Second Sunday of Advent, 2025

 I was speaking with a friend who really wanted to live a good, Catholic life, living everything the Catholic Church teaches, but he expressed to me that he lacked motivation. He told me, "I just need something to scare me into being better.” 

So, I suggested he read about the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Medjugorje, in Bosnia.

I explained that the messages from Mary given to six children in the 1980s were a wake-up call to me personally because, within these messages, Mary said that there are these 10 secrets about the world that she would share with them, and that when all 10 secrets are told to all six visionaries, there’s going to be this big sign for the world to see, and even atheists would be converted. And, if my memory serves me right, there was also something really negative that was supposed to happen globally.

And, at the time when I was first learning about these apparitions, as a high school senior, I was doing the math: I was 18 at the time and the visionaries were now in their 30s and 40s. And, I thought to myself, “Well if they’re older than me, and that really negative thing is supposed to happen in their lifetime, then the end of the world is going to happen in my lifetime.

Now, I was misunderstanding what I was reading: Mary did not say it was going to be the end of the world, but that’s how I was interpreting the message. Additionally, the messages the visionaries were sharing are not official church teachings: We don’t have to accept that Mary has appeared anywhere to be a good Catholic.  

Regardless, I was certain I was going to Hell if I didn’t change my life, and this fear motivated me to go back to Confession: To confess my sins regularly, and to stop missing Sunday Mass, and to pray in front of Jesus in the Eucharist, and to stop partying every weekend, and doing all the things associated with that lifestyle. 

Even though my motivation at first was fear, that fear opened a door to grace. What began as anxiety about God’s judgment became a search for a relationship with God and a desire to know God’s mercy, which Isaiah alluded to, calling it “delight in the fear of the Lord.” So, a healthy fear of God doesn’t paralyze but purifies us.

I share this because if we are in need of some fire beneath our feet to get right with God, we technically don't need Mary to appear to us, although, I admit, her apparitions have been extremely helpful to my spiritual life. But all the warning we need is found right in the Bible.

Saint John the Baptist, in our gospel reading, said, “Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees…[and E]very tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire…[God’s] winnowing fan is in his hand…the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

So, as we can hear, John the Baptist’s preaching is fiery and has tremendous urgency. He says a tree that has not borne good fruit needs to produce fruit in the next season or it will be cut down, he says. Then he mentions this tool that a farmer uses, a “winnowing fan:” it’s like a pitchfork used to toss up the wheat in the air, allowing for the lighter useless particles to be blown away and the heavier wheat to fall straight down. John the Baptist says the lighter no-good particles will be burnt.

And, I think, those are very difficult words to hear for anybody. Even canonized Saints would be concerned about hearing those words.

In the same breath, though, canonized saints, some who were guilty and repented of very serious things, would have no fear of meeting Jesus since they had such a healthy understanding of who God is and how much God loves them despite their past.

…But what if it feels like we’re going backward in the spiritual life? What if it feels like we’re bearing less fruit, not more fruit? What hope do we have? Well, let me tell you this: your concern itself is evidence that you believe in what this Gospel is saying and that you care. Isaiah’s prophecy from the first reading said: “A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse.” So, even if we spiritually feel like a dead stump, cut down by sin or discouragement; God can still easily bring forth new life from you. Sometimes, just continuing to seek Jesus, even in those moments of fear and anxiety, is itself a sign of faith. Weak as we might be, the Lord Jesus, whose love for you is always greater than our sins, gives his mercy unfailingly to all who call upon Him.