We embark on a diet and the days of lettuce and low calorie drinks loom  gloomily. We embark on a fitness regime and our subconscious whispers, “Fifteen more minutes under a warm duvet versus a jog round a freezing park … I know what I’d choose!” In today’s gospel, John the Baptist preaches “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The idea of ‘repentance’ fills us with about as much excitement as a cold shower on a winter’s morning, but it doesn’t have to be like that. Diets, fitness regimes and repentance all have one thing in common …. we emerge as new people as a result of choosing a new direction. Repentance doesn’t mean throwing ourselves round in fits of Catholic guilt, it simply means having a change of heart, and becoming new and better individuals as a result. There are areas in all our lives that can be improved or turned around. The idea of repentance is actually quite exciting.

John’s Advent call for a change of heart is for each and every one of us. We might think we are good enough as we are, but that’s probably how the Pharisees and Sadducees in today’s reading also felt. True enough they turned up for John’s baptism, but had they really turned up in a spirit of repentance? John is clearly suspicious of their motivation, and challenges them to prove their commitment. Declaring our intention to change is all well and good, but our commitment must also ‘bear fruit’ … show results.

At this time of year, every year, we are asked to change our lives. For the less optimistic amongst us, the idea reminds us of new year resolutions; easily made, easily broken and all a little bit pointless. John’s message is a tough one. Changing our lives is far from easy. One of the problems of course is that when we try to change we usually rely solely on our own will power, which is notorious for letting us down. John the Baptist reminