It is necessary to make a preliminary consideration. The Church, in its wisdom over the years, offers us two phases in the development of this strong liturgical season, which is Advent. In the first, it focuses its attention on the second coming of Christ at the end of the times, when he comes with power and glory to judge this world. It thus presents us with the end of history, encouraging us to prepare for such an event. In fact, in some way we do this daily, perhaps without realizing it, when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, when we invoke “your kingdom come to us.” That kingdom that we implore is the consummation of history, the definitive and effective reign of Christ over the entire creation. We also ask for it every time we attend Mass, when we exclaim, immediately after the consecration: “we announce your death, we proclaim your resurrection, come Lord Jesus!” Jesus has already come, not only two thousand years ago, but, immediately before pronouncing these words, he came down to the altar again thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit and the words of the consecration, but being there present Jesus, we ask him to hasten his second coming, at the end of the times.
**The second part begins on December 16, coinciding with the novena of Christmas, when the solemn antiphons preceding Christmas are recited, which invite us to focus our gaze on the Mystery of the Christ Child. Let’s say that the first part of Advent invites us to look forward, to the second coming; the second part, on the other hand, backwards, to contemplate his first coming in poverty and humility. Why this successive change of perspective? Why first look forward and then backwards? Perhaps the answer is offered to us by Saint Bernard, who in some way “inflates” the comings of Christ by including a “third coming”, in this case, to our heart, in silence and intimacy. The meditations on Advent are intended to provoke that coming of Jesus into our hearts in the present, in the real time of our existence, which unfolds between those two clear theological comings: the first in Bethlehem two thousand years ago, the second at the end of the times, only God knows when.
**That is why the first figure to contemplate is that of the Forerunner, Saint John the Baptist. Just six months older than Jesus, sent by God to prepare for his coming, and to prepare for him “a perfect people.” In reality, Saint John the Baptist is part of what we could call “our time”, since his ministry is after the Birth in Bethlehem, and before the second coming. However, it constitutes the link between the Old and New Testaments and is anterior to the birth of the Church, with which the “time of the Church”, “time of the Holy Spirit”, our time, really arises… But his mission is very in line with the deep meaning of Advent, since it invites us to “look to Jesus” and to prepare for his coming: his second coming at the end of history and his third coming to our soul in grace.
In fact, Saint John points to him and leads his disciples to him. Let’s say that, in some way, we all have something of “Saint John the Baptist”, since our spiritual life can be understood as the mission of the Baptist: preparing for the second coming of Christ to this world with good work, offered to God, sanctified and sanctifying; and, secondly, discovering Jesus and pointing him out: discovering him in people, in our work, in family, social or political life, and pointing him out so that other people can discover him and follow him, so that society, the whole of humanity can orient itself towards Him, and contribute in this way to fulfilling what Saint Paul prophesied: “that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).
To live Advent well, there is nothing better than imitating the attitude of the Baptist. This attitude could be summarized in his humility, his keen awareness of being only an instrument or, to use another simile, of being the wrapping and Jesus the gift. Once the gift is received, the wrapping loses its meaning. The challenge, then – and it is a difficult one! – is to discover that the center of the celebration is not us, but Jesus. That the world does not revolve around us, but around Him. That we can say, with authenticity, like Saint John: “It is fitting that he (Jesus) grow, and I diminish.” Therefore, in Advent, we can make the effort to situate ourselves in our existential, spiritual, and religious reality. In a way, we can relive the discovery of Copernicus and discover, in wonder, that the center is not us, but Jesus, and take the necessary measures, take decisive steps, in order that Jesus be the center of our lives in reality, and not just in our desires or in our words.
In addition, we can often have the “complex of the Baptist.” What is this? It is feeling like him: “a voice crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord” (John 1:23, see Isaiah 40:3). Sometimes we feel that our cry falls on deaf ears, in barren land, no one listens, everyone ignores us. Sometimes Christians feel misunderstood in the world, if not strangers to it. However, we must not stop exercising our prophetic mission in society. God counts on it, even with the appearance of lack of fruits. Something analogous happened to the Baptist: his mission was to prepare the people of Israel to receive their Messiah, but as the other Saint John explains in the prologue of his Gospel: “He came to his own, and his own did not receive him” (John 1:11), in the end the people of Israel did not accept their Messiah and crucified him. The designs of God are inscrutable, but God counted on the mission of Saint John the Baptist, as he counts on ours.
To proclaim, in the midst of the world, that the end of the world is transcendent to this world, even though the world may not listen to us. As Pink Floyd would say: “Keep talking”, keep talking, keep sowing the seed of the Word, that the Holy Spirit will find a way for it to bear fruit, and fertilize the world and society. Do not tire of talking, do not cease to proclaim “the good news”, “with or without occasion”, “opportunely or inopportunely” (in the expression of Saint Paul). The dimension of the Baptist in our life is part of our baptismal vocation, of the prophetic charism with which we are anointed when we receive the sacramental character in baptism and confirmation. Especially with this last sacrament, which gives us grace and enables us to bear public witness to our faith. And this naturally, without extravagance or strange things, in the midst of society, through our family, professional, or social life, using friendship, we bear witness to Christ. We feel within us the strength of this mission, the responsibility of being up to it, and the commitment to ensure that our lives are consistent with it, as was that of Saint John the Baptist with his mission as Forerunner; if there is one thing that cannot be doubted, it is the authenticity of the character, and we also ask him to crown our entire Christian life with the seal of authenticity.
