Catholic Preaching

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady

December 8, 2022

Gn 3:9-15.20, Ps 98, Eph 1:3-6.11-12, Lk 1:26-38

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.8.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* One of my joys as chaplain to the Catholics at Columbia is to be able to celebrate Mass each day here at the Church of Notre Dame that only features extraordinary architecture inside and outside, but as the reredos of the altar a replica of the Grotto in Lourdes where Mary appeared to St. Bernadette 18 times in 1858. It was there that Mary prayed with Bernadette, just as she comes here to pray with us. It was there that the Beautiful Lady asked her 14 year-old chosen one to ask the Church authorities to build a Church so that people would be able to come to adore her Son, and here, just about 50 years after the apparitions, a chapel and then a Church was built so that we, too, might adore that same blessed Fruit of her womb. It was there that Mary asked Bernadette to dig in the ground and drink, and Bernadette after a few minutes digging in the soil accessed an underground stream that now flows with water into baths where over the course of the last 164 years many have been miraculously cured. Here, thanks to a special arrangement with the Basilica in Lourdes we received regular shipments of that water with which to pray for healing. But what I think is most significant is a dialogue Mary and Bernadette had there that is key to what we celebrate today. There was a buzz in Lourdes when Bernadette’s friends said that she had been seeing a Beautiful Lady dressed in white in the Grotto of Massabielle. It was threatening to create what the local authorities feared might become a chaotic public incident. Her benevolent pastor, Fr. Peyramale, found Bernadette sincere, but needed to fulfill the Church’s task to test everything to ensure that what she claimed she was seeing was of heavenly origin. So he asked her to inquire of the Belle Dame what her name was. After several requests, the Lady told her. She said in the local patois, Que era soy a Immaculada Concepciou, or in French as we see in the words enveloping her head in the image here, “Je suis l’Immaculée Conception.” “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Bernadette, who had never been taught to read and had received very little education, had no idea what the big words “Immaculate” and “Conception” meant. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception had just been formally defined four years before and while all Catholics in the Pyrenees believed that Mary was the sinless Virgin Mary from the beginning of her life, few had heard of the dogma. So when she told Father Peyramale how the Beautiful Lady had responded to her question, and carefully tried to be faithful to reprouncing the sounds of what seemed like a foreign language, im-mac-u-la-da-con-cep-ci-ou, he was stunned. He asked her if she knew what these words meant and she humbly said no. And that was the verification he was looking for. When Mary was asked for her name, she didn’t respond, “I am Mary of Nazareth” or “I am the Mother of God.” She humbly looked down at the ground, then looked up serenely to heaven as she raised and then folded her hands and said, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” She identified fully with the grace God had given her from the first instant of her life in the womb of her mother St. Anne. And so today we commemorate far more than the beginning of the life of our spiritual mother and her spiritual greatness. We do more than rejoice at the beginning of our redemption, when God, through the merits of her Son from 47 years later on the Cross,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent

December 7, 2022

Is 40:25-31, Ps 103, Mt 11:28-30

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.7.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in this homily: 

* As we have been discussing, in Advent there is a triple dynamism: Christ comes to us in history, mystery and majesty; we run out to embrace him; and then, having encountered him, we go out united with him to complete the work he wants to do in us and through us for the salvation for the world. We ponder this triple reality in today’s readings. As Jesus is coming to us, he says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest.” Jesus calls us in the midst of our work, he calls us in the context of all our struggles and difficulties, to come to him to find the rest our bodies and souls need. But the rest Jesus offers is not what normally we would anticipate. For most of us we would anticipate that rest would mean a vacation from our labors or the elimination or a respite from our burdens. Jesus offers something else. It’s a yoke: “Take my yoke upon you,” he says, “and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.” The yoke Jesus offers is something that will harness us to him, so that, just as a yoke binds two oxen to work together, we will do everything together with him. That yoke is his Cross, which is not so much a sign of pain but of the love that makes even the pain of crucifixion somehow bearable. To be united with the Lord who comes and calls us to come to him is to be united to that love that makes even the yoke of the Cross easy-fitting and light — and whatever burdens and labors we carry to the yoke easier and lighter.

