In this Advent sermon, Mother Suzanne explores how God's word came to John the Baptist in the wilderness rather than to the powerful leaders of the day. She reminds us that while wilderness experiences are painful and often avoided, they become sacred spaces of transformation where God meets us, makes our paths straight, and guides us toward salvation—if we accept rather than fight against these difficult seasons.

THE GOSPEL        Luke 3:1-6                                                                                                                       

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

'Prepare the way of the Lord,
 make his paths straight.

Every valley shall be filled,
 and every mountain and hill shall be made low,

and the crooked shall be made straight,
 and the rough ways made smooth;

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"

Artwork: St. John the Baptist Baptising the People, by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)