Browsing The Seed

Make Straight His Paths

make straight his paths st. john the baptist

St. John the Baptist features prominently during the Advent season because He is the final precursor leading up to the advent of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. He is the greatest of all who were ever born of woman (cf. Mt. 11:11), and the only prophet who was blessed to see the One of whom he was sent to prophesy. In St. John, the Old passes over to the New, the setting sun of the Mosaic Covenant gives way to the rising Sun of the Eternal Covenant in Christ. Even the cosmos reflects this: we celebrate John’s birthday in June, as the days begin to shorten, and then in December the days begin to lengthen as we celebrate the birth of Emmanuel, the dawn of eternal life.

St. Matthew tells us in our Gospel this Sunday that Isaiah prophesied about John, saying He is as “a voice of one crying out in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths” (Mt 3:3). John was sent ahead of Christ to call men and women to prepare their hearts for God, to make straight the paths of their lives so that the Messiah may approach with speed and ease along straight, smooth paths. How are our paths made straight for the Lord, and how are our hearts prepared for Him? Through repentance: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Mt. 3:2). Jesus did not come into our world so we could remain basically decent people, He came to make us holy through the perfection of our love: “Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect (Mt. 5:48); and to the repentant woman caught in adultery He didn’t say “Go and be nice” – He said “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more” (John 8:11). Jesus’ very name means “God saves” and Joseph and Mary were to give Him that blessed name for one reason: because through Him and with Him and in Him, God would save His people from their sins (Mt. 11:11). The very presence of Jesus in our lives is always bound up with that essential mission for which He was sent into our world: to save us from our sins.

Our sins are like stumbling blocks we place on the path between ourselves and the Lord; if grave, they even lead us off that path and cause us to be lost. Sin is the thing that makes our paths crooked and rough, and if grave it is the only thing that has power to separate us from God. But God is a warrior, and He stops at nothing to win us back to His love when we’ve gone astray and wandered from His paths. In Advent, Jesus calls us to conversion, to deeper and more robust repentance. As our Faith teaches, “Baptism is the principal place for the first and fundamental conversion” by which we receive spiritual rebirth and the new life of the sons and daughters of God. But “Christ’s call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of Christians” because “the new life received in [Baptism] has not abolished the frailty and weakness of human nature, nor the inclination to sin that tradition calls concupiscence, which remains in the baptized such that with the help of the grace of Christ they may prove themselves in the struggle of Christian life. This is the struggle of conversion directed toward holiness and eternal life to which the Lord never ceases to call us” (Catechism, 1426). This conversion is accomplished through conformity: a more and more perfectly realized conformity of our hearts, minds, souls, wills, and bodies to the heart, mind, soul, will, and body of Christ. To sum it up in a phrase: idem velle, idem nolle – “the same likes, the same dislikes”. The goal of the Christian life is to bring our affections and loves into alignment with the affections and loves of Christ, and to reject anything that falls out of alignment with Him. 

Day of Grace Confessions all day december 14, 2022Through the voice of John, crying out, the Church invites her children to repent in these days of all those things that do not please the Lord, in order to convert their lives more totally to Him. The Sacrament of Confession is the essential means of accomplishing this in our lives following Baptism. If we are burdened by grave sins, making a personal and complete confession “followed by absolution remains the only ordinary means of reconciliation with God and with the Church” (Catechism, 1497). Even the confession of venial faults is highly recommended, because what kind of love only says “I’m sorry” when a grave offense has been made? We should never fear this great sacrament or reject it – such fear and rejection is not of God, but of the enemy, and should not be heeded – because abundant consolations flow from it. By this sacrament the sinner receives: “reconciliation with God by which the penitent recovers grace; reconciliation with the Church; remission of the eternal punishment incurred by mortal sins; remission, at least in part, of temporal punishments (purgatory) due to sin; peace and serenity of conscience and spiritual consolation; an increase of spiritual strength for the Christian battle” (Catechism, 1496). God works a profound excavation of our souls in this sacrament, and through it the path between the Lord and the soul is made straight, preparing the way for a deeper experience of His loving mercy and consoling presence. May God bless you in the week ahead, and may Mother Mary lead you more deeply into the Sacred and Merciful Heart of Jesus. I remain,

Affectionately yours in Christ,

Fr. Hess

Advent Christmas Schedule 2022

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