During Advent we hear much about preparing. Who better to hear from in our Gospel today than John the Baptist. John truly worked
to prepare the way of the Lord. The earliest reference to John is at the visitation, as Mary greets Elisabeth, the baby leaps for joy in her
womb. This is John. So even before his birth John recognized the presence of the Lord in Mary’s womb. When John starts preaching,
his preaching is one of repentance, of making straight the path. John is always clear that it is not about him, he always points to Christ.
When Christ steps into His public life, John steps out (he is imprisoned and killed). How can we prepare the way for Christ? How can
we point to Christ?

One way is to never make it about ourselves. Sometimes it can be easy to make it about ourselves, maybe by a gift or talent that we have
worked to develop. But ultimately, who gave us that talent? The Lord did, we just worked with Him to develop it. Maybe we have been
successful in business by making good decisions and growing the company. Yet again, this should be seen as gift. One of the best ways
to see what we have, is to view it all as gift from God. A second way is to, like John the Baptist, keep pointing people to Christ and not
to us. Help to introduce people to Christ. It is easy to think everyone knows Him, more and more this is becoming less true in our
world. Our mission fields are no longer just those far off countries, it is our big cities. Places where they may have all the luxury of living
but have lost the meaning of life. Many of us were brought up with the faith, more and more our kids today are not being introduced to
Jesus Christ. They do not know who He is and what He has done for them. It is a new kind of mission field these days. We all need to
be pointing people to Christ.

How do we prepare ourselves for this Advent? I am hoping you have been taking advantage of some of the Advent materials that we had
out on the round table. Changing up or adding to our prayer during this special season can really make a difference. Having Advent
traditions also helps remind us of the season. I will never forget how my brother and I would look forward to lighting the Advent candle
before dinner, more so on Sunday when you got to light a new candle, or to the Nativity set with the kings moving about the room as
they traveled to see the Christ Child. I remember too the old Advent Calendar we had as kids, each day held a part of the Christmas
story to be read (each day continued the story), each day also held a felt ornament that you then got to put on the tree above. I once
looked for that old Advent Calendar of my youth, never sure what happened to it. Perhaps after I grew up it was so well used that my
mother got rid of it. Maybe one of my siblings has it, or it is still stored away somewhere. I have picked one up and used it for a few
years. It is not the same as when I was a kid. I currently really don’t have a lot of Advent or Christmas traditions myself. It is hard for
me, as a priest, to be able to really place myself into Advent. I end up being so busy running around with penance services, that I am not
around much.

Yet it is nice to spend some time reflecting on Advent and all that Mary and Joseph went through as they awaited that very special birth.
It was filled with wonderful moments of knowing God’s special love, and with, I’m sure, many moments of worry and concern. Howev-
er, they were surrounded by God’s protection. Think about all the many ways the birth could have taken place?? Yet God decided to
come into this world through this young girl with little standing, being born in a manger, since there was no room in the Inn.
I pray we will all make room for Jesus Christ in our hearts this Advent.

Blessings,
Fr. Backer