The most celebrated Christian festival of Christmas is approaching fast and one has surely witnessed lit up Churches and homes with a star or a Christmas tree. And for sure by now some homes, as also churches, must have erected a crib in a symbolic stable to show the poverty in which the child Jesus then took birth.
While these are external preparations for Christmas, not to mention Santa Claus there playing his own role, adding to the festive spirit, on a closer scrutiny, one would also witness believers making a beeline to “confessionals”, as part of spiritual preparation for Christmas. Going to “confession”, is actually a unique practice among Catholics, prescribed as one of the seven sacraments to help the faithful to put his/her faith in practice. Though one actually confesses one’s sins to God, one does that through a human representative in the person of a priest.
Though going to confession is only one of the means suggested while moving towards Christmas, the important gospel passage that inspires people to launch on the path of spiritual preparation, is found in Luke’s gospel. They were pronounced by John: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all people will see God’s salvation.”
In addition, John told them, “Repent and produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” The gospels tell us that John had the task of preparing the way for Jesus and his mission by asking people to “make straight paths for him”. In essence it meant that since a unique event of the Saviour’s arrival was on the anvil, people needed to be prepared to receive the gift of the Saviour’s offer of salvation. “And all people will see God’s salvation”, is what John said, quoting from the book of Isaiah.
It is really this part of the spiritual preparation, that the Christians are advised to do in this ongoing season of Advent. This part is far more important than the star, the Christmas tree, making cakes, buying new clothes, exchanging presents or indeed Santa Claus. It also means that the path to spiritual life leading to our salvation requires a focus on the spiritual aspect of our life more than the material and physical.
It is thus important for anyone looking to improve one’s spiritual life to pause for a while and examine those negative and sinful aspects of one’s life that need repentance. Are they calling us for a change towards a holier life, a demand that Jesus gently and lovingly invites us to follow so that we may produce spiritual fruits and produce them abundantly?
