Video location: Grotto of John the Baptist in the desert Dearest brothers and sisters, may the Lord give you peace. Here we are living this Advent season, and we are close to celebrating the Lord's Christmas. And during this time the Church has invited us to fix our gaze on the twofold coming of the Lord: the first coming in the humility of our flesh and the second the one we await in glory. And since we speak of coming, here we have to prepare, we have to wait with joy, with hope, above all with confidence, knowing that the Lord is coming. And on this occasion I would like to offer for your consideration a sermon by St. Maximus, bishop of Turin, who lived at the turn of the fourth and fifth centuries. In this sermon in preparation for Christmas, Maximus teaches his faithful, and also us, how we should prepare for the feast, for the solemnity of Christmas. And so, speaking to his faithful, St. Maximus of Turin says, "Therefore many days before, let us purify our hearts, our conscience, our spirit. And so, worldly and unblemished, let us prepare ourselves to receive the immaculate Lord who comes. And as He was born of the Immaculate Virgin, so may the immaculate servants celebrate His Christmas." Maximus warns us against a merely superficial preparation for this Holy Time and tells us that even if we participate bodily in the feast of Christmas, without good preparation, we will be spiritually far from the Savior. At this point, our Author, exhorts the faithful by saying, "Therefore, brothers, we who are waiting for the Lord's Christmas, let us cleanse ourselves of every residue of guilt." On the road to Christmas, then, Maximus invites us to prepare ourselves in such a way that we can welcome the strangers, comfort the widows, clothe the poor. Our gaze, then, must be fixed on the Lord who comes to meet us, in every man and in every age, so that we may welcome Him in faith, as a preface of the Advent season puts it. Moreover, the preparation to which this Church Father invites us leads us to look at those who are covered in rags, those who suffer hunger, those who suffer cold. Otherwise, Maximus asks, what would be the value of our prayer? And for this reason he exhorts us to imitate the Lord by saying, "For if He wants the poor to be with us, with us partakers of heavenly grace, why should they not be with us partakers of earthly goods? And let not those who are brothers in the sacraments be deprived of nourishment." Here is a very interesting, striking phrase that the Bishop of Turin uses, speaking of our brothers and sisters in the sacraments. He argues that in the same way that the Lord gives His grace to everyone so we are also debtors of mercy to the poorest. For Maximus of Turin, keeping watch as we wait for the Lord means being adorned with mercy, works of mercy toward those who suffer and having our lamps lit with the oil of mercy and thus welcoming the coming Lord. Therefore, for Maximus there is an intermediate coming of the Lord which is His coming in the poor. Between the first coming in the flesh and the second coming in glory, there are the poor, there is the Lord coming to us in the person of the poor, the one who suffers. So, let us prepare for this Christmas by welcoming the Lord who visits us through these people who are most in need, who are in poverty, who suffer hunger, not only with a prayer, but especially with material help for each of them. And together with the Church, let us wait on the Lord and say, "Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus."