To awaken from our sleep, to be prepared, to throw off the works of darkness and to put on an armor of light – these were some of messages we received last weekend at Mass at the beginning of our Advent season. In these words we heard from Jesus himself last week, we were called to have hope as we prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord during this holy season. This Sunday, the 2nd Sunday of Advent, our Gospel message comes from that John the Baptist, the last in the line of the great prophets of Ancient Israel. We don’t find John preaching inside the Temple in Jerusalem or in one of the great centers of learning in Israel. Instead, he comes to us out of the desert. He presents himself as a strange figure wearing clothing made of camel’s hair, eating odd foods such as locusts and wild honey. If John the Baptist wandered into our church today, we would probably be shocked at his presence and his message. As John prepares the way of Lord and to make straight the path for his arrival, his message helps us prepare our hearts and lives for the coming of our Savior.
As we could sum up the message of the 1st Sunday of Advent in the word “hope,” today’s message could be summarized in another important Advent word – “repent.” Our English word “repent” comes from that wonderful Greek word – “metanoia” – but our translation really does not capture the full meaning of the Greek concept of that word. We could start by seeing repentance as a change in our minds and our hearts, but repentance is certainly much more than that. Repenting demands an initial action, but I don’t think John the Baptist saw the call to repent as something that was accomplished in one action. Metanoia and repentance mean that we turn away from our old ways and old self, turning toward God instead. By repenting, we not only transform our minds, but also our attitude, our spirituality, and our entire being. In our modern American view of Christianity, we often see repentance as turning away from a particular sin. However, repentance it much more than that. It is turning our entire life away from all that separates us from God.
We might need to open ourselves to a new interpretation of repentance and to be open to those experiences that God introduces into our lives in order for us to discern where God is calling us to be challenged and transformed. We might want to think about a time in our lives when we through a process of repentance and transformation. As we enter the Advent season, I think of how at this time of the year back in 1992, I left my job as a CPA to work at a soup kitchen in a very rough inner city area of the city of Winnipeg, Canada – a place that was very, very cold most of the year. I went from working in a white collar business world to serving a very desperate population that was on the fringe of society. As a missionary, I was called to live a very simple lifestyle that was similar to those whom we served. Yet, as I look back, I see that whole experience in Winnipeg as a missionary as a wonderful gift from God, a gift that transformed my life in so many ways. I was so affected by the relationships that I made there, by living amongst the poor and the street people, by sharing their pain, their struggles, and their angst. I would not have the compassion, the deep faith, and spirit of social justice I have today without having had those experiences. To be honest, I probably would not be a priest today at all without having worked in Winnipeg as a lay missionary. At times, it was very raw and challenging working at that inner city soup kitchen in Winnipeg. I had to endure things I never dreamed I could endure, including riding a bike all year round in the one of the coldest cities in North America, with ice and snow covering the ground many months out of the year. I remember riding to midnight mass on Christmas eve in Winnipeg when the real temperature was minus forty below zero. I also remember lying on the ground in the middle of the street after my bike hit some black ice on my way back from the soup kitchen late on a Sunday night. I knew I was hurt, as I got up and walked over a mile back home with my damaged bike. I didn’t realize until the next morning when I experienced excruciating pain and was taken into the emergency room that my hip had popped out of its socket when I wiped out on the ice. I literally saw black and blue and just about passed out when the emergency room doctor popped it back in. But, looking back, those challenges and these stories that I now can tell were very small struggles and inconveniences compared to the blessings and the transformation I had from those missionary experiences. Yet, I had to be open to metanoia in my life of faith – I had to be open to God’s ability to transform me and mold me and help me change my ways according to his will.
I remember a seminary friend of mine asking me if I felt that I would have a metanoia experience as a priest, if I would find a transforming spirituality in my life as a diocesan priest since we were not going to be guided by a particular spirituality that a Franciscan or a Jesuit or any other religious order priest would have guiding and shaping his life. And, really, that is the challenge all of us have as Christians, as followers of Christ in the modern world. We all need to be open to metanoia, to repentance, to transformation this Advent season. The coming of Jesus into the world as a little baby in a manger in Bethlehem, the salvation that his ministry, death and resurrection brought to humanity transformed everything. How open are we to transformation this Advent season?
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