"Voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord” 

4th Sunday of Advent(2024-12-22)

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen. 

The words we have just quoted from the Gospel were spoken, preached by Isaiah the prophet seven centuries before the birth of the Savior.

 

Centuries later, SJB will appropriate this title as the Lord's forerunner or herald: "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said. This is he who is to come after me, who is before me.” 

St. John the Baptist’s special mission was to prepare the people to receive the Messiah. And that is why the Church repeats the same words to us in the liturgy, for as Holy Mother Church teaches, we must prepare ourselves each year for the threefold advent or coming of Jesus. 

What is the first advent? It is the Birth of the Word, God made Man. It is not that we are waiting for the Savior's Nativity as if it were something in the future, something yet to be done, something yet unaccomplished. 

No. That’s not the case. Advent is the time when the whole Catholic Church, throughout time, echoes the ardent pleas and tears of Old Testament

prophets and saints from Adam and Eve to Saint John the Baptist. If we do the math, those are more than 5,000 years of supplications. 

To this longing for the coming of the Messiah from the Old Testament saints, the Catholic Church adds her own pleas and supplications throughout these 2 thousand years and will continue to do so until the end of the world. 

Why? Hasn’t the Messiah already come? Because the Incarnation of God not only depended on the supplications of the Old Testament saints but also on the supplications of all souls saved, whether in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, thanks to His Incarnation. 

That is why God the Father who looks down upon us from all eternity gathers the supplications of the Old Testament saints and those of the Catholic Church until the end of the world and after having heard them all at the same time, in one eternal present, then He decided in the same eternity to send his beloved Son in time, so that he would save the world. 

The second advent is the coming of the Savior in the Church and in every baptized soul. This advent occurs in the Church every time the feast of Christmas is celebrated. The Catholic Church in this festivity obtains from her Divine Spouse abundant supernatural graces for the devout and well disposed souls. 

That is why the great difference between those acts that commemorate certain events and the festivities of the Church. Because the Church in her ceremonies of every liturgical time obtains for the faithful who live in God's grace the very same graces that the shepherds and the Magi had received by adoring the God made Man and Son of Mary in the manger. This is why the Church incorporates historical events into her ceremonies so that they may serve as sensible signs of the graces proper to, but invisible from, each feast. 

And when does this advent occur in souls? This new birth, not corporal as in the manger, but spiritual coming of Christ in the souls occurs every year when the soul prepares itself spiritually as those patriarchs and prophets had prepared for it, and then attends with devotion the Christmas ceremonial festivities. The spiritual birth of Christ occurs concretely when the soul 

is united with Him in the Holy Communion received fruitfully on this blessed day. 

And when is the 3rd advent? It is that day that is to come, that day that of the Final Judgment. It is that last day that will open the doors of eternity for us. How to prepare? 4 things according to St. John the Baptist: "Every mountain shall be brought low... Every valley shall be filled... The crooked shall be made straight... the rough roads shall be smoothed out.” What do these refer to? 

1. Vigilance: a constant work to combat our personal or maybe even frequent faults; regularity in the reception of the Sacraments (Confession & Communion); the practice of Christian mortification. 

2. Prayer: in the context of the season of Advent, prayer would be the union of our thoughts with those of the Old Testament saints to ask for the coming of the Messiah (let us remember that God sees our prayers from eternity) and thus pay the debt that all humanity owes to divine mercy and goodness. 

3. Conversion: let us aim at true conversion. Conversion is half-hearted when we detest sin but not the pleasure that follows from sin. Conversion is not merely a matter of having: having grace, having the promise of heaven after death, having merit. No. True conversion is a matter of being: 

to be God's children and to be truly so. 

4. Reparation: can be done with every prayer and every good deed in daily life. To commit a sin is like hammering a nail on the wall where there should be no picture frame, let alone a nail, in plain sight. Absolution in Confession takes the nail out of the wall and out of our conscience. But what do we do with that big out-of-place hole? That’s where reparation comes in. 

-Let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary for the grace to be able to really prepare ourselves this Advent so that we can have a very holy and therefore happy Christmas.

Fr. Ferrer