* Jesus calls us to yoke ourselves to him in such a way that we will learn meekness and humility directly from him. God’s great strength is not exercised in the way the strong of the world often flex their muscles. We see the way Jesus himself exercises his strength in the Gospel. Meekness is not weakness. The Greek word for “meek” means the self-discipline and power of a martial arts expert or tremendously agile athlete, or of a well-trained, docile horse, capable of action and reaction at a simple bump of the heel. Real strength is not shown in pummeling any and all adversaries, but often in resisting doing so even though one could. That’s why St. Paul will say that Christ crucified is the power and the wisdom of God. Yoking ourselves to Jesus allows us to learn this meekness from him, so that in the midst of our labors and burdens we will not be beaten down but, like a black belt in the martial arts, will use what is thrown at us to help us achieve what we want to rather than to obstruct that goal. When we are yoked to Jesus, our sufferings and work help purify us and help sanctify the world. Likewise yoked to Jesus we learn how to grow in humility through offering our work and burdens for the service of others. The Season of Advent helps us to focus on humility as we prepare for Christmas and the unbelievable humility that God showed not only in taking on our human nature, but taking on great poverty, being born in a borrowed cave, placed in an animal trough, wrapped in swaddling clothes rather than regal garments, eventually working himself as a carpenter, and experiencing the normal burdens of life. In all of these humbling circumstances, Jesus was carrying out his work of salvation, which is something each of us can and ought to learn from him, because we, too, united to him, can convert all the ordinary, humble circumstances of our day into opportunities to...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent

Memorial of St. Nicholas, Bishop

December 6, 2022

Is 40:1-11, Ps 96, Mt 18:12-14

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click here:

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.6.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* When Handel wrote his famous Messiah in 1741 to summarize salvation history and tell the story of Jesus the Messiah, the first words in the entire oratorio, what we might call the theme of the whole work, he took from today’s passage: God is, at it were, addressing the entire heavenly court of angels saying, “Comfort, give comfort to my people,” now in exile in Babylon. Everything Jesus would do could be summarized by the comfort he was bringing. What comfort is that? It’s mercy: that Israel’s guilt has been expiated, her service of prayer and reparation is all over. Even though there would be a first fulfillment of this in the return of the exiled Jews to Jerusalem, the prophecy was pointing even more to the return from the exile from the Garden of Eden, the exile from sin. When we pray in the Psalm verse, “The Lord our God comes with power,” we need to remember that his power is mercy. He “com-forts” us, literally makes us “strong with” the power of his merciful love. But we need to cooperate with that merciful strengthening.

* The passage from the Prophet Isaiah continues today with words made even more famous by St. John the Baptist, as we heard on Sunday: “In the desert prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; The rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley.” We need to do the work to prepare for the Lord’s mercy through examining our sins, confessing them, repenting of them, repairing the damage. The Lord’s way, as we heard yesterday, is a way of highway of holiness that, as we heard Saturday, is the one the Lord himself from behind indicates to us as the path to take and on which the redeemed shall walk. Preparing and taking this path of mercy and repentance is what the Messiah wants from us to fulfill his work. Then what Isaiah says we will behold: “Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together. This will lead to people seeing the glory of the Lord.”

* Part of making straight that path for the Lord to come to comfort us is to recognize the vanity of earthly things in comparison to the perennial stability of the word of God. That’s what God tells Isaiah to announce when he asks, “What shall I cry out?” The Lord responds, “All flesh is grass, and all their glory like the flower of the field. …Though the grass withers and the flower wilts, the word of our God stands forever.” This is an important message for us to capture in order to live Advent well. Today a real danger in the living of Advent is that we get particularly children’s but almost everyone’s hearts focused so much on things that “wither,” whether material things or ephemeral celebrations rather than for the Word of God who comes to dwell among us. Isaiah was sent to help the people of his time and at all times recognize the contrast between God’s word and everything else not associated with God. We need to heed his message and become Isaiahs for our modern commercialized age, praising the generosity of those who sacrifice to give to others, but at the same time, not sacrificing for vain things, unintentionally helping to distort others’ value structures.

* As soon as Isaiah has helped people to appreciate the true value of the Word of God, then God instructs him to go up to Mount Zion as a herald of good ne...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Monday of the Second Week of Advent

December 5, 2022

Is 35:1-10, Ps 85, Lk 5:17-26

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.5.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily:

* Throughout the first week of Advent, we’ve been speaking of the triple dynamism of Christ’s coming to us, our going to meet him, and, having been transformed by the encounter, traveling with him forward. Yesterday, St. John the Baptist reminded us of our need to prepare the way for this encounter and make straight the paths. On Saturday, Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah who will feed us, quench our thirst and teach us will speak to us from behind and say, “This is the path. Walk in it!” Today the Prophet Isaiah tells us that this path Jesus will come into our world to indicate is a special one: it’s a highway called “the holy way.” And Isaiah says that this way of sanctity has several characteristics:

* First,  “no one unclean may pass over it.” It’s not only for those who desire holiness, but those who have been cleansed. God’s mercy, in other words, precedes our repentance, our making straight the paths.

