9781644135945

The Christmas Cycle
in the wilderness; make straight the way of the Lord. . . . I indeed baptize you in water, . . . but
He that shall come after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall
baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire” ( Jn 1:23; Mt 3:11).
Christ calls our attention to this same John in the Gospel. “What went you out into the
desert to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went you out to see? A man clothed in
soft garments? . . . A prophet? Yea, I tell you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it
is written: Behold, I send My angel before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee” (Mt
11:7–10). John is a man of retirement, a man of God, a man given to penance and self-denial,
a man devoted to Christ, a man of deepest humility. Behold, then, the man who prepares the
way for Christ, first in his own heart, and then in the hearts of others. John is surely an example
for us, and personifies the spirit of Advent.
The Baptist is a symbol of the Church. John is long since dead, beheaded by the cruel Herod.
He fell a victim to the revengeful spirit of a woman, but he lives on in the Church to which he
passed on his mission. In the liturgy it is the Church that now prepares the way for Christ on the
Jordan. When Advent comes, she also withdraws into the wilderness to live alone with God a
life of abnegation and recollection, and to preach penance to men. “Bring forth therefore fruit
worthy of penance,” she cries to all her children. “And think not to say within yourselves: We have
Abraham for our father [for we have been baptized]. For I tell you that God is able of these stones
to raise up children to Abraham. For now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore
that doth not yield good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire” (Mt 3:8–10). Do penance,
for the Lord is nigh; “Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly cleanse His floor and
gather His wheat into the barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire” (Mt 3:12).
John is again manifested to us in the Mass and in the appearance of Christ at Christmas
and Epiphany. “Behold the lamb of God, behold Him who taketh away the sin of the world”
( Jn 1:29). The Church offers us Christ and His grace in the sacrament of baptism and in the
Blessed Sacrament of the tabernacle. Through her teachings and dogmas and morals, through
her sacraments and in her liturgy and in her spirit, we come, to Christ, the Redeemer. We must
listen attentively to her teachings during Advent and enter with a determined will into the spirit
of the season. Through the Church we come to Christ.
Each of us should be a forerunner of Christ. Of each of us Christ should be able to say: “He is
not a reed shaken with the wind.” He is established by the Spirit and immovable in his Christian
principles and faithful to his mission. Whether men ridicule him or praise him, whether His affairs
prosper or fail, he does not waver. He is firmly established in his faith and in the love of God and
of Christ. He is not clothed in soft garments. He is a true John, a man of penance, of self-denial,
of self-control. Like another Baptist, like men of true Christian character, we should go forth
to meet Christ as often as He comes to us in the Mass and in Holy Communion. During these
weeks let us live in the spirit of the liturgy and of the Church. Thus we may be sure of preparing
for a fruitful Christmas and of making the graces of the season more complete and more effective.
Prayer
Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the way for Thy only-begotten Son, that we may be able
to serve Thee with clean hearts purified by the coming of Him who liveth and reigneth with
Thee forever and ever. Amen.
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