Make Straight

A voice of one is calling out, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness [remove the obstacles]; Make straight and smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged places a broad valley.

 (Isaiah 40:3-4, Amplified Bible)

Every Christmas, ever since I can remember, my father would play George Frideric Handel’s Messiah and we grew up listening to the rich and glorious oratorio of one of the greatest composers who ever lived. The Messiah begins with a mournful string overture, then a tenor sings the words of Isaiah 40. “Comfort Ye, comfort Ye my people, saith your God...The voice of him that cries in the wilderness; prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God...” 

The first time Handel’s Messiah was presented was for Easter 1742 in Dublin. There was a record breaking 700 attendees as the management had pleaded with the ladies not to wear “hoops” with their gowns so more could enter. It was not only Handel’s music that drew the crowd but many came to see and hear Susannah Cibber, the contralto, who was then the object of many wagging tongues for her part in a scandalous divorce. After many soloists and the chorus, it was Cibber’s turn and as she sang from Isaiah 53:3, “He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” so affected was the Rev. Patrick Delany that he leapt to his feet and cried out: "Woman, for this be all thy sins forgiven thee!"

I love reading conversion stories and sometimes I get the details all mixed up. Usually a man or a woman falls into sin, wantonness, addictions, criminality, unforgiveness, until they finally realize the desperation and futility of the life they have chosen. Perhaps someone, or a book, or a situation allows them to see themselves in the light of who God is. 

Here is one testimony: “It was there, laying on the floor that I found the reason for living. There on the floor as I listened to that man preach, I began to see how desperately wicked I was, that my entire existence thus far was an abomination in the light of the Author of all creation. It was there on the floor that the grim truth was revealed to me. All the motives, intents, and desires of my heart were exposed before the Living God...”

This Advent is the perfect time to see our life in the light of God’s love for us. Are we living the way our loving, eternal Father wants us to live, has planned for us? Advent is a time of repentance and reparation. “Make straight a highway for our God.” Pope Francis said, “The valleys to be lifted up represent all the shortcomings of our behavior before God, all our sins of omission. One shortcoming in our life could be the fact that we do not pray or that we pray little. Advent is thus a favorable time to pray with greater intensity...Another shortcoming could be a lack of charity for our neighbor, above all toward people most in need of help, not only material, but also spiritual...The mountains and hills that must be made low are pride, arrogance, insolence.” Speak Lord, and show me my sin before You!