John the Baptist, perhaps due to his pre-birth encounter with Jesus (See Luke 1:39-44.), followed the Spirit of God and created a new path – a path where he shows us that each one of us is preparing to meet the Lord face to face.

THE TRUE MEANING OF ADVENT

Advent is not meant only to be what many of us think it is – a time for remembering  Jesus’ birth and using the Christmas season to let those around us know that we and God appreciate them. More importantly and most often neglected, it is a time when we should ponder that we are coming closer to the time when Jesus will come again and we should be readying ourselves and each other for that time.

What filled the people of John the Baptist’s time with expectation was his response to “What shall we do?”

“He said to them in reply,
“Whoever has two cloaks, share with the person who has none; whoever has food, do likewise.
You tax collectors, stop collecting more than prescribed, soldiers, don’t practice extortion, don’t falsely accuse anyone.” (Luke 3:10-14)

Do you think John meant to change what we are doing or to change who we are and what we want, and that will change what we do? And, if he does mean change who we are, we need to turn to God and the wisdom of the Spirit-centered Holy Mother Church for guidance and assistance.

AN ADVENT AND NEW YEAR CHALLENGE

If we are not already doing it, let’s create a new Advent-Christmas-New Year tradition. Let this be a time, not only of “good cheer” but also a time when we let God guide us and our everyday life through the path that the Holy Spirit, in response to Jesus’ request that the Father send her to guide us. 

USING LITURGICAL YEAR READING AS GUIDES

The Holy Mother Church has given us the Liturgical Year Readings (First Reading, Psalm, Gospel) to serve us as our weekly plan. Ponder them before you come to Mass (and evn on days when you cannot come to Mass) being open to the Spirit speaking to you personally, not so much vocally but by what in the words moves the Baptism-placed Spirit within you (or, if you have not yet been Baptized, the birth-placed spirit within you). Encourage others to do likewise, so that when we gather for Mass and when we leave Mass and go back into our everyday life, we will be a bit more ready to meet God and, in so doing, be more of the person God is trying to help us become.

What John the Baptist did for us was move us to see that the Old Testament model (of a Tribe of Levi priest being in the Holy of Holies while the people were outside praying)  – this Old model – has become the New Testament model of every one of us praising and walking with God everywhere – in the temple (church), in our homes and neighborhoods and travelling down the highways and byways of our everyday lives.

Do you see that? Could that be the reason God became a man – to make us see things as the were before the Genesis-storied Fall? Was that the way it was supposed to be when the first human was created – God and each of us sort of in the style of a “first cousin, once removed” – during that inbetween time (post-Fall through pre-Incarnation)? 

Where have we been headed since the Incarnation but in that original state into which God created us and the Spirit is guiding us: heading toward the fullness, the One-to-one seeing of the Second Coming?

Sister Loretta