Many years ago in Paris there was a boy called Paul Claudel, He was from a very good family and he was very intelligent. He was also nominally a catholic,  but he did not do very much about it, he was indifferent, an “a la carte” catholic. Then one day something moved him; it was christmas eve 1886,  and he heard the monks singing in Notre Dame cathedral in Paris and he felt the urge to enter. That evening would change his life forever.  He wrote afterwards:  “in an instant my heart was touched and I believed.  He became a devout catholic and a great writer.  What happened at that moment in Paul Claudel’s life? Jesus became a real person in his heart and in his life.  Everything took on a new meaning and his life took on a wonderfu adventure.  His life became a mission,  and this is the mission of christianity not only for Paul Claudel, but also for each one of us.  In today’s gospel we see the great figure  of St. John the Baptist.  Dressed in camel skins and eating only locusts and wild honey.  He is preaching in the desert and hundreds of people came to hear him. He is making straight the way of the Lord,  the way for Jesus who will come soon. We are invited to organize our lives around evangelization. Everything we do ought to be related somehow to it, to make straight the ways of the Lord.  This doesn’t mean that we all must become professional evangelizers. Remember, you can evangelize by the moral quality of your life. But it does mean that nothing in our lives ought to be more important than announcing the coming of Jesus, especially at this time of the year. We should think of others not as objects to be used, or annoying people in the way of realizing our projects, but rather as those whom we are called to serve. Instead of saying, “Why is this annoying person in my way?” we should ask, “What opportunity for evangelization has presented itself?” Has God put this person in your life precisely for this purpose? John invites all of us to a change of heart to a new way of thinking.  No matter how perfect we are there is always something in our lives that we can improve.  Something that we should change.  Let us pray that we my become closer to Jesus this christmas as ever before, just like Paul Claudel many years ago.