When my daughter, Libby, was in high school, she participated in the chorus’ production of “Godspell.” Whenever I hear the gospel for today, I am drawn back into that darkened auditorium and hear again the soloist singing “Prepare the way” as he was striding down the aisle from the darkness behind us to the lighted stage. It must have been almost 40 years ago, and it’s as powerful in my memory today as it was then. My photograher daughter, Audrey, says she experiences it in the same way. That is what is known as anamnesis, bringing the memory of a spiritual event into the reality of the present. It is what we do in eucharist.

The prophet’s call continues to ring out today. During Advent we are called to “prepare the way” to our hearts, to make room there for Divine Love to enter in and transform us into the imago dei we were created to be. Preparing the way takes intention and attention. It is interior work and involves searching for whatever we allow to separate us from God and from one another. It can’t happen if we keep our hearts busy with the exterior trappings of the season and allow distracting attitudes and reactions to derail us from our preparations. We need to be open and available, alert to the hand of God moving in our lives however it may manifest.

Some folks see the winnowing fork metaphor in the last sentence of the gospel as fearful. To me, it is a message of grace. I see my life as the threshing floor which the Holy One is cleaning up, purifying me with the unquenchable fire of God’s Love, consuming all the husks of my life that I have alowed to separate me from the Divine, storing that which is nourishing in the granary of God’s heart to be used to feed others when the time is right. Or during this season, I can stretch the metaphor to imagine the granary as the manger in Bethlehem.