Friar Luciano Audisio comments on the Gospel of the Second Sunday of Advent. In light of the figure of John the Baptist, we are invited to enter the inner desert, to listen to the voice of God, and to convert our gaze to discover that all of life is a gift.
John the Baptist: the beginning of a new path
Today we find ourselves before a central moment in the Gospel of Matthew, when John the Baptist appears in the desert, announcing the nearness of the Kingdom of Heaven. Matthew, the most “Hebrew” evangelist of the four, invites us to look at Jesus as the fulfillment of the entire history of Israel: He is not only the awaited Messiah, but also the fullness of Israel’s vocation, to be a light to the nations.
The desert: a place where silence and God speak
John appears in the desert—in Hebrew midbar, “the place from where the word comes”—, and this word teaches us something profound: the desert is that space where all voices are silent, where we can hear the unique voice of God.
Thus, the desert is not only a physical place, but our heart, that inner desert where we need silence for God to speak. There, in the stillness, arises the Word that saves us, purifies us, and transforms us.
To convert is to look beyond
And what does John tell us? His first message is clear:
“Repent” (μετανοεῖτε).
The Greek word metánoia does not only mean “repentance” in the moral sense; it literally means “to see beyond”, to transform our way of thinking and perceiving.
To convert is to change our gaze: to look at life, our land, and our daily reality as a gift, as the true promised land that God entrusts to us.
We do not need to perform great feats to draw closer to God; we need to open the eyes of our heart and contemplate His presence in everything that surrounds us.
Prepare the way of the Lord: prepare the heart
John quotes the prophet Isaiah:
“A voice of one crying out in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord.”
To shout in the desert reminds us that our voice must also resonate in the inner silence, there where we hear the word of God.
To prepare the way of the Lord means, first of all, to prepare our interior, recognizing that our life and our land are a gift that we must receive with gratitude.
John, a passionate prophet
The evangelist describes John as a radical man: dressed in camel skin, with a leather belt, feeding on wild honey and locusts.
His appearance speaks to us of his passion, of his total surrender before the imminent coming of the Lord.
To recognize God, we also need that passion, that openness that transforms our body, our way of living, and of situating ourselves in the world.
Crossing the Jordan: re-entering the promised land
Many people came to John from Jerusalem and all of Judea, crossing the Jordan. This gesture was not only geographic: it symbolized the re-entry into the promised land, the recognition that they had lost awareness of the gift that was their life and their land.
Thus, baptism in the Jordan reminds us that each of us is called to enter again into reality as a divine gift, with new eyes and a grateful heart.
Jesus, who introduces us to the fullness
Finally, John announces that Jesus is the one who introduces us definitively into this promised land:
“He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire.”
This Spirit is the very gaze of God, His eternal love, the intimate life of the Trinity.
Jesus invites us to participate in this Trinitarian life, to contemplate creation and others with the same loving gaze with which the Father contemplates the Son.
Entering the inner desert
The Gospel challenges us to enter our own inner desert, to listen to the voice of God, to prepare our hearts for the Lord.
It calls us to convert our gaze, to recognize that everything we have, everything we are, is a gift.
And, above all, it invites us to allow ourselves to be transformed by Jesus, who leads us towards the fullness of life and towards the true promised land: a heart where the Word of God dwells and makes us live in light and hope.
Lord, prepare my heart for you; help me to see my life as a gift and to receive your Spirit with joy.
