(Is 11:1-10; Mt 3:1-12)

The Son of God who is coming "will not judge by appearances, nor make decisions based on hearsay" (Is 11:3).

So does the Church that bears witness to him.

But how can we, in the outside world, avoid being influenced by prevailing opinions?

How can a withered reality blossom again and reveal its splendour, manifesting its divine nature?

Certainly not by striving to remain young and beautified.

Not by trying to reproduce the world around us.

Rather, by attempting the principle of renewal that can only be introduced from the Source of the Sense of self and of the cosmos - then it will also flow outwards, and it will happen constantly.

Not... immediately with blush, pouty lips, inflated cheekbones, levelling of furrows; nor with a wishful 'U-turn'.

Not an exhausting regression to the external religion of the Temple; rather, settling within, in that Force of the Logos in the heart.

In this way, in the Gospels, the Greek term 'metanoia' does not indicate a return to the God of normalised worship; rather, a change of mentality.

The life of Faith is precisely marked by the reversal of the hierarchy of values, which is reflected in real choices.

New Testament conversion is a reappropriation of oneself, but not as in devotions, rather with a coup de main.

A leap forward that makes the recovery of the whole Church, which draws from its own Source, fruitful, green and happy.

A reconquest of the same Core that draws the whole of reality along with it.

God in the soul not only improves, but rises again in vital fullness.

The Lord does not repackage the contents, dressing them up with superficial updates; he intervenes by creating.

He acts by refounding, and chisels out our true Path.

First of all, he overlooks the established cliques of the greats of the world and of the sacred.

It would be useless to insist on environments and personalities that are constitutionally resistant to the newness of the Spirit.

Even then, it was harmful to continue to be used as a screen by a caste that, after the Exodus, had seized and taken God and his things hostage, content to live off their income.

Thus, the Word-event comes to rest on a visionary of the present and the future.

At less than twenty years of age, John should have presented himself to the professionals of ritual and the Law to be examined according to the purist norms of the Torah, in order to then officiate the cults at the Temple in Jerusalem.

But despite being of priestly lineage, he rejected that formal, insensitive and corrupt environment - which he knew well.

In short, the choice and figure of the Baptist is a reminder for us: it is not enough for the authentic Church to smooth out the wrinkles.

Botox and creams do not scratch reality, but they disturb the Essence.

Our primordial Source offers us opportunities and even uncertainties, so that we can make the most of our abilities.

It makes harsh reminders, revealing varied situations; even embarrassing events, together with ideal impulses.

Along the way, we will find ways to activate the primal energy of our eternal side, learning to recognise the novelties from Elsewhere that want to make space for themselves in the folds of history and in us.

So every day, behaviour can change: for example, I can imagine an initiative to be carried out and it is as if I were returning to that Fire that does not go out inside me - to welcome renewed vigour, a broader view and another magical breath.

The Baptist felt young and alive precisely because he did not want to resemble others, to fit in at all costs, to be identifiable, to repeat opinions - nor did he limit himself to remedying the situation.

He understands that forgiveness of sins is obtained simply by changing one's life [vv.6ff]; not by performing a liturgy in the Temple!

He did not want to fade away, purifying the institution - because he wanted to see the scope of reality beyond the sacred enclosure.

He wanted to fix his gaze not on the great signs, but on his own (and others') attitudes.

For us too, our 'destiny' lies in that daily impetus to want to do something creative and personal, something new and drawn only from the core of our waves, our tides, our many faces.

Advent [Coming] offers us once again that Call of the Roots that opens the way, throws open the toll booth - so that we can achieve something unusual, but which belongs to us.

Changing the order of things heals each of us with that different youthfulness that comes from the imbalance of appearances and conformist judgements.

A liveliness that does not come from the standard of commemorations.

Transparency deriving from breaking through peaceful patterns. Those that do not open up the adventure of a new path - one that can make us 'be born' not already seasoned, and fall in love.

Other than impromptu and sporadic adjustments, according to fashion and local external conditions!

We must learn to recognise and activate that spring-like aspect of ourselves that lives in God's Covenant.

A rainbow that nothing and no one will ever be able to pave over.

It towers above our disturbances and disturbers. And it runs, offering new paths that strengthen us - enabling us to think, imagine and live in this fundamental Eros.

In the refraction of explorations, our muddy earth is bound to Heaven; at first episodically or confusingly, but spontaneously and immediately colourfully.

The Path of entrusting ourselves to the varied springs of Being - to the Self still hidden - will be the paradoxical platform that transmigrates our 'flesh' [cf. parallel Lk 3:6; Greek text], that is, our vulnerability as creatures like leaves in the wind or cracked and torn, in the event of a life saved.

We will be 'sprouting shoots' that are not crushed, but rather 'rise up as a banner for the multitudes' because we are enraptured and placed on that Ray of unusual 'knowledge of the Lord that will fill the earth'.

Almost without knowing it, no longer removed or absorbed by external influences. For a Coming One who still brings to life the hidden self without straitjackets, but rather in the change of alternating events.

A Sacred One who is not entrenched like the one who still blocks pastoral leadership - but who awakens us, not for a backward adjustment and continuation at all costs.

The Eternal bursts forth unexpectedly.

And reactivates us as in John, outside the established boundaries, thanks also to the chaos of patterns.