Prepare the Way: Repentance Mercy
As we continue in this Advent Season journeying with the people of the Old Testament and awaiting the birth of the Savior at Christmas, we encounter John the Baptist in the wilderness. We are told in Luke’s Gospel, John is “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’” John proclaims a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. When you see the word ‘sin’, what comes to mind? Guilt, the rules, breaking of rules, maybe a particular sin? If we get to the root of sin, sin isn’t just breaking the rules, it is about breaking a relationship with God. It’s all about relationship, and it has been that way since the time of Adam and Eve when they severed their relationship with God in the garden with the Original Sin. So why do we receive a message of repentance as we prepare our hearts to welcome the Christ-child in the manger?
What is the movement from John the Baptist waking us up to recognize we need a Savior with the “good news of damnation” to the coming of Christ with the “good news of salvation?” How do we move from the darkness of sin to the bright light of God’s mercy? The key word is repentance. As Fr. Mike Schmitz (the famous priest who hosted the Bible in a Year podcast) says, “the road to love is repentance.” Because repentance means not just running back to God, but running away from anything that would keep us from God. Time and time again Jesus tells us in the Gospels to “repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.” But sometimes it is hard to repent, we don’t want to look at our ugliness, we don’t want to look at our sin or weakness. We don’t want to stop doing the things that hinder our relationship with God. We don’t want to change, we don’t want to do the work, we want to skip the pain of the cross and jump straight to the resurrection, but that is not the way of following Jesus. The way to salvation is through the cross. But fear not. Because as Jesus tell us in the Gospel of Luke 15:7 “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
And so, when a soul embarks on the path of repentance, it leads to mercy; God’s Divine Mercy. The word ‘mercy’ comes from the Latin misericordia, which in turn comes from the two words miseria, meaning misery or affliction, and cor, meaning heart. Which if we put them together, means to “to give heart to those in misery.” When God sees our sin, He doesn’t see a rotten, dirty person. God sees His child hurting and broken, and He desires to take away the misery that sin causes in our lives and to replace it with His healing love. This is the message of John the Baptist as he proclaims to all people to prepare the way of the Lord. It is an invitation to repentance, which leads to God’s mercy and ultimately brings us to a greater encounter with God’s love.
St. Faustina one of the great Saints of Mercy said, “All grace flows from mercy... even if a person’s sins were as dark as night, God’s mercy is stronger than our misery. One thing alone is necessary: that the sinner set ajar the door of his heart, be it ever so little, to let in a ray of God’s merciful grace, and then God will do the rest.”