Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 3,1-12
John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea
(and) saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: “A voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.'”
John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.
At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him
and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.
When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.
And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Peace to all my brothers as sisters listening in today.
Think different, Prepare, Purge
1. Think different. Apple’s clever slogan to think different captured the imagination and encouraged a generation of to a new innovative way of thinking. In a similar way,
metanoeō, the Greek word we translate as repent means to change ones mind or way of thinking.
This can only be accomplished if we are humble and truly honest enough to admit we are wrong. This advent we are invited to confess our sins, that is acknowledge where we have failed to love and then make amends, that is make a firm effort to change.
Cantalamessa the popes preacher pointed out that, every time this word was used in the Bible up until Christ it meant one was being called to return to God precisely by stopping what one was doing and making a u-turn, if you will that is, going back to observance of the law.
This was because it was believed that one could only be saved by going back to observance of the law.
On the lips of Christ however repentance took on a whole new meaning. Jesus revealed salvation could not be acquired through observance of the law but rather was a free gift he won for us.
This means that repentance is not about trying to go back and follow all the rules in order to get into heaven but rather a response to Jesus’ offer of heaven which he opened to all of us as a free gift.
The generosity and love of this offer invites us to respond generously and loving to this gift and so moves us to want to change.
The point is that we cannot earn Heaven by following the law but rather can only receive it as a free gift in gratitude and choose to desire to live the teaching of Christs’ love more authentically.
2 Prepare. The whole point of repentance is to prepare a place for God in our hearts. The Greek word hetoimazō. is drawn from the ancient oriental custom of sending out people ahead of the king in order to level the roads and make them passable. That is precisely the preparation we need to do with our hearts in order to prepare a place for our king to dwell within us. Only when our king sits in the throne of our hearts can his reign of love rule in us.
3 Purge. This preparation can be hard work and even painful as it’s a process of purging anything in my heart which is not of God.
It’s clearing out any false idol, attachment or addiction that could be an obstacle for our king to arrive. The Greek word diakatharizō describes nothing less than a thorough cleansing. We must not try to merely make room for God by moving things around but rather sweep up the dirt and throw it out, scrub every nook and cranny and so purify our hearts totally if we want Christ to be born within them this Christmas.
To be clear, John the Baptist makes a point that there cannot be anything superficial about this cleansing preparation. It is not just about trimming or pruning our bad behavior, or curbing our bad habits but rather resolving to rooting them out all together – completely.
May God bless you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Always remember heaven is our goal.
Your contribution help us to continue with our mission
God Bless You!
