[Matthew 3: 1-12] John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: A voice of one crying out in the desert, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.
This is one of my favorite descriptive verses -- can't you just see sand for miles and miles, with a terribly crooked footpath rutted deep by nomad travelers and camels? But to the point... one of the most important parts of waiting for Christmas is preparing our hearts for its coming. And sometimes an unclean heart needs to seek forgiveness. Or accept forgiveness from another. What an appropriate gesture for the season, the gift of forgiving.
And what an incredible example we have in Mandela when it comes to the ultimate sacrifice in forgiving transgressions. But there is a dark side to this tale. Fr. Buddy reiterated what I am ashamed to say I am just learning through news coverage of Nelson Mandela's death. Mandela did not always seek the straight path. Before prison, though he tried for years, he had given up on nonviolent attempts to stop apartheid and was involved in various sabotage plots, hoping to limit deaths but disrupt the racist government. He was jailed 27 years for his revolutionary schemes.
While the struggles continued after he left jail, what is most important is that he forgave. And that South African leaders stepped aside to allow him to lead and decided to work in conjunction with him, thus beginning one of the most tremendous rightings of wrongs in all of history.
I am trying to picture 27 long, mostly unnecessary years in prison and whether or not I would be conciliatory mood upon my departure. Exactly the kind of stretch, the sort of sacrifice, the making straight the paths that Matthew is instructing us to do this Lenten season.
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
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