Many years ago, I was a student at a Vincentian high school, and in a classroom in which a lot of cheating was going on. One of the enablers for this was the way the desks were arranged, very close together and in ascending rows which made it easy to peek over someone’s shoulder. It was so effortless that even the students who wanted to be honest found it hard to resist because all those around them were stealing answers.

One of the teachers recognized this and decided to do something about it.

What he did was not only rearrange the desks, but also give out separate exams to different students. This not only made it harder for the less honest ones to cheat, but also easier for the more honest ones to stay honest. So not only did this teacher desire more fairness, but he also took very concrete steps to bring it about. To say it another way, he both wanted more honesty in the classroom, and then also took action to have that happen.

This incident gets at a double theme which this Advent season is highlighting.

The first is that something (someone) wonderful is coming. It’s just out there ahead of us, just about to happen. And that of course is the coming of God into our world, God’s own Person, the child Jesus, stepping into our lives.

The second lesson is more subtle but just as helpful for our faith. And that is, there are things we can do to more readily allow Christ’s coming to occur.

Isn’t that Isaiah’s counsel: “Prepare the Way. Straighten out the road so it’s easier for people to walk it.” And doesn’t John the Baptist do the same: prepare the way of the Lord by helping to fill in those different valleys that impede peoples’ openness to the Lord.

This is that second lesson: not only wait for the Christ child, but also to do things that make it easier for believers to receive Him, which pave a smoother path for his coming.

Like that teacher who took those steps to facilitate honesty, we too are called to actions that prepare us to receive God, behaviors that make ourselves and others more receptive to the New Life coming this Christmas morn. What are some of these roads to smooth, some of these valleys I can help fill in?

For instance, kindnesses or pardons to another that will enable him better to hear God’s voice in life. What encouragements can I give my neighbor that will let her be more receptive to God’s loving presence hovering around us? What actions in our lives, and in our nation’s life, will throw up challenges to falsehoods and make it easier for more God’s truth to enter in?

The Advent message? Not only to welcome the Lord’s arrival, but also to take the kinds of steps which ease His birthing among us. This would also be much in Vincent’s spirit, actively working to smooth out roughness on the roads along which the Lord is always coming among us.