Page 21 - LOTN Autumn Issue 54 2023

EDUCATION AND FORMATION

Scary words! Peter, we recall, was appointed shepherd of
the Lord’s flock, told to “Feed my sheep!” But he would be
failing in his task if he did not warn us to stay vigilant. Peter,
like his fellow apostles, had grown to love Jesus as friend
and brother; it is natural that he was longing for his Lord
to return, that they would be reunited in the flesh, even in
the knowledge that this would mean the end of all earthly
things. To see at last the Beloved’s face shining before us –
surely this is to be desired most devoutly? For, “What we are
waiting for is what he promised: the new heavens and new
earth, the place where righteousness will be at home.”
As a caring shepherd, Peter’s concern is to remind us
that this renewal requires a renewal within ourselves. Our
Father, in his great love for us and his desire that none of
his children should be lost, gives us this chance during our
Advent vigil, to practise living “holy and saintly lives while
[we] wait and long for the Day of God to come”. We must
also practise patience. Like children, we may grow more

“God’s presence has
already begun and we,
the believers, are the
ones through whom he
desires to be present in
the world."

and more eager for the longed-for day to arrive; but Peter
reminds us that “with the Lord, ‘a day’ can mean a thousand
years, and a thousand years is like a day”. Let us try to live in
God’s time and fervently desire to be prepared when that
day comes. St John the Baptist in the Wilderness from the "De Grey" Book
A voice cries in the wilderness… John the Baptist is not at of Hours, c. 1390 [Wikimedia Commons]
all what we might imagine a royal herald to be. He has been we kindle during the dark nights of this wintertime are
preparing himself in the desert for his work, dressed like therefore both a consolation and a reminder: the consoling
a prophet in rough camel hair skins and eating the sparse assurance that ‘the Light of the world’ has already appeared
diet of a prophet. In repeating the words of his predecessor in the darkness of the night in Bethlehem and has changed
Isaiah, John proclaims the fulfilment of that prophecy. His the unholy night of human sin into the holy night of divine
message of the Good News is our call to conversion and forgiveness for this sin” (J. Ratzinger).
the joyful possibility of meeting the Lord when he comes to Just as the First Coming of the Lord in the flesh two
seek us. John’s destiny since his birth has been to call for a thousand years ago heralded a new dawn which brought
baptism of repentance and the conversion of lives. light to those languishing in darkness, so the Second
Coming for which we pray during this season will bring the
“You shall be called a prophet of God, the Most High. dawning of an everlasting day, of a light that will never die,
You shall go ahead of the Lord, and a joy that will sing in our hearts for eternity. For, those
to prepare his ways before him, who are redeemed in the blood of the Lamb and strive to
to make known to his people their salvation live lives worthy of Him “will see the Lord face to face, and
through forgiveness of all their sins, His name will be written on their foreheads. It will never be
the loving-kindness of the heart of our God night again and they will not need lamplight or sunlight,
who visits us like the dawn from on high” (Benedictus). because the Lord God will be shining on them. They will
reign for ever and ever” (Rev 22:4-5). Maranatha – O Lord,
“God’s presence has already begun and we, the believers, come!
are the ones through whom he desires to be present in the
world. Through our faith, hope and love he desires to shine
His light ever anew into the night of this world. The lights

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