Second Sunday of Advent reveals lessons about repentance and its key role, says Connecticut priest

"John the Baptist appeared in the desert, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mark 1:4).

This verse is from the Gospel of Mark, one of the three synoptic Gospels. The Gospel of Mark is attributed to St. Mark the Evangelist and is believed to be the first written Gospel. 

"Although he was not a direct disciple of Jesus, Saint Mark is the author of one of the four Gospel accounts and played a vital role in spreading the Gospel as a missionary in the early church," according to the website for the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

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The arrival of John the Baptist was a long time in coming, said Fr. Colin Lomnitzer, a parochial vicar at St. Mary Parish, a Roman Catholic church in Ridgefield, Connecticut. 

"When humanity was expelled from the Garden of Eden because of the original sin, amnesia overtook humanity," Lomnitzer told Fox News Digital. "This amnesia made humanity forget who they were and who God was." 

Fr. Colin Lomnitzer, a priest at St. Mary Parish in Ridgefield, Connecticut, reflected on the message in Mark's gospel for the second Sunday of Advent. (iStock/Colin Lomnitzer)

Throughout salvation history, God has attempted to "remind humanity who He is and who we are," said Lomnitzer, particularly through the Ten Commandments. 

"The [Ten Commandments] reveal the basic principles of the natural law that God inscribed upon our hearts from the beginning: God is the author of all life, He alone is worthy of worship, in Him alone is found the fulfillment of our hearts — and we ought to do good and avoid evil," he said. 

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Still, noted Lomnitzer during this season of Advent in 2023, there was more to come. 

"As the drama of God’s revelation intensifies, John the Baptist now appears, unlike any of the other prophets who have come before," he said. 

"The prophets before him announced the coming of Jesus Christ from afar, but now John is given the privilege of actually pointing to Him." 

Preaching the repentance of sins was a necessary step to helping people accept Jesus Christ as the son of God, said a Catholic priest in Connecticut. (Getty Images)

John the Baptist, as the Bible says, "proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" — something completely different. 

"Saint John Chrysostom comments that John the Baptist preached repentance of sins so that when Jesus came, people might be more easily disposed to receiving His forgiveness and believing that He is the Christ, the Son of God, and the fulfillment of all that is foretold in the Old Testament," said Lomnitzer. 

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Repentance, said Lomnitzer, "is an essential part of the cure to eradicate the amnesia that cloaked humanity after the fall of Genesis." 

He added, "The origin of the first sin was Adam and Eve trying to be like God without Him. This act of pride was followed by an act of disobedience and then shame. Repentance, by its very nature, is the opposite of sin. Its beginning is rooted in humility."

Repentance, said a Connecticut-based Catholic priest this Advent season, is "turning toward God" and is a "true conversation." (iStock)

Repentance, unlike sin, is a "true conversation — that is, a turning toward God," said Lomnitzer. 

"In acknowledging our faults, we profess the truth that God is God, and we are not," he said. 

We receive "a relationship with God that reveals to us who we are."

When God became man through the incarnation, this was "the final step in curing our amnesia," said Lomnitzer.

And while John the Baptist preached repentance, "in Jesus, we receive the reward of that repentance, a relationship with God that reveals to us who we are." 

"In and through Jesus, we know that we are more than just creatures created by God," he said. "We are His beloved sons and daughters created in love, by love, and for love."

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This love is a "true love," said Lomnitzer — a love "that wills the good of the other even to the point of death." 

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Christine Rousselle is a lifestyle reporter with Fox News Digital.