Beginning to change

  In today’s reading, we hear four voices encouraging people to imagine a good future that God has in store for them. They all invite us to imagine the best and then act accordingly.

  In the first reading the prophet asks the people to change their wardrobe; to throw away the dress of sorrow and distress and wrap the cloak of God’s integrity around them. Things are going to look up, they should be dressed appropriately and have courage again in the future. So, too, the psalmist asks people to imagine a time when they will no longer be in bondage, sowing in tears, but will return full of joy carrying a harvest of goods.

  In his letter to the Philippians, Paul takes a similar line. He compliments the people for helping him in his work, tells them how much he loves them, and invites them to prepare for that day ‘’when you will reach…. perfect goodness.’’ Finally, John the Baptist in the Gospel story is travelling around the Jordan district announcing to anyone within earshot the great day to come when ‘’all mankind shall see the salvation of God.’’

  None of these voices’ assaults people with the bare truth, which could serve only to deepen their helplessness. At the heart of them all is the voice of hope which encourages people to change their ways and grow because good things will come of it. People are invited to imagine the best there is in God and in themselves and give that best the opportunity to take charge of their lives.

  All the readings share a marvelous insight: people begin to change when they are encouraged to see the best in themselves, not when they are asked to dwell with the worst in themselves, simply to tell people what is wrong with them and leave it at that can be to leave them a wreck. It’s like leaving the scene of an accident. And people rarely change when they are left to themselves, enclosed in their own weakness, staring at their own mistakes. That’s a lonely project precisely because there is no one to care whether change takes place or not.

  We all need help and encouragement to leave behind familiar ways which have become destructive. We need help in imagining ourselves differently and imagining the good effect that will have on others. We have to take time to reflect what kind of person God wants us to be, what God’s plan is for us. We need faith in the future, to see the power of God working in the change. To have Paul’s certainty that God will not abandon us in our halting efforts, but ‘’that the One who began this good work in you will see that it is finished.’’

  In all this we need each other’s help and encouragement. To change we need others prodding us on: ‘’Go! You can do it!’’ We need to call out the best in each other like Paul does with his converts and rejoice with people in the changes they have made for the better. After all, Paul himself had to make big changes in his life, and it was the Philippians who gave him encouragement in his big change by accepting him as an apostle of the Lord.

  If our community is to be constantly converted to the Lord, we all have to breathe in encouragement and breathe it out. Perhaps this Advent we could exercise that encouragement in a simple, practical way. That will be a change. To be perfect is to have changed often.’’