Don’t settle for an infantile Advent.

I just come from a recording of a programme on TV with seven to eight-year-old kids. They asked me hundreds of questions about Christmas. I was surprised. Some adults don’t arrive at those type of questions because, we reduced Christmas to just an encounter with a baby. And Advent is reduced only to waiting for Baby Jesus.

Jesus came with a great message. A powerful one. He came to bring a new kingdom, a new reality, a new understanding that changes everything. But today's Christmas does not convey that kind of message at all. A sweet baby does not challenge us to where we need to surrender and what to encounter. That’s what the Word of God does, even now, or especially now that it has taken flesh.

So if you want to do a right preparation this Advent, then allow the Word of God to confront you and convert you and then console you. There is too much suffering and injustice around us to be happy with any infantile gospel or an infantile Jesus.

Let the Christ we celebrate on Christmas be an experience of transformation… nothing less.