Have you ever cleaned your house because a special guest was coming? You vacuum, you mop, you hide the clutter in the closet, and for a moment, the house looks like something out of a magazine. And then you say to yourself, “Why do I not keep it like this all the time?” Nothing motivates you to clean your house more than when you are expecting a guest. We clean when we expect someone important to arrive. We tidy the rooms people will see, such as the living room and the kitchen, but sometimes we leave that one corner untouched, the one we do not want anyone to notice.
This Advent, John the Baptist is inviting us to clean up one of those corners of our hearts. One corner that often gathers dust is the corner of comparison, the corner where we wander out of our lane and start worrying about everyone else’s. In preparation for the coming of Christ, John the Baptist wants us to get back in our lane; he wants us to get in touch with our identity and live a life that flows from our true identity.
One of the most fascinating stories I have read recently comes from World War II. The U.S. military had a serious problem: enemy forces kept intercepting and decoding their secret messages. The best mathematicians, linguists, and intelligence experts tried to solve it. But the final solution came from a place no one expected: Native Americans, young Navajo men, who volunteered to serve. These Navajo Marines created a code based on their native language, a language so complex and unwritten that no enemy could crack it. At first, many people underestimated them and their culture. Some thought their language did not matter in modern warfare. But the Navajo men remained true to their identity and their culture. When the pressure was on, their native language became one of the most valuable tools of victory; what seemed ordinary became extraordinary. The Navajo Code Talkers stayed in their lane, and because of that, countless lives were saved, and victory became possible.
That is the spirit of John the Baptist in today’s Gospel passage. He knew exactly who he was and who he was not. Despite the temptation from the people for him to claim to be the Messiah, he said, “I am not the Messiah, I am the voice of one crying out in the desert.” John did not try to be the message; he was simply the messenger. He did not try to rewrite God’s plan; he prepared the way for it. He did not compete with Jesus; he pointed to him. He stayed in his lane. Imagine if John had gotten distracted, if he had spent his time comparing himself to other prophets. The people might have missed the message entirely.
One of the hardest things to do in our world today is to stay in our lane. We look at how other families live, how others raise their children, how others pray or succeed, and soon we forget our own mission. Comparison is a thief. It steals joy, it kills gratitude, and it turns our hearts into battlegrounds of resentment. However, when we stay in our lane, when we work on our own heart, soul, and growth, we create harmony around us. Just like those Navajo Code Talkers, when each of us is faithful to our role, the whole mission succeeds. When each heart tunes to God, families find peace. When families are at peace, communities heal. When communities heal, the world becomes ready for Christ.
John the Baptist does not tell the people to fix everyone else. He says, “Prepare the way of the Lord,” starting with your own heart. Before we try to straighten someone else’s path, we must make sure ours is straight. Before we tell others to repent, we must first examine our own hearts. Maybe the Advent cleaning God is asking of us is not about doing more, it is about being more attentive to what is already in us: to forgive where we have held grudges; to listen where we have been too quick to speak, to pray before we react; and to love without needing to be right. That is how we make a highway for the Lord, not in the streets, but in our souls.
If we each work on ourselves more than we work on others, if we let God straighten the roads within us, then when Christ comes again, he will not find a world in panic but a people in joyful expectation. He will find hearts ready, not resentful; families at peace, not divided; souls that have learned to stay in their lane, faithfully, humbly, and joyfully. And when that happens, the words of Isaiah will no longer be a dream but a reality: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb… and a little child shall lead them.”
So, my dearly beloved in Christ, this Advent, do not rush to clean the rooms of your neighbor’s soul. Start with your own corner. Stay in your lane while you prepare the way for the Lord.
Homily for 2nd Sunday of Advent Year A 2025
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