Advent Means Achieving 'Real Conversion'

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Special to the Herald
(From the issue of 12/16/04)

The following homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde at the Mass celebrating the Third Sunday of Advent on Dec. 12, 2004, at Blessed Sacrament Church in Alexandria.

This is a story told about one friend announcing to the other that "the Messiah is here!" So, he went to the window, looked out and returned shaking his head negatively. "No," he said, "the Messiah is not here because nothing is changed."

Whether true or not, that story is similar to the dialogue just proclaimed in today’s Gospel reading. John the Baptist sent a message through his disciples to ask Jesus: "Are you the one who is to come" — in other words, are you the Messiah — "or should we look for another?" How does Jesus respond? By pointing to signs: "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them." Jesus, in effect, is saying: "Go back and tell John that things have changed — things are different — tell John that the prophecy of Isaiah — some of what we just heard in the first reading is being fulfilled, because Isaiah prophesized that things would change and be different when the Messiah came."

We are preparing to celebrate the anniversary of the coming into this world, among us, of the Messiah. On Christmas, we not only recall Christ’s Birth but we relive it. Yes, the Messiah has come and things are different; the permanence of sin and death has been destroyed, so salvation is possible and eternal life awaits. Yes, the Messiah has come and things are different: the living Word of God is being preached, the Sacraments are being celebrated, the Church makes visible the Other and On-going Presence of Christ in the world and all this for almost 2,000 years since the Birth and subsequent Death and Resurrection of the Messiah, of "the one who is to come."

Yet, another question is being asked of us: Are we changed, different — converted is the word — because the Messiah has come? Can people see in us the signs, however limited and uneven, of His Presence? Preparing for Christmas is so much more than giving gifts to parallel the Gift God gives us in His Son, much more than sending greetings to parallel the Good News of God that a Savior has been born, much more than decorating trees and homes with lights to parallel the coming among us of the Light, God Himself. Preparing for Christmas means letting the Messiah come into our lives, letting Him change us, so that His Presence can be reflected by us and through us. This means, on our part, real change, real conversion. That is the message which a key figure on the Advent scene — John the Baptist — proclaims: "Reform — change — prepare for the coming of your God!"

He tells us this because he knows so well that there cannot be an embracing of Christ with one hand and a hanging on to sin with the other. What in us needs reform? renewal? change? conversion? Where are we blind? crippled? deaf? lifeless? The leprosy of sin has disfigured us, has it not? If the Messiah is allowed by us to enter into our hearts, His redeeming grace can free us from our sins: the signs of His Presence will be evident, even if uneven and limited. Oh, we can prepare the right way, the best way, the only way for Christmas by letting "the one who is to come" come into our lives in a way and to a degree that we never have before.

But, in this preparing, in this effort to let the Messiah come to us, we must be patient as St. James reminds us in the second reading. Patient — not in the sense of taking lightly the call to conversion, but patient in the sense of admitting our human limitations and persevering in our efforts, aided by God’s grace, to let the Messiah’s coming become more real and active within us. Patient, in the sense of struggling and never giving up! Patient in the sense of trusting in God Who alone can save us. Patient in the sense of acknowledging that in the end, God alone can complete and crown our efforts — with salvation.

Yes, the Messiah has come, "the one who is to come" is among us. We do not need to look for another. That is an absolute fact. We are called in this third week of Advent to allow this absolute fact to become real within us, to invite the Savior into our hearts by confessing our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and by opening our hearts in welcome to Jesus who comes to us in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. If we let "the one who is to come" come to us, His Presence will be evident in our words and actions, in our attitudes and way of life. People will sense better and more surely that Christ has come, that Christ is present, that Christ is leading us to salvation.

No more beautiful prayer can we make — now, today, and all through Advent than this: "Come, Lord Jesus, come and save us, come and live in us, come and make Your Presence known through us!" Surely, we will pray these words and even more live them — you and I, this Advent and beyond!

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