Petition: Lord, I want to know you, so that by knowing You, I can love you, and by loving you I may never stop following you.

Gospel Passage: Matthew 3: 1-12

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." Now John wore a garment of camel's hair, and a leather girdle around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit that befits repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. "I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

Introductory Prayer: Lord, you called and prepared John the Baptist from all eternity for this special mission of being that voice which cries out in the desert. Help me to prepare myself for that which you have called me to do, so that when you come once again at Christmas I may have something already prepared; ready to give to you as a gift.

1. Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

Even now, at a distance of two thousand years, the thunderous call of the ascetic John echoes clearly. In our times when the word sin is the most politically incorrect noun, it is hard for us to imagine how Johns contemporaries accepted his call as an obviously necessary, even if unpalatable, truth. The soldiers, peasants, tradesmen and bureaucrats who lined the banks of the river to be baptized knew what sin was and they knew that they were sinners. It was an unambiguous term, which referred not to a sense of emotional failure nor to an intellectual misunderstanding nor to a weakness due to psychological conditioning from childhood. No, it was a fearsome reality: an offense against the God of Israel, who had revealed himself to the prophets and holy men of Israels past as the thrice holy God: In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" (Isaiah 6:1-5)

Johns contemporaries echoed their ancestors reaction to the vision and came to be baptized.

2. For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

Historians point out that the Jews had heightened expectations of the Messiahs arrival around the time of John the Baptist, possibly owing to the prophecy of Daniel. Their excitement is understandable since their very identity as a people came from being the people of the promises of Yahweh. As the Blessed Virgin Mary said: He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his mercy according to the promise he made to our ancestors of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever. (Luke 1: 54-55) These promises from the time of Abraham were constantly recalled through Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah and all the prophets: God remembers his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham... (Luke 1:72-73)  Yahweh had revealed that these promises would come to be through the mysterious figure of the Messiah.  John knew from his father Zechariah that he had been sent by God who from on high will bring the rising Sun [the Messiah] to visit us, to give light to those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death... (Luke 1:78-79)  He, John, was the herald of the longed-for of Israel, the fulfillment of the millennia of promises of Yahweh.

3. The Decision is at hand

St. Paul in the letter to the Romans wrote: But now the righteousness of God has been manifested! (Romans 3:21) We now live in the Messianic times of the last age (the worlds last night may be tonight or in trillions of years) when Gods redemption has been accomplished and nothing more remains to be either revealed or done for mans salvation. It is accomplished said Jesus Christ on the cross.  Each man is placed before Jesus Christ and says yes or no to his Savior. St. Paul put it tersely in his letter to the first Christians: The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach); because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved.  (Romans 10:8-10)

Conclusion:

Advent! Time of stark affirmation of the fact that a terrible beauty is born: Jesus Christ your Savior has come on earth and offers you the fulfillment of your humanity through acceptance of the full truth about man which can only be found in Him. Turn from all that hinders you, sin, and turn others from sin towards our Savior.

Conversation:

Lord, when our world lay in ruins you raised it up again on the foundation of your Sons Incarnation; give me the grace to repent of sin in my life this Advent so that I may rejoice with the awareness of true freedom and divine life on Christmas Day.

Questionnaire:

1. How deeply am I aware of my sinfulness?  Does my awareness of the horror of sin stand out more clearly when contrasted with the holiness of God?

2. What sins from my past life can fill me more powerfully with an awareness of the depth of evil present within me and of my need for salvation through Christs grace?

3. What am I being called to convert from in my life this Advent?