Advent Repentance

“You brood of vipers! Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.”

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

“Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

“The chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

With this attitude, I don’t think anyone will be inviting Saint John the Baptist over for dinner, or even a beer.

Saint John preaches an inconvenient truth many don’t want to hear, a truth which eventually cost him his head.

His preaching, even when read today, has great urgency. The Lord is coming and we must be ready.

Just as it’s unexpected for a fragile, green shoot to sprout from a dry, hard and dead tree stump, the Lord will come with all his glory where and when least expected. Think of a tree stump – it is useless. You can only dig it out and get rid of it by burning it. Yet Isaiah prophecies that out of a useless, dead stump will blossom something new, something beautiful.

Isaiah announces that the Lord will come where least expected.

John the Baptist announces that we must be ready.

When the Lord comes he will judge not by appearance or hearsay, but he will judge with justice giving to each what they deserve. He will strike the ruthless and slay the wicked. At his coming he will bring balance and harmony to all creation: the wolf will be a guest of the lamb, the lion will eat hay like an ox and a baby will play in a cobra’s den.

We must repent in preparation for the coming of Christ.

We must invite him to transform our hearts which so often are like a tree stump: hard, dry and dead. So many hearts become useless and the Lord can only throw them away into the fire.

The Lord calls us to repentance so that a shoot may sprout from our hearts; so that there may be new life.
Pope Francis, in the opening of his exhortation “The Joy of the Gospel” published last week invites us to pray, “Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord, take me once more into your redeeming embrace.”

Blessed Bartolo Longo was born to a wealthy family near Naples, Italy in the 19th century. He drifted away from his faith as a young man, publicly ridiculing Christianity and meddling with the occult. As he drifted even further, he was ordained a Satanist priest and reported having diabolical visions as well as spiritual beings that visited and accompanied him at all times. His dealings with the occult led him to experience deep depression and anxiety. After a mental breakdown, a good friend directed him to a priest, Friar Alberto. Bartolo repented but still despaired over his past sins. He renounced the occult saying that it was nothing but a “maze of error and falsehood.”

He wrote, “As I pondered over my condition, I experienced a deep sense of despair and almost committed suicide. Then I heard an echo in my ear of the voice of Friar Alberto repeating the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary: ‘If you seek salvation, promulgate the rosary. This is Mary’s own promise.’”

Blessed Bartolo Longo writes that these words transformed him, he fell on his knees and promised to spend the rest of his life spreading devotion to the Blessed Mother through the Holy Rosary. He used personal funds to rebuild a church near his hometown, today the Pontifical Sanctuary of the Holy Rosary at the gates of the well-known archeological site of Pompeii, Italy.

From one repentant sinner who allowed himself to be found by God, from one repentant sinner who accepted God’s mercy, from one repentant sinner who had become a worthless tree stump, God made a shoot sprout, blossom and produce great fruit.

From what seemed useless for God’s kingdom, a Satanist priest deep in things contrary to God, thousands of souls have grown closer to Christ. John Paul II called him the “Apostole of the Rosary” when he was beatified in 1980.

The life of Bartolo Longo reveals the power of a repentant heart.

Blessed Bartolo Longo heard the voice of John crying in the wilderness, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” May our lives, like his, also be transformed by God; may Christ produce great fruit even when all we have is a tree stump.