December 19, 2007

“Am I preparing the way of the Lord?” This question was posed at the end of a homily I heard the other day. Amidst the external preparations for Christmas, the priest had asked: are we heeding the words of Saint John the Baptist?

I found this to be a good reminder. Indeed, Saint John the Baptist’s voice cries out to us today, in the desert of Advent. Each of us can ask ourselves: Am I making straight the road to God, or am I going a round-about way? Am I putting off changing something in my life that needs to be changed? Is there an obstacle in the path: a mountain of pride, or a valley of lack of charity, or something else which blocks the Lord from coming to me? Is there roughness in me, like harshness or impatience, which needs to be smoothed? In short, is there something more I must do to prepare for Christ’s coming?

Undoubtedly, we can each find something more on which to work. So let us all be busy about the most important Christmas preparation – that of my soul for Christ.

Sr. Cecilia Francis Jesse, CFR

Our Lady Queen of Angels Convent, New York, NY

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