, 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.” 

When all the people asked him, “What must we do?” He answered, “If anyone has two tunics he must share with the man who has none, and the one with something to eat must do the same.” There were tax collectors too who came for baptism, and these said to him, “Master, what must we do?” He said to them, “Exact no more than your rate.” Some soldiers asked him in their turn, “What about us? What must we do?” He said to them, “No intimidation! No extortion! Be content with your pay!”…As well as this, there were many other things he said to exhort the people and to announce the Good News to them.

Two

Conversion

John stated boldly the first step in his plan to prepare the people for Jesus. He said, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” 

Repentance in the original Greek is metanoia, which means to convert, to change from sin to goodness, from vice to virtue. 

Okay, so how do we convert? There is only one way. Conversion is brought about by prayer. But I don’t mean just saying prayers. I mean meditation on the word of God with a resolution. Read or listen to something from the Word of God, comprised of Scripture, Tradition (the writings of the Saints), and the Magisterium (the teaching of the Church). 

Reflect or think about what struck you by asking questions. Do I live what Jesus is teaching or the example He is giving? What is the difference between Jesus’ teaching and example and the way I think, feel, or act? That shows our need for conversion and growth. The difference between the teaching/example of Christ and my own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, exhibits how I need to change. And this should form the basis of my resolution. 

Finally, make a resolution. Choose something practical and concrete to do that day based on your meditation.

Three

Growth in Virtue by the Resolution 

To those who came to him, John the Baptist said, “If you are repentant, produce the appropriate fruits…” Then all the people asked him, “What must we do?”  He answered, “Share with the poor, don’t exploit people, no intimidation! No extortion! Be content with your pay!”

He told them to look fearlessly and honestly at the way they behaved and to pick a concrete practical way to do what is good. He gave them practical examples of a resolution.

The whole point of the resolution is this: It does the people no good to hear John the Baptist, and it does us no good to hear Jesus if we don’t put into practice what they said. The only way we will convert and grow from bad habits to good habits, from vice to virtue, is if we practice the good actions. 

So every day we need to choose some concrete practical good thought or action to put into practice. Without the daily resolution, we will not only not change, in fact, we will get worse, and we will grow in vice, which is the root of being vicious. 

If you can’t think of something, then just try to remember what struck you today from your meditation because if you keep that thought in your mind all day it will change the way you think and act and you will bear the fruit of repentance. 

Four

Examination of Conscience and Confession 

John prepared the people to receive Jesus by a baptism of repentance and we are told they were confessing their sins. John’s baptism of repentance was a preparation for Christian Baptism. But you have already been baptized. So what we need to open our souls to receive Christ this Christmas is the Sacrament of Confession. And to make a good Confession we need to do a good examination of conscience. 

What most prevents us from a deeper conversion is a lack of awareness, a lack of reflection upon our lives. We don’t learn by experience. Rather, we learn by reflecting on our experiences. 

Every day take a few minutes to do a brief examination of conscience. It only takes a couple of minutes. It can be done at the end of the day or the beginning of the next day. 

Try this: Look back over the last 24 hours on your thoughts, words, and actions. Identify where you did what was wrong or failed to do what was right. Then ask, why did I do that? What were the feelings or disordered desires that prompted you to fall? When you can identify those, you are getting to the roots of the problem.

Finish by making a concrete game plan to act differently. You could incorporate this into your daily resolution from meditation. Then go to Confession.

Five

John the Baptist pointed other people to Jesus. John said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” He led Andrew and John the Apostle to Jesus.

We should do the same, but how? What is an effective way to lead people to Jesus without being annoying? Well, Our Lady has been appearing with a greater frequency and urgency, asking us to pray the Rosary. In a sense, she is saying, “Lead people to me, their Mother, and I will help them open up to Jesus.”

So let’s do that. This Advent let’s share the Rosary podcast with someone, invite someone to pray the Rosary with us, form our Rosary groups.

So, John the Baptist gives us our Advent plan: Conversion through daily meditation and a resolution, examination of conscience and Confession, and leading others to Jesus through Mary.