The liturgy of the Word highlights the figure of John the Baptist, prophet of the desert, who came to prepare the way for the Lord—proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom and exhorting people to bear fruits worthy of conversion.
Francis, a name chosen by Providence (his mother had named him John when he went from being a son of wrath to a son of Grace), became a preacher of baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins immediately after encountering Christ.
Starting with his friars, he exhorted everyone to prepare the way for the Lord who is coming.
"And Francis, hearing that the disciples should possess neither gold nor silver [...] nor two tunics, but only preach the Kingdom of God and penance [...] the holy father hastened [...] to carry out the salutary admonition; he could not bear any delay in faithfully putting into practice what he had heard: he took off his shoes, abandoned his staff, contented himself with a single tunic, and replaced his belt with a rope" (FF 356).
And, like a voice crying in the wilderness, he undertakes to straighten the paths for the Lord, starting with his brotherhood and then extending to the whole people.
In his Letter to the Faithful, like a new John, he calls for every mountain of concupiscence to be levelled.
We read:
"See, O blind ones, deceived by our enemies, that is, by the flesh, the world and the devil, that it is sweet for the body to sin and bitter to serve God, for all evil things, vices and sins come out of and proceed from the heart of men, as the Lord says in the Gospel.
And so you possess nothing in this world or in the next.
You think you possess the vanities of this age for a long time, but you are deceived, because the day and hour will come that you do not think, do not know and ignore" (FF 204).
Therefore, according to the Prophet: «Prepare the way of the Lord» (Mt 3:3).
Second Advent Sunday (year A) (Mt 3:1-12)
