"John the Baptist’s reference to conversion" in the run-up to Advent "resounds in our communities" as "a pressing invitation to open up our hearts and receive the Son of God who comes amidst us to make God’s Judgement manifest". It was said yesterday morning by Benedict XVI, before saying the Angelus prayer, from Saint Peter’s Square. The Father judges no one, but, added the Pope, "He entrusted His Son with the power to judge, because He is the Son of man. And it is today, in the present, that our future fate is decided; it is through the actual behaviour that we have in this life that we decide our eternal life". "As our days on earth decline, at the time of our death, we will be judged warned the Pontiff according to whether we have resembled or not the Child who is about to be born in the poor grotto of Bethlehem, because He is the criterion that God has given to mankind". Actually, "the Heavenly Father, who, at the birth of His Only-Begotten Son, manifested to us His charitable love, calls us to follow in His footsteps, turning our lives, like He did, into a gift of love". And the fruits of love are those "worthy fruits of conversion" which the Baptist refers to, while, "with biting words, he speaks to the Pharisees and to the Sadducees who had run among the crowds to his baptism".
