Advent Week 2: Prepare the Way
Week 2: Repentance
“Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths,” (Luke 3)
Before Jesus began His public ministry, Saint John the Baptist began his. From the wilderness, He echoed the cry of Isaiah, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths” (Luke 3). During the second week of Advent, the Church, in her Gospel readings, repeats that cry. The birth of the Savior draws near, and we are called to prepare the way for the Lord—in our homes, as we decorate, bake and shop, and in our hearts, as we repent from sin.
In our current culture, repentance seems out of place during Advent. It doesn’t go with twinkling lights, wrapping paper, and Bing Crosby. But the repentance of Advent isn’t the repentance of Lent. During this season, the Church doesn’t call us to fast and don ashes. Instead, in the spirit of the holy Babe, born in Bethlehem, she calls us to practice the trusting repentance of a child. She invites us to throw ourselves into the arms of our Father, confident in His love, joyful in the certainty of forgiveness.
Practicing that kind of repentance starts by understanding that true repentance is so much more than mourning our sins. It’s also rejoicing in God’s mercy. Repentance is always a two-fold movement of the heart. It’s a turning away from sin and a turning towards God, first admitting what we’ve done wrong, then running as fast as we can to our loving Father.
The devil, however, doesn’t want that. He wants to keep us mired in our sin, far away from God. So, he lies to us.
First, he tries to convince us that sin is not sin, that evil is good, and wrong is right.
When that doesn’t work, he tries another lie. He fills us with fear about what life will be like without some particular sin, and whispers that we’re too weak to let that sin go.
If that fails, his next tactic is overwhelming guilt. He wants us to think our sin so great, so horrible, that God’s mercy can’t touch it. He wants us to focus on our sin, to look at it with shame and self-loathing, to keep so busy flogging ourselves that we forget to turn and see the loving gaze of the Father.
And that’s the devil’s last trick, his ace in the hole: to make us doubt that loving gaze. He wants us to see God, not as Father, but as Judge, Jury, and Executioner. He wants us to believe that when we turn to the Father, we will only see judgment, condemnation, and the same persistent loathing we see staring back at us when we look in the mirror.
That’s the biggest lie of all. It’s also the one for which we most often fall. Adam and Eve fell for it in the Garden when they hid in shame. We continue to fall for it when we live in shame, always lamenting our sin, but never letting the guilt of it go and never letting the Father do the healing work, He wants to do.
This Advent, reject the lies. Don’t get stuck justifying your sin, leaning on your sin, or holding fast to it in fear. Run from it, straight to the Father. Fly into His arms. Never doubt His mercy. Never doubt His love. You are His pride. You are His joy.
Remember, the Lord has seen every wrong you’ve ever done or ever will do, and He still wants nothing more than to hold you close forever. He knows your every weakness, every failing. There is no dark corner of your life or heart that is hidden from Him. And He loves you still. He is waiting for you. He is longing for you. He is standing ready to fill the darkness with light, to heal and transform everything in you that is broken and hurting. Don’t keep Him waiting any longer. Repent. And prepare the way for the Lord.
Questions for Reflection
1. Do you struggle to believe in God’s mercy for you?
2. What helps you trust in His forgiveness?
3. What do you need to turn away from this Advent?
4. What is holding you back from turning away from that sin?
5. What is a sin of which you have already repented? How is your life different now after that repentance?
6. What helped you move away from that sin and towards God in the past? What does that teach you about what you need to do now.
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