The gospel of today is about John the Baptist. This cousin of Our Lord had the special mission of preparing for the coming of Christ. He helped the people to become receptive to the message of Christ.
In fact, a number of the apostles were once upon a time followers of Saint John. That is why we say that Saint John was the “precursor” of Christ.
In order to prepare the people for the public appearance of Jesus Christ, John preached a message of repentance and conversion. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2).
In order to be receptive to the good news of Christ, the people had to have a heart that was well-disposed. They had to be ready to change themselves and rectify their ways.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were considered to be the respectable people of Jewish society. They were all witness of the sublime teachings and miraculous works of Christ.
Yet, they remained stubbornly in their unbelief. Many other people, on the other hand, were ready to rectify their lives.
Some, like Zacchaeus, the publican; and Mary Magdalene, the public sinner, had very serious sins to atone for. But because they were ready to change, they could receive the teachings of Christ, even if they had a dark past.
We can find a similarity for this need of repentance, in human relations. If we meet somebody with whom we have some point to settle (may atraso as we would say in Filipino), we cannot really have an authentic encounter with that person.
The atraso is between us. We would end up talking about irrelevant things, avoiding that ticklish topic that we need to settle.
Likewise, in receiving Christ, we need to settle our differences first. And the most serious obstacle between God and ourselves is sin. That is why repentance and conversion were the conditions that Saint John announced for the reception of the Kingdom of Heaven.
During this time of Advent, as we prepare for the coming of Christ, we need to increase our desire for conversion.
Many Christians go to sacramental confession during this liturgical season, in order to prepare themselves for Christmas.
Of course, we all have a natural reticence to go to confession. It can be quite uncomfortable to examine ourselves in order to acknowledge our sins and errors and, on top of that, we have to confess these sins to a priest.
But if we truly want to be repentant, if we truly want to remove the greatest obstacle between the merciful God and ourselves, we should be willing to swallow our pride and go to the sacrament of reconciliation with God.
That reconciliation will bring along with it the joy of returning to our Father’s home.
1 comment
You wrote: “…Mary Magdalene, the public sinner, had very serious sins to atone for”. Is it a Hollywood bible you are reading? Where do you see that Mary Magdalene is ‘the’ public sinner, or even simply a sinner? I do not get this continuous use of Mary Magdalene to prove a point. It is, in fact, disrespectful and certainly does not produce a good image of how ecclesiastics represent Jesus’ love for everyone.