Second Sunday of Advent Meditation with Fr. Philippe, OP

Gospel: Mt. 3: 1 - 12

St. John the Baptist is, so to speak, the desire of the Holy Spirit. He is entirely possessed by this thirst because of his great love for God and because of his great poverty. He sees the poverty of the people of Israel, and because he sees this poverty, he is the voice crying in the desert... When one's affective state is intense, more intense than others, one is always in the desert. To be in the desert is to love intensely. To be in the desert is to have an ardent desire. To be in the desert is to be poor. Because he is in the desert, he has nothing to lose: because he is poor, he has nothing to lose. Because he thirsts, he cries out: "Make straight the way of the Lord!" We must understand this cry symbolically. Pride as well as spiritual and intellectual riches, are the mountains, the obstacles that prevent the coming of Christ. Hence the poor have only one thing to say: "Make straight the way of the Lord," that is enter into poverty.

~ Fr. Marie Dominique Philippe, OP, Founder of the Community of St. John
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