Gospel according to Saint Matthew 3:1-12
John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: “A voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.’” John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.
When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Are you free to visit the desert?
Luis CASASUS President of the Idente Missionaries
Rome, December 07, 2025 | Second Sunday of Advent
Is 11: 1-10; Rom 15: 4-9; Mt 3: 1-12
Benito was a reasonable man. Or at least, that’s what he told himself as he walked into the office coffee corner on Monday. He found an abandoned metal spoon right next to the empty sink. The spoon had a sticky stain of dried coffee and sugar on it.
He had a seemingly innocent thought: Oh, how careless. Someone forgot to wash their spoon.
Benito washed it. It took him three seconds. He returned to his desk, but the image of the spoon lingered. He knew from the type of coffee (with lots of sugar) that it was probably Roberto, the new accounting assistant.
His thought took root: It’s not just carelessness. It’s the third time this week. Roberto is messy.
Benito tried to concentrate on his report, but he heard Roberto laughing across the hall. A carefree, loud laugh.
That thought continued to grow: He laughs because he doesn’t care. While I am here working and cleaning up his mess, he is partying. He thinks his time is worth more than mine. He thinks I am his servant.
The heat rose up Benito’s neck. It was no longer about cleaning; it was a matter of hierarchy and respect. The spoon had become a symbol of oppression. In his mind, Roberto hadn’t left a dirty spoon; Roberto had left him a message: You clean up what I mess up.
The thought matured, with a label: He is arrogant. A selfish person who takes advantage of good people like me. And then he mocks me behind my back.
Two hours later, Benito went to the printer. Roberto was there, picking up some papers. When he saw Benito, Roberto smiled and said kindly, Hello, Benito. A lot of work, like every Monday?
Benito’s mind, already poisoned by hours of rumination, did not hear a friendly question, it heard sarcasm. He interpreted the smile as a smirk of superiority.
Stop pretending you care! Benito shouted, surprising the entire office. I’m sick of your arrogance! Wash your own things and stop treating me like your servant, you spoiled brat!
The silence that followed was deafening. Roberto, pale and trembling, took a step back and stammered, I just wanted to know if you were busy so I could invite you for coffee… My mother had an accident this morning, I ran out of the kitchen to answer the phone, and I’ve been distracted all day. I’m sorry.
Benito was paralyzed. Reality hit him like a bucket of cold water. There was no arrogance. There was no master plan to humiliate him. There was no enemy. There was only a dirty spoon, a colleague worried about his mother, and a fictional story that Benito had invented in his head until it became a real aggression.
We are truly complicated, as this little story illustrates. And that complexity divides us inside and pushes us to hurt others, even those who love us and whom we love. Regardless of how much or how little faith we have, this helps us understand that we must convert. Conversion does not mean a superficial change, or a change in some habits, but a new way of looking at, thinking about, and treating others. That is the message of the Baptist, who invites us to always take one more step toward a full life, so that the fire of the Holy Spirit may place in us the indelible memory of who we truly are, of what makes us happy together with our neighbor.
—ooOoo—
True conversion is a clear example of ecstasy, that is, it involves abandoning something in order to adhere to another reality. As our Founding Father summarized, “to leave from, in order to arrive at.” In biblical tradition, profound conversion is described as a change of heart: not just leaving behind mistakes, but turning toward a new direction in life. It is like moving from indifference to compassion, from dispersion to unity, from the illusion of self-sufficiency to the recognition of grace.
Since we are ecstatic beings, since ecstasy is our genuine way of acting, conversion should be for you and me a true dream, an intimate longing that we cannot postpone.
Every conversion is born of a transformative encounter, something or someone who comes into our lives and touches us deeply. Here are some of the ways conversion occurs:
* The shock of a truth: discovering a reality that strips away the masks and forces us to rethink our own existence. It can be a moment of lucidity, a crisis, or a spiritual revelation. For example, if I clearly see in myself some flaw or sin that I did not recognize before… this is the example of Benito in the story above.
* The experience of some limitation: illness, loss, failure, or suffering that confronts me with my fragility and allows me to open up to something essential. Sometimes this happens when contemplating the intense suffering of others, as happened to St. John of God when he learned about the lives of the sick in the asylum of his time.
