In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, the world was not anticipating the coming of Christ. The Roman Emperor – Caesar Tiberius – had handed over control of the state to Sejanus, a corrupt commander of the Praetorian Guard. Pontius Pilate – an ill-tempered man who took pleasure in abusing Jewish customs – was governing the Province of Judea. Herod – the ruler of Galilee – was engaged in an incesteous marriage. Even the Jewish high priesthood was controlled by the scheming family of Annas. To put it bluntly, the world was not ready to meet its Maker. Into this world stepped John the Baptist.<\/p>\n
John the Baptist was an odd fellow. He dressed in camel skin; he ate locust; and he preached like a prophet with fire in his belly. It wasn\u2019t, however, his dress or his diet that caught people\u2019s attention – although those things certainly helped. People stopped and listened to John because of his message: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight<\/em>. His message caused people to ask questions. What Lord was his talking about? And what was this business about straightening paths? Of course, as Catholics we know that Jesus Christ is the Lord – and we straighten his path through repentance.<\/p>\n The early Church Fathers pointed to the three comings of Christ. The first coming was Jesus\u2019 Incarnation and birth. The third coming is when Jesus will come again in glory at the end of time. The middle coming – the hidden coming – is the present moment. Jesus comes to us in every moment – if we let him. He comes to us through the sacraments. He comes to us through prayer. He comes to us even in our suffering. But if we do not prepare for Jesus\u2019 coming, we will not be ready to greet Him. How, then, do we prepare for the middle coming of Jesus? We prepare for the middle coming of Jesus in precisely the same way as we prepare for his final coming. We repent of our sins. We cast out every idol from our hearts. We straighten his path – and then we await his coming.<\/p>\n In this Advent season, the Church reminds us that in order to receive Jesus, we need to prepare.\u00a0 We prepare for Jesus by turning to Him and asking Him to purify our hearts. This preparation needs to be our own intentional decision. Let us not be like Caesar – who relinquished his responsibilities instead of accepting them. Let us not be like Pilate – who scorned the people of God instead of serving them. Let us not be like Herod – who violated the laws of God instead of trusting in them. Instead, let us be like those who heard John the Baptist. Let us repent and prepare for the coming of our Lord.<\/p>\n Ian Mahood<\/strong> – St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta<\/p>\n Fot. Kai Gradert\/Unsplash.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" II Sunday in Advent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,18],"tags":[140,134,139,39,141],"class_list":["post-1924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-strona-glowna-najnowsze","category-strona-glowna-slider","tag-comings","tag-glory","tag-ian_mahood","tag-jesus","tag-john"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n