It is not insignificant that John the Baptist conducts his ministry of repentance in the desert, for this is the place of God's mercy. It was in the desert and through the desert that God showed mercy on Israel and let them to the Promised Land. It is in the desert that we will come to find God's mercy in our own lives. The desert requires detachment and divestment of things to which we are attached. The harshness of the desert humbles us quickly, leading us to seek mercy and to realize our finitude and dependence on God alone.
Some who come seeking this mercy are confronted by John, and so are we. We come seeking mercy, come to take part in this external ritual, but does our outward participation conform to our inward disposition? Here we are confronted with the meaning of a sacrament: a visible sign of an invisible reality. If our visible actions are not in agreement with our interior disposition then we have not really experienced God's mercy. We make a mockery of it by an empty outward show just to impress others.
Advent is a time to seek God's mercy and to be repentant. The condition or way in which we know that we have encountered God's mercy in our lives is if we are merciful to others, if we are more loving and compassionate. We cannot seek mercy if we ourselves are not willing to show mercy. This reality is what John the Baptist confronts us with today.
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