“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Mt 3:1). The heartfelt appeal of the man that from his mother’s womb was selected as the precursor, resonates more than ever in our time. The one that would straighten the tortuous path and the wayward road of the people of Israel, is the luminous figure who the Fathers of the Church have identified as the ‘last of the prophets’, St John the Baptist.
St John’s cry in this second Sunday of Advent, re-echoes strongly in our hearts and resonates in our souls which are called to open wide the door to the Lord who is coming. We are invited to conversion so that we too may bring ‘good fruit as evidence of repentance’. (Mt 3:8)
Therefore, during Advent, as St. Augustine always affirms, we must ask the Lord for the gift of conversion, “do not ascribe to yourself the merit of your conversion: why, if God had not intervened to call you when you fled from him, you would not have been able to look back.”