We are walking a path through the millennia to our heavenly home. Our path is obstructed by rough, winding, mountainous terrain (Lk 3:5; see also Mt 7:14). Possibly the most difficult obstacles we face are "age-old depths and gorges" (Bar 5:7). "Age-old depths" have become very deep, and the drop-offs are steep. It is usually impossible to walk down or walk up a gorge. Climbing down or up a gorge is so dangerous that the climbers risk their lives.
Spiritually speaking, "age-old depths and gorges" may be strongholds, sophistries, and proud pretensions which raise themselves in opposition to Jesus (see 2 Cor 10:4-5). "Depths and gorges" may be the sinful habits etched into our lives (see Col 3:7).
To fill in these gorges of sinfulness and thus be able to continue our journey home, we must repent, deny ourselves, and lose our sinful lives (Lk 9:23-24). When we celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Lord will peel off layer after layer of blinding sinfulness, and gorges which naturally become worse obstacles will be supernaturally filled and miraculously disappear.
Make one of your Advent Confessions as soon as possible. Make the treacherous ravines and "grand canyons" of your life passable. Come home.
| PRAYER: | Father, make our love "more and more abound, both in understanding and wealth of experience, so that with a clear conscience and blameless conduct" we "may learn to value the things that really matter, up to the very day of Christ" (Phil 1:9-10). |
| PROMISE: | "It is my wish that you may be found rich in the harvest of justice which Jesus Christ has ripened in you, to the glory and praise of God." –Phil 1:11 |
| PRAISE: | Jesus is risen and coming again! Alleluia. Come, Lord Jesus! |
Reprinted with permission from Presentation Ministries, a lay association of the Catholic Church that focuses on evangelization and discipleship through Bible teaching, daily Mass, the charisms of the Holy Spirit, and Small Christian Community. Their ministries include:
· One Bread, One Body
· Daily Bread Radio Program
· Annual Bible Institute
· Discipleship Retreats
· Guadalupe Bible College