Change Your Minds

On this third Sunday of Advent we hear the great cry of John the Baptist, “Repent!” The word in the original Greek comes from meta, meaning a change, and noete, a command referring to the mind, the nous. So the word repent literally means “Change your minds.” When I looked it up in the dictionary I found that the full definition referred to “A change of mind leading to a change in action.” That is what we are called to do in this third week of Advent, to think differently so as to act differently.

This past week I had the rather sad occasion to baptize and confirm the little baby of our youth ministers, Bryce and Angela. It was sad because little Corrigan was born at only 23 weeks and lived for only about an hour after his birth. It is easy in these situations to wonder just what God is doing. We trust that He always brings good out of everything, but sometimes it’s hard to see. In this situation, however, it didn’t take long to receive some amazing grace from God.

I first have to say that Bryce and Angela themselves are amazing. They truly “thought differently” about this situation. While they were certainly sad at the death of their son, they also found cause to rejoice that they had a saint in heaven. Since Corrigan was baptized and confirmed before he died, we know that he is in heaven. The truly amazing part of this story is that it didn’t take very long for Corrigan to start working miracles.

One of Angela’s grade school friends saw a picture that Bryce and Angela put on the internet with them holding Corrigan. It turns out that the friend was also 23 weeks pregnant and had made an appointment to have an abortion. Seeing the picture of little Corrigan caused her to have a profound change of mind. She canceled her abortion appointment, and instead called a real doctor and scheduled an ultrasound. She has now decided to keep her baby. A change of mind leading to a change of action.

The end result of repentance leads to the other focus of this day, rejoicing. Whenever we change our minds and begin to act in accord with the plans of God we will find great joy, no matter what obstacles may come. In this third week of Advent, let us look carefully at the ways that we need to change our minds, to repent, so that we can then fully rejoice at Christmas.