Fr. Jorge Miró shares with the readers of Exaudi his commentary on today’s Gospel, Sunday 10 December 2023, entitled “Prepare the way to the Lord”.
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The Word of God that we proclaim this second Sunday of Advent is a serious and profound invitation to conversion.
The Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begins with this call of St John the Baptist: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight!
What is there to prepare? In the psalm, we sang: “Salvation is at hand for his faithful”. Prepare the heart to welcome the Lord, the Saviour.
This preparation is conversion. But what is conversion?
To be converted is to ask yourself, what is your relationship with Jesus: curious? sympathetic? doubtful? pious? To be converted is to be a disciple.
A great temptation you can fall into is to think that you are already converted, that you don’t need conversion, that you are already good enough and therefore there is nothing to change in your life, or, on the contrary, to think that your life is hopeless, that it is not worth the struggle because you cannot change your life.
To convert is to trust in God, to trust in his Word and to let his Word illuminate and change your life; it is to let Jesus Christ be Lord of your life, of your whole life! Let there be no corner of your heart, no “plot” in which Jesus Christ is not Lord. Let Jesus Christ be Lord of your marriage, of your priesthood, of your religious consecration, of your courtship, of your youth; of your entertainment, of your work, of your money… of your whole life!
To convert is not to live according to the criteria of the world, subject to the sway of fashion or the impulses of your passions; but to live with the same sentiments and attitudes as Christ Jesus, obeying the will of God the Father (cf. Phil 2, 5-11).
To be converted is not to live in the pride and arrogance of those who think they are the masters of their lives, but in the humility and simplicity of the disciple who lays down every day at the feet of the Master to ask Him: Lord, what do You want of me?
We must not be afraid of weakness, but of pride. The humble one comes to the Lord, like the tax collector in the Gospel, to ask for a new heart. The proud man closes his heart to God because he believes that he himself is the god of his life.
To convert is not to live the faith alone, but to participate in the family of Jesus’ disciples: the Church.
To convert is to recognise and humbly confess one’s sins, and to hand them over to the Lord, who has left us the beautiful sacrament of Penance to give us his forgiveness and to reconcile us with him.
To convert is not to reduce being a Christian to moralism, to compliance, but to live the faith every day as a gift, as a life of friendship with the Lord, who loves you and wants to enter your heart to be Lord of your life and give you everything. He wants to come to give you a word of comfort, as the first reading tells us.
To convert is not to live every day in murmuring, resentment, suspicion or doubt of God’s love, but to look at everything with the eyes of faith and to live in blessing and praise.
If you open your heart to him the glory of the Lord will be revealed, you will see that Here is your God, that the Lord God comes with power and his reward precedes him. That “like a shepherd he gathers the flock, his arm gathers the flock, he takes the lambs in his arms and makes the mothers lie down”.
If you welcome Jesus Christ, the Lord, the Saviour, you will see how He baptises you with the Holy Spirit and does in you the work of the new creation.
Courage! God loves you! He is calling you to live a new life, so open your heart to him!
Come, Holy Spirit!
