Monday, June 24, 2013

Preparing the Way for the Lord


Today we celebrate the Feast of St. John the Baptist.  John’s mission was to prepare the way for the Lord, “to turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God” (cf. Luke 1: 5-17). John would go before Jesus and turn people’s “hearts toward their children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.” 

The Lord says to us:

(Insert your name), that, too, is your mission.  As a I turn your heart back to me when you stray in disobedience, so, too,  are you--more so by example than by words—to be an instrument of grace by which others turn back to me as well.

(Insert your name),  just as I was at work in the lives of Zachariah and Elizabeth, who were faithful Jews and were looked down upon by their own people—not having children was considered a punishment for sin—so, too, am I working as Savior and God in the lives of people today who are committed to their faith.

Just as I sent John into the world to “prepare a people fit for the Lord,” so, too, do I send people today into the church of today, into families, into government, into all segments of society to prepare a place for Me.  I continue to raise up prophets today.  I continue to send “John the Baptists” into today’s wilderness to prepare for my coming, my presence in the world in order that my Father’s  will is accomplished.

I call you to be a significant part of this mission.  How you live--what you say or leave unsaid, what you do and do not do, prepares the way for Me to enter into another  person’s life. You are a means of salvation, a light that shines in the darkness, a voice that sounds in the wilderness of today, as much as  John the Baptist was in his day.

What is my response to the Lord’s invitation?

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