Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

The Second Sunday In Advent (December 8, 2002)

Salesian Perspective

John the Baptist knew who he was. He was a prophet, sent to make ready the way of the One who would follow. His sense of that call was like a fire burning within him. The light and warmth of that fire drew people to him. His message was not as easy one to hear, but people listened and followed him nonetheless.

John challenged people to know who they are, people called by God into a covenant relationship. The demands of that relationship meant that they needed to straighten the path, to smooth out the hills and valleys of their lives. He challenged people to know themselves as chosen people, converted people, people of God. His presence and his message transformed his followers. Because John knew who he was, and because he called people to know who they were, the Lord's path was made ready.

To be who we are and to be that well, as St. Francis DeSales challenges us, means that we need to know where the hills and valleys of our lives are, to smooth and level them, to make a straight path that leads us to God. We are people created in love and for love; making straight the way of the Lord means a single-hearted focus on that call. It means having our love for God at the center of our lives.

I am not made for this world. There is some supreme good on which I depend. There is an infinite workman who has stamped on me this limitless desire to know and this appetite which cannot be satiated. For this reason I must strive towards him and reach out for him so as to unite and join myself to his goodness. I belong to it and I exist for it. (Treatise on the Love of God, 1:15)

Purifying our souls of whatever leads us astray is a challenging task and, in truth, the work of a lifetime.

The soul that rises from sin to devotion can be compared to the dawning day, which at its approach does not drive out the darkness instantly but only little by little… a slow cure is always the surest. (Introduction to the Devout Life, I:5)

Isaiah's comforting image of the Lord as a gentle shepherd reassure us of God's kindness and patience with our efforts. Peter's letter also assures us that God is patient with us and, like John the Baptist, Peter proclaims that God calls us to transformation, to be a people remade in his image. Challenge and hope are woven together. We are called to conversion, to transformation, to be the people we were created to be. The Advent season calls us to be who we are, beloved children of God, and to let go of whatever distracts our hearts from being that and being that well.

Kathleen Hope Brown in the Regional Director of the DeSales
Spirituality Center for Washington D.C. and northern Virginia.