Brothers and sisters 

May the Lord give you peace! 

Saint Mark opens his Gospel, using an ancient and solemn word: “beginning”, in Greek “arché”; it is the same first word as the Greek translation of “Genesis.” The intention is very clear: we find ourselves before a new creation. John the Baptist announces the good news: Jesus is coming, He is our salvation… He is coming: “Maranata”… Lord Jesus is coming. 

And the question that comes to us spontaneously: But hasn’t Jesus already come? He was not already born for us?… Has he not already left us his Gospel? Has he not already died and risen for us? So what does it mean: waiting, preparing for Christmas? What does it mean to experience the season of Advent? Brothers and sisters, yes Jesus was already born for us, but the characteristic of being “Christian” is living in Waiting. Because we are waiting for the “parousia”. The Parousia which means: “presence” and “coming”, the second coming of the Lord Jesus. Our entire liturgy prepares us for this. And I insist: the true Christian must wake up every day with this desire and this “hope”. This is why the Advent period is a preparation for the coming of the Lord. So we remember, we celebrate and at the same time we prepare. 

And the liturgy of this second Sunday of Advent invites us to the conversion necessary to welcome Jesus. There is a phrase that has returned several times in today’s readings: do you remember it? It is told to us in the Gospel but also in the introduction to the Gospel and, again, in the First Reading. The phrase is this: “Prepare the way for the Lord”. Preparing the ways for the Lord who comes means freeing the heart. And welcome and listen. Follow Him and make our choices according to His “Word”. Brothers and sisters, truly if we do this it is conversion. 

The first way to prepare is truly, it is our hearts. The truth is that because of sin, we often don’t want the ways of the Lord. It would really be enough to ask: who commands our hearts? The prophet Isaiah exhorts us to prepare the way of the Lord with the consolation of our hearts. 

How many hearts have we consoled in this time of advent? There is so much suffering around us. You don’t even need to go to Gaza (please pray for Gaza). But here in Cyprus there are many hearts to console: sick people and elderly people who need a visit. Truly I pray that the Holy Spirit through his Holy Word may open our hearts. May he open the ways of our minds and our hearts for the coming of the Lord Jesus, with the gift of “consolation”, which materializes in “charity”. I like Saint Ambrose, the great Saint Ambrose, master of Saint Augustine. For him the word “alms” did not exist. When you give something that you don’t need, you are giving back to the “poor” what belongs to them. It means that what you don’t need doesn’t belong to you. Charity truly is a voice, and the voice of charity cries out in silence. When we need this “cry” in the silence of the desert. 

Yes, we prepare for Christmas, and it is a celebration that brings you back to your family. I have been to Fatima, to Portugal with the young people. Near the place of the Apparition there is a path, a street where pilgrims walk on their knees for hours as penance. I met a thirteen year old teenager who walked on his knees for 3 hours. I asked him why he did that penance, and he replied: Father, for the conversion of my parents we want to separate and they want a divorce. 

Brothers and sisters, we want to be a voice, yes a voice that shouts in the desert of different situations. May this time of Advent teach us to cry out… to console, and to open our hearts to the Lord Jesus who comes “Maranatha”, Lord Jesus comes….