SPEAKER_00: My friend, standing here in Florence under Brunelleschi's impossible dome, under just this masterpiece, surrounded by the imagination of the Renaissance, you can almost feel what Advent is trying to do in us.
SPEAKER_00: Advent is a season when God teaches the human heart to look up again, when everything around us these days pushes us to look down, to hurry up, to get through the list, to be efficient.
SPEAKER_00: But God in his mercy interrupts.
SPEAKER_00: He interrupts with beauty, he interrupts with longing, he interrupts with a very important question.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready for an encounter with me?
SPEAKER_00: And that's the question not abstract for us today.
SPEAKER_00: Our pilgrimage itself carries the name encounter.
SPEAKER_00: It's not by accident.
SPEAKER_00: Jeff Runyon, our wonderful tour guide here, built this company around one conviction.
SPEAKER_00: That a pilgrimage is not a tour of holy places, it is a journey to encounter a holy person.
SPEAKER_00: And that person is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Every step, every chapel, every conversation is ordered towards meeting Christ in a new way.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope that all of you on this pilgrimage has been experiencing that.
SPEAKER_00: And if Florence teaches us anything, it is that when human beings truly encounter God, something in us begins to create again.
SPEAKER_00: Create beauty, create hope, create a future.
SPEAKER_00: But encounter never happens automatically.
SPEAKER_00: So on this second Sunday of Advent, the church gives us a roadmap, who, where, how, but a way that speaks differently when you preach it beneath this dome.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah speaks of a Messiah who will judge with truth, defend the poor, and remake creation from the roots up.
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist points towards someone whose very presence exposes our false selves and awakens our true self.
SPEAKER_00: Someone whose fire does not destroy but purifies.
SPEAKER_00: We are not waiting for a memory.
SPEAKER_00: We are waiting for a presence.
SPEAKER_00: We're waiting for someone who refuses to stay distant.
SPEAKER_00: He wants a relationship, wants to be close to us.
SPEAKER_00: In a world that often treats God as an optional accessory, one thing among many things.
SPEAKER_00: Something you keep on the side of life.
SPEAKER_00: What Advent is telling us is the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: He is the God who crosses every distance.
SPEAKER_00: He is coming towards you right now.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us may feel far from him, some may feel distracted, some may be carrying heavy, unspoken burdens.
SPEAKER_00: The truth is you're waiting for someone who has already set his eyes on you.
SPEAKER_00: And when he comes, he brings light for your confusion, mercy for your wounds, and a freedom you've forgotten was possible.
SPEAKER_00: Inside this beautiful duomo, surrounded by brilliance of human hands, it's almost instinctive to look up.
SPEAKER_00: The very architecture forces you to lift up your gaze.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the Christian paradox is this the God who reigns in heights chooses to be found in humility.
SPEAKER_00: Where do we find him?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we found him in we find him in his word, which has the power to burn inside the human heart the way it burned inside them on the road to Emmaus.
SPEAKER_00: We find him in his church, born from his wounded side.
SPEAKER_00: We find him in the Eucharist, where he comes not as an idea, but as his real presence.
SPEAKER_00: And just as John the Baptist stepped into the wilderness, we must discover that Christ is also waiting in the desert places of our souls.
SPEAKER_00: Every person carries a wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: Every person sometimes feels as if they're in this dryness of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it could be exhaustion, disappointment, or even a sin that we continue to fall into.
SPEAKER_00: Advent does not fear the desert.
SPEAKER_00: Advent leads us there because that is where the voice of God becomes unmistakable.
SPEAKER_00: We re-enter that wilderness through silence, through confession, through honesty before God in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And in that desert experience, grace does what grace always does.
SPEAKER_00: It irrigates what has grown barren and reminds us that even the driest heart can bloom again.
SPEAKER_00: St.
SPEAKER_00: Paul urges the church to persevere with endurance and encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist urges a sincerity that cuts through religious performance.
SPEAKER_00: Taken together, what do they teach us?
SPEAKER_00: They teach us that Advent is not passive waiting, Advent is interior work, should be different than our other times of the year.
SPEAKER_00: It is the work of welcoming people who we find difficult, the work of patience when we would rather hurry and be on our own, the work of truthfulness about who we have become and who God is calling us to be.
SPEAKER_00: It is the work of dropping the mask, because Christ only comes as deep into our lives as we allow him to go.
SPEAKER_00: If we want a real encounter, not nostalgia, not something sentiment, a real encounter demands real openness to let go of everything else, to really truly surrender and desire a change, desire a discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: It means changing patterns, forgiving someone, returning to confession, or finally letting the Lord touch a part of your heart that you have kept guarded.
SPEAKER_00: Advent is that spiritual renovation project.
SPEAKER_00: We've come to the land of magnificent builders to remember that.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine how many artisans would flock here just to be able to have the opportunity to work on such a masterpiece.
SPEAKER_00: So today we ask for this grace, Lord, make us ready.
SPEAKER_00: Not generally ready, but personally ready, ready for you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And as we continue our pilgrimage, may everything we see and touch in Florence, in this cathedral, in this dome, this city, remind us that the human heart was made not just to admire beauty, but to encounter the one who is beauty himself.
SPEAKER_00: So come, Lord Jesus, come.
SPEAKER_00: Teach us to seek you, to wait for you, and to welcome you with hearts renewed.
SPEAKER_00: May this pilgrimage and all of the family members and friends and parishioners that we pray for back home.
SPEAKER_00: May we always have a heart ready to encounter true beauty, he who incarnates it.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.