“St. John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness” (detail)
by Anton Raphael Mengs
A Daily Reflection for Advent…
“All praise, eternal Son, to thee,
whose advent doth thy people free;
whom with the Father we adore
and Holy Ghost for evermore.” *
– – –
* Closing verse from
“On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry”
by Charles Coffin.
The words of this hymn serve to remind us of the incredible gift we anticipate and prepare for during Advent.
The best things in life are worth working for… sacrificing for… waiting for. This is a reality that too many in the developed world, especially in the West, but increasingly elsewhere, have forgotten or have never experienced. This is the generation and the age of instant gratification. It’s been so now for at least several generations. And there is a coming price to be paid.
The first indications of the coming price is the fact that the things of this world that we think we cannot live without… those things that we buy and claim even when we do not have the resources to do so… well, they simply do not satisfy. We know this. We have experienced it repeatedly.
But we don’t seem to learn. John the Baptist cried out for us to prepare the way of the Lord. He called us to a different life than the one we live. Now is the time to try something different… something radical.
Let’s choose—emphatically intentional—to work for, to sacrifice for, to wait for the one gift that will satisfy… the gift of great price that is absolutely free… the gift of God With Us—Jesus, the Christ.
Come, Lord Jesus.
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