Prepare, make straight the Lord’s path

We think of life as a journey and we are all travelers on its paths. I say ‘paths’ because not all of us travel the same road and not all of us see our way. Why? Many of us lose our way because we have chosen to take the crooked road. We prefer the crooked road. It seems better than the straight one. The crooked road has so many bends, so many nooks and crevices where we can stop our travel and hide or rest in pleasure. We get a false sense that the road we travel is short and pleasurable at every turn. If we choose the straight path, we are in full view of earth and sky. We cannot hide anything. We are seen and the open space makes us visibly any angle. We cannot play truant and there is hardly any respite as we labor to reach our destination. The road is a difficult long distance travel and seems unending.

Such are straight people. They are not afraid to be in the open because in their life there is nothing to hide. They do things in all honesty; with purity of intention, they act without dissimulation, without manipulation. They present a spade as spade. In the world they move in, there is that courageous stance that doesn’t mistake black for white and vice versa. But the clarity with which they witness to what is good, there is no mistaking evil for good. They travel a seemingly unending road but in the vast open space, they see horizons hitherto not visible to the crooked.

For the crooked see only their own selfish pleasure. And that pleasurable moment becomes the end of the road with them. Until they discover that no matter what their goals, because the means they use to attain these goals are as crooked, and because crooked, the road-bends the hidden nooks and crevices seem to end with every pleasure of a complacent smugness. A very deceiving way of seeing our journey of life, because the satisfaction seems the end of their travel. Until there is an awakening to the fact that there is still the long untravelled distance. And we do not even realize that. We continue on dilly-dallying with our worldly ways. We fail to move on towards the realm where the Kingdom of God is.

We are again looking forward to the joyful feast of Christmas. Most of our preparations consist in the glitter of tinsels, the money which will buy us the best foods, the best wines, the fabulous home decor, all the signature clothes, perfumes, cosmetiques, footwear we see advertised; and we are after getting them even at the cost of incurring debts, or even getting the cash we need by resorting to scam or plunder. But after we have gotten all these things, do we attain to the real joy of Christmas?

The call of God through the mouth of John the Baptist is a signal to our nation and for that matter all nations: "Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight His paths" (Mt. 3:3). When we think how vast is the forest of crookedness which unmakes our country at present, and we ask how do we straighten everything this call is, indeed, "a voice of one crying in the wilderness." The Baptist says: "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand . . . Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance" (Mt. 3:2,7).

There is this assurance that if the crooked will straighten, the real joys and blessings of Christmas are promised: "He shall judge the poor with justice, and decide alike for the land’s afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Justice shall be the band around His waist, and faithfulness a belt upon His hips" (Is 11:4-5). Here and now, the present calamity brought by typhoon Winnie, with a whole mountain crumbling mercilessly on every house and occupants in a tragic landslide, is God’s judgment on illegal loggers who have cut down every tree and all other nature’s reinforcements for the integrity of environment.

May the Spirit of the Lord rest upon our people who follow the straight road, who repent and make atonement for every wrongdoing which bring us out of the way of the Lord’s paths. This is the right way to the Kingdom of God, the preparation we are all asked to make, to merit the true joy of Christmas.

Second Sunday of Advent, Matthew 3:1-12.