* Second, it’s “for those with a journey to make.” It’s not for the inert who desire to remain exactly where they are, who don’t want to change, who don’t want to move.

* Third, it’s an exodus route on which “the redeemed will walk.” Even when we’re redeemed that is not the end of the journey, but in a sense the beginning. Once we’ve been redeemed, now we can begin that journey. “Salvation,” as we prayed in the Psalm, is “along the way of his steps.”

* But this journey along the highway of holiness is something that sometimes we don’t have the strength to journey on our own. Jesus said elsewhere in the Gospel that the road that leads to life is narrow and few find it but the way that leads to perdition is broad and there are many on it. The highway to hell, in other words, is congested and the eternal express has little traffic. Many of us need the help not only of God but of others to get on the path of holiness. We can think of those who first taught us the faith, those who nourished us in faith, those who continue to pray for us, and guide us, and inspire us, correct us with love, and set the example for us. We can think about those people who really helped us when we couldn’t move, when we were neck-deep in uncleanness. We can think about those who are constantly picking us up as we fall and helping us anew. And we can think about the way as Catholics we’re called to assist others to come to God’s mercy, to gain the strength for the journey, and to walk with us on the pilgrimage of the redeemed.

* Today’s Gospel is about that. We see how the friends of the paralyzed man perseveringly and faithfully overcame every obstacle to bring their friend to Jesus. When they couldn’t get him in through the front door, they did what was very difficult — keep him balanced on his stretcher as they lifted him up on the roof and then lowered him right on top of Jesus. In the case of the paralyzed man, he needed more than to fill in valleys and level mountains. He needed friends to help him overcome the obstacle of too many people in the way and to climb roofs. But he got that help. And when Jesus saw him, he helped him with the first condition: he made him clean, saying to him, on account of the true friends’ faith, “Your sins are forgiven.” To show in the face of criticism he had that power and that desire to make us all clean, he cured him of his paralysis and sent him on a journey: “Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Second Sunday of Advent, Year A

December 4, 2022

Is 11:1-10, Ps 72, Rom 15:4-9, Mt 3:1-12

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.4.22_CCM_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* On the second Sunday of Advent each year, the Church leads us on a pilgrimage to the Jordan River, so that we might enroll in the school of St. John the Baptist, hear his message and act on it. At first glance, it seems like a strange choice to meet John at the Jordan, 30 years after Christ’s birth, millennia before his Second Coming. But the reason why the Church always visits John at the Jordan is because he was the one chosen by God the Father from all eternity to get his people ready to receive His Son, who was already walking toward the Jordan to inaugurate his public ministry. Advent literally means “coming toward,” and in it we ourselves are called to prepare for God’s coming toward us — in the past, 2000 years ago in Bethlehem; in the future, with power and great glory on the clouds of heaven; and in the present, in his Word, in the Eucharist, and in grace. The preparatory work announced by John is the way we’re called to get ourselves ready to receive the Lord who is coming. What is that work we need to do?

* When we meet John at the Jordan, he blares, “I am the voice of One crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” In the ancient world, the roads were a mess. Every time there was a battle, the roads would be attacked and bridges destroyed, to try to stop the advance of the enemy. The weather took its toll as well, leading to deep potholes and all types of other obstacles. Any time a dignitary would be coming, they would have either to fix the roads or build new ones so that his chariot and the rolling caravan accompanying him could arrive without delay and without hassle. John the Baptist is telling us that to get ready for the Lord who is coming this Advent, we, too, need to prepare a way for him. We, too, need to make straight the paths. In the ancient world, preparing such a path meant a great deal of manual work, making crooked paths straight, rough ways smooth, and even charting paths through the mountains and valleys. For us, that pathway will not be traced on the ground, but on the sometimes hardened terrain of our hearts. It will not be made in the wilderness, but in our day-to-day environs. The work is not something that will make our hands dirty, but our souls clean. The preparatory work John the Baptist is calling us to do is to convert.

