Instruction for the Sunday Before Theophany

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight (Mk 1:3).

When people await the arrival of a king somewhere, they usually take care to prepare his way—that is, to level or clear the road. If the arrival of a king in a city is expected, the streets are usually swept, the houses whitewashed or illuminated, flags hung out as a sign of welcome to the honored guest; but if the king’s arrival is expected in a village, all its inhabitants dress in clean, festive garments, come out into the street, and chosen persons from the community bring out bread and salt to the exalted visitor. So it is at the meeting of an earthly king. But we, brothers, await the meeting of a heavenly King: for Christ, King of heaven and earth, comes to every Christian soul, to dwell in it and to establish in it His own kingdom, a kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of heaven. What must we do? How shall we meet such a Visitor of our souls, such a King? Prepare, says the prophet, the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. For a spiritual King a spiritual way must be prepared. In the East, to meet kings, roads were straightened and leveled, so that the way for the traveling king might be as straight, smooth, and convenient as possible; and among us now there are railways almost everywhere, and it is not only for a king, but for all of us, that the way is made straight and level, as if on glass. Let us then take this straightness and smoothness of earthly ways as an example and a likeness for the spiritual way. We await the coming, not into a city, but into our own souls, of the heavenly King, Christ. Let us, then, make the spiritual way too straight and smooth—that is, let us remove from our souls every crookedness and roughness of sin: for your paths are crooked, says the prophet, your ways are perverse and rough (cf. Is 40:4). How shall we remove it? By sincere repentance of sins, by the correction of heart and life, and by good works. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Mt 3:2). Let the man of little faith remove the crookedness of his unbelief or little faith, and acquire the simple, unquestioning faith of the saints, or the faith of God, of which the Lord said: have the faith of God (Mk 11:23); let the proud man remove his pride, and acquire God-pleasing humility; let the man at enmity leave off his enmity against his brother, let him humble himself and live henceforth in love, heeding the apostle’s commandment: love one another earnestly from a pure heart (1Pet 1:22). Let the fornicator wash away his uncleanness with the tears of repentance and not return to it hereafter, like a dog to its own vomit, and let him live chastely, remembering that our bodies are members of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:30; 1Cor 6:19); let the intemperate man and the drunkard leave off his intemperance and be zealous henceforth for self-restraint: for drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God (1Cor 6:10), and drunkenness is idolatry. Let the lover of money and the man hard-hearted toward the poor leave off his attachment to this precious or costly earth, as a crooked and rough path, on which he too is often inwardly wounded, and which blocks the road into his soul for the heavenly King: for what fellowship has the Merciful One with the hard of heart, the Lover of Mankind with the lover of money, the heavenly King with earthly dust? And so let the lover of money and the miser prepare a way into their heart for the heavenly King by almsgiving and generosity to the poor. Let us remove all cunning from our souls and acquire the God-pleasing simplicity of virtue. This is how the way must be prepared for the Lord; this is how His paths must be made straight! When we have thus prepared the way for the Lord, He will without doubt come to us and dwell in our heart, as He Himself promised: I will dwell in them and walk among them (2Cor 6:16); and in us will be the kingdom of heaven, even here on earth—the kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Amen.