* Encountering love: feeling loved unconditionally, whether by God, another person, or a community, can awaken a response of surrender and transformation. A clear example is that of Saint Peter, upon receiving forgiveness from the Master.
* Beauty and wonder: Contemplating something that transcends the everyday—a work of art, nature, a gesture of radical kindness—can open the door to the eternal. More than one person has begun their journey toward Christ by reading about the experiences of mystical poets.
* The coherence of a testimony: seeing someone live with authenticity, hope, and dignity can awaken the desire to imitate and follow that path. This was surely the most important factor in the decision of many of Jesus’ disciples, even though they did not understand all his words. This was also the case for those who went to the desert to see the Baptist.
* Inner silence: stopping voluntarily or not, listening, and letting what was hidden under the rush and distraction emerge. This happened to the great guitarist Narciso Yepes.
During his youth, he considered himself totally indifferent to transcendence; God simply “did not count” in his existence. One morning in Paris in 1952, when he was 24 years old, he was alone, leaning on a bridge over the Seine River, watching the water flow. He was going through a period of personal dissatisfaction despite his growing professional success.
Suddenly, he thought he heard an internal question, which was not a physical voice but resonated strongly within him: What are you doing? At that moment, he felt an absolute certainty of God’s existence and that his life had a transcendent purpose.
He entered the church of Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre. There he spoke with a priest for three hours, unburdening himself and recounting what had just happened to him. When he finished, he discovered that the priest was of the Greek Orthodox rite. This did not discourage him; on the contrary, it prompted him to seek formal religious instruction in his own tradition, Catholicism, since he was baptized but knew nothing about his own faith.
Let us note how the First Reading, when speaking of the expected Messiah, the new king descended from David, also describes him as a man who has an encounter with the Holy Spirit: The spirit of the Lord will rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
These gifts mentioned by Isaiah describe how we too have a continuous encounter with the Holy Spirit, so that spiritual conversion is more a process than a moment: it matures with concrete decisions at every step, for all superficial change is impulsive and fleeting, but conversion is sustained.
In the Second Reading, St. Paul writes how unity is a fruit of the gifts we receive, for the Spirit is the source of all patience and comfort. We always repeat that only the Holy Spirit is capable of creating and maintaining our fraternity, and we see this when someone decides to live the wisdom, strength, and piety that the Spirit places within our reach.
—ooOoo—
Authentic conversion requires inner freedom, not pressure: When one changes out of obligation or fear, the change is fragile; when one changes out of conviction and desire, the change is stable.
For this reason, the Pharisees and Sadducees approached St. John the Baptist in an inappropriate manner, that is, with fear. The Pharisees, in particular, were zealous guardians of the Law and traditions. They had an obligation to investigate any figure who claimed to have divine or prophetic authority, to determine whether he was a true prophet of God or a dangerous impostor who should be silenced. The Sadducees, who were the priestly aristocracy and collaborated with the Romans, feared any messianic or popular movement that could be interpreted by Rome as sedition, endangering their power. John’s popularity was explosive, and it was vital for them to control the situation.
This explains why the Baptist calls them a “brood of vipers,” indicating that their presence was not a sign of genuine repentance. This contrasts with the attitude of those who came to be baptized and confessed their sins.
Today, as we see every day, the strong continue to oppress the weak, human rights are ignored and trampled upon, discord, hatred, and violence are still present. However, the shoot of David’s family has appeared, is developing, and has already become a people, the Church, charged with making present in the world the new society announced by Isaiah.
It is up to us to show that Christ’s promise is not just a dream. Every time we imitate those simple people who left their homes and dared to go into the desert, every time we make a gesture of self-denial, every time we renounce imposing our judgment, we are preparing the way of the Lord to the soul of our neighbor.
Are we convinced that ecstasy, as the fruit of spiritual gifts, has as its first step “leaving something that is comfortable and dear to me”? Let us be baptized by the fire that will make us light and salt for all, as Christ promised. The Spirit will enable us to point, like the Baptist, to Christ who comes to every human being, without exception.
_______________________________
In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Luis CASASUS
President
