In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar's reign,
When Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
Herod,
Tetrarch of Galilee,
His brother Philip,
Tetrarch of the lands of Enteria and Traconitus,
Licinius,
Tetrarch of Abilene,
During the pontificate of Annas and Syophus,
The word of God came to John,
Son of Zechariah,
In the wilderness.
He went through the whole Jordan district,
Proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
As it is written in the book of the sayings of the prophet Isaiah,
A voice cries in the wilderness,
Prepare a way for the Lord,
Make his paths straight,
Every valley will be filled in,
Every mountain and hill be laid low,
Winding ways will be straightened and rough roads made smooth,
And all mankind shall see the salvation of God,
The gospel of the Lord.
This time of Advent,
Where we take stock and prepare for the most blessed time,
The time that Christ is born.
It's also a time where we can recognize that things are not always right.
If we take a look at the world at the moment,
I wonder what message John the Baptist would have given us.
Repent.
This time of disease and uncertainty and fighting and unlove that we share.
I think the message of John the Baptist is exactly the same.
Repent.
But now,
What does it mean?
Does it say that we have to repent in a specific way?
I don't necessarily think so.
Because we each of us have our own experience of God.
We each of us have our own expression of spirituality.
So,
When we listen to the message of John the Baptist,
Maybe we can see in it that its message is much more general than only for a select group of Christians.
Much more valid for the whole world,
No matter what your spiritual or religious expression and experience might be.
Now that's a big thing to say because the idea of repentance is very much one of the Abrahamic religions.
Let's take a look at why we need to repent because the Christ is coming,
God is coming.
Clear the way for God.
Christ came to share the message of love,
A love that is unconditional.
And I believe that the message of Christ and that love that is unconditional far transcends what we express in our spiritual lives.
We might have an inkling,
Each of us,
Of what that love is,
But not a complete picture.
All these labels that we put on ourselves and on others,
More on others than on ourselves I would think,
They just complicate things and they put things in the way of Christ.
Clear the path for Christ.
I think that message to me means that we should stop trying to force our way of thinking,
Our way of expression of life,
Of spirituality on other people.
And that's not saying that we shouldn't honor the way that we do ours.
I absolutely adore being a Catholic.
I adore this beautiful altar.
I adore spending time with God in the way that I understand God.
But when I start to try and force other people to adore God the way that I do,
Am I not doing the opposite of what John the Baptist said?
Am I not then trying to put hurdles in other people's way?
Because John said to make the way for Christ,
And the message of Christ is that of love,
Is that of an unconditional love.
So,
In this Advent time,
On this second Sunday,
Let's maybe think and recognize the path that everybody is walking on,
And we can honor that path.
And I'm not saying don't share.
The reason why even at a home chapel I would record and do live events is so that I can share the way that I understand it.
And maybe somebody else can learn something from it,
And they can take something and make it theirs.
And I love spending time with other people,
Discussing religion and their experiences of their God,
Of God.
And learning from them and taking from them,
And trying to grow in my experience of God,
Of the mystery.
Isn't that beautiful that God is mystery?
We cannot draw a picture and say,
That is God.
I read something very interesting,
Actually it was an audio recording,
Where they asked,
What is your image of Christ?
Do you think Christ to be somebody who would be attractive to the modern Western person?
Was that the true image of God,
Of Jesus Christ?
No.
I don't think we do really know what Christ looked like.
So,
How can we then take it even further and say what God looks like?
Does God look like anything?
Maybe not,
Maybe.
Maybe God looks like everything.
And if that's true,
We need to take a very hard look at ourselves.
And we need to look at how we judge those who don't look and act and think,
And respond the same way that we do,
Live the same way that we do,
Pray the same way that we do.
Maybe not even pray.
How beautiful is it to witness those living lives of constant communion with God,
Where they don't sit down and pray,
Ever.
Because they are aware that every single moment is a moment of prayer.
So,
In this coming week,
I would like for us all to just perhaps focus on taking away the obstacles that we put in others' lives.
Taking away the obstacles we put in our own lives.
Society says I need to see Christ and I need to live my life in this specific way.
And then we feel guilty if we don't.
How silly is that?
So this week,
My prayer is that we all make way for the Christ.
So that we can experience God,
And we can all experience a life that is filled with joy and blessings,
And an awareness of the unconditional love of God.
Amen.