* The reason John the Baptist needs to summon us to do this work at the beginning of every new liturgical year is because the one he announced, Jesus, has come into the world is to save us from our sins and from what our sins lead to, death. That’s why John the Baptist’s message is such a gift. Before he was even conceived, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to his dad, Zechariah, and said that John “will turn the hearts of many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah, he will go before the Lord, to turn … the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Lk 1:16-17). Nine months later at his circumcision, Zechariah exclaimed, “You, my child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of the sins” (Lk 1:76-77). When the Baptist arrived at the Jordan, he fulfilled those prophecies, “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of their sins” (Mk 1:4). His first words at the Jordan were,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Convent of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx

Second Sunday of Advent, Year A

December 4, 2022

Is 11:1-10, Ps 72, Rom 15:4-9, Mt 3:1-12

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.4.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* On the second Sunday of Advent each year, the Church leads us on a pilgrimage to the Jordan River, so that we might enroll in the school of St. John the Baptist, hear his message and put it into action in our lives. At first glance, it seems like a strange choice to meet him at the Jordan, 30 years after Christ’s birth, millennia beforehis Second Coming. But the reason why the Church always visits John at the Jordan is because he was the one chosen by God the Father from all eternity to get his people ready to receive His Son, who was already walking toward the Jordan to inaugurate his public ministry. Advent literally means “coming toward,” and in it we ourselves are called to prepare for God’s coming toward us — in the past, 2000 years ago in Bethlehem; in the future, with power and great glory on the clouds of heaven; and in the present, in his Word, in the Eucharist, and in grace. The preparatory work announced by John is the way we’re called to get ourselves ready to receive the Lord who is coming. What is that work?

* When we meet him at the Jordan, John blares, “I am the voice of One crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” In the ancient world, the roads were a mess. Every time there was a battle, the roads would be attacked and bridges destroyed, to try to stop the advance of the enemy. The weather took its toll as well, leading to all types of serious potholes and other obstacles. Any time a dignitary would be coming, they would have either to fix the roads or build new ones so that the rolling caravan accompanying him could arrive without delay and without hassle. John the Baptist is telling us that to get ready for the Lord who is coming this Advent, we, too, need to prepare a way for him. We, too, need to make straight the paths. In the ancient world, preparing such a path meant a great deal of manual work, making crooked paths straight, rough ways smooth, and even charting paths through the mountains and valleys. For us, that pathway will not be traced on the ground, but on the sometimes hardened terrain of our hearts. It will not be made in the wilderness, but in our day-to-day environs. The work is not something that will make our hands dirty, but our souls clean. What John the Baptist is calling us to is conversion.

* To preach conversion is the mission of the Baptist, which is why we encounter him every Advent. The reason is because Jesus has come into the world is to save us from our sins and from what our sins lead to, death. That’s why John the Baptist’s message is such a gift. His whole vocation, his whole mission, was to deliver that message. Before he was even conceived, the Archangel Gabriel said to his dad, Zechariah, “He will turn the hearts of many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah, he will go before the Lord, to turn … the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Lk 1:16-17).  Nine months later at his circumcision, Zechariah exclaimed, “You, my child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of the sins” (Lk 1:76-77).  When the Baptist arrived at the Jordan, he fulfilled those prophecies, “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of their sins” (Mk 1:4).  His first words at the Jordan were,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Advent Day of Recollection for Columbia Students and the Leonine Forum

Saturday of the First Week of Advent

December 3, 2022

Is 30:19-21.23-26, Ps 147, Mt 9:35-1:1.5-8

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.3.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* We’re accustomed to focus on the “double-dynamism” of Advent: Christ’s coming to us in history, mystery and majesty and our going out to meet him. We ponder his reasons and sentiments for coming into our world and the dispositions we need to meet him where he’s at and to allow him to bring us the salvation he came into the world to give. But there’s really a “triple dynamism” in Advent, a third movement that is supposed to happen after we run out to meet the One who has come into the world. It’s our moving to continue his holy work, our going forth united with him to continue the mission of salvation. Today’s readings, and especially the saint we celebrate today, help us to focus on all three of these Advent movements.

* The first movement concerns Christ’s reasons and sentiments coming into the world. They’re aptly summarized in today’s Gospel: “At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.” These words not only describe why Jesus “went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom and curing every disease and illness,” but also why he came into our world in the first place. He looked at us and saw that we were mangled and abandoned, lost, in need of God’s guidance and God’s healing, and he entered the world as our Shepherd to protect us from the wolves and to call us by name to follow him through dark valleys into the verdant pastures of his sheepfold. He was the fulfillment of what Isaiah had been inspired by the Holy Spirit to prophesy in today’s first reading: “He will be gracious to you when you cry out, as soon as he hears he will answer you. The Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst. No longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher, while from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears: ‘This is the way; walk in it,’ when you would turn to the right or to the left.” Jesus would be the Answer to, and the Answerer of, our prayers. He would give us not only our material bread but become our spiritual Bread to feed us. He would not only quench our physical thirsts but becoming our Living Water so that we would never thirst again (Jn 4:13-14). He would assume our human nature so that we could see our Teacher and be able to learn not only from his words but most especially from following his example. And his words and example would attune our consciences to hear his voice speaking to us from within, “This is the way; walk in it,”  what Isaiah will call on Monday at daily Mass the “holy way,” because we would have observed his path and be moved inwardly to follow in his footsteps. That’s the dynamism of the Lord’s coming to us in history, mystery and majesty.

* The second movement is for us to go out to meet him who is coming to us with that compassion. It involves going out with eagerness, with our prayers to be heard, with our hunger and thirst for more of what God alone can give, with our need for a Shepherd to guide us, with a passion for his proclamation of the Good News, his teaching us how to live it and his healing, especially the much needed healing of our souls. Just like the crowds in the Gospels went to meet Jesus on mountains, on seashores,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Advent Day of Recollection for Columbia Students and the Leonine Forum Fellows

December 3, 2022

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.3.22_Advent_Conversion_1.mp3

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Advent Day of Recollection for Columbia Students and the Leonine Forum Fellows

December 3, 2022

 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.3.22_Advent_Hope_1.mp3

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, A, Vigil

December 3, 2022

 

To listen to an audio recording of the brief homily, please click below:

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.3.22_Landry_ConCon_1.mp3

 

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a joy to have a chance to ponder with you the consequential conversation God wants to have with us this Sunday, as the Church leads us on pilgrimage to the Jordan River, as she does every Second Sunday of Advent, so that we might enroll in the school of St. John the Baptist, hear his message and put it into action in our lives. At first glance, it seems like a strange choice to meet him at the Jordan, 30 years after Christ’s birth, millennia before his Second Coming. But the reason why the Church always visits John at the Jordan is because he was the one chosen by God the Father from all eternity to get his people ready to receive His Son, who was already walking toward the Jordan River to inaugurate his public ministry. Advent literally means “coming toward,” and in it we ourselves are called to prepare for God’s coming toward us — in the past, 2000 years ago in Bethlehem; in the future, with power and great glory on the clouds of heaven; and in the present, in his Word, in the Eucharist, and in grace. The preparatory work announced by John is the way we’re called to get ourselves ready to receive the Lord who is coming. What is that work?

* When we meet him at the Jordan, John blares, “I am the voice of One crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” In the ancient world, the roads were a mess. Every time there was a battle, the roads would be attacked and bridges destroyed, to try to stop the advance of the enemy. The weather took its toll as well, leading to all types of serious potholes and other obstacles. Any time a dignitary would be coming, they would have either to fix the roads or build new ones so that the rolling caravan accompanying him could arrive without delay and without hassle. John the Baptist is telling us that to get ready for the Lord who is coming this Advent, we, too, need to prepare a way for him. We, too, need to make straight the paths. In the ancient world, preparing such a path meant a great deal of manual work, making crooked paths straight, rough ways smooth, and even charting paths through the mountains and valleys. For us, that pathway will not be traced on the ground, but on the sometimes hardened terrain of our hearts. It will not be made in the wilderness, but in our day-to-day environs. The work is not something that will make our hands dirty, but our souls clean. What John the Baptist is calling us to is conversion.

* To preach conversion is the mission of the Baptist, which is why we encounter him every Advent, because in Advent this message must be preached and conversion must be practiced. The reason is because Jesus has come into the world to save us from our sins and from what our sins lead to, death. That’s why John the Baptist’s message is such a gift. His whole vocation, his whole mission, was to deliver that message. Before he was even conceived, the Archangel Gabriel said to his dad, Zechariah, “He will turn the hearts of many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah, he will go before the Lord, to turn … the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Lk 1:16-17).  Nine months later at his birth, Zechariah exclaimed, “You, my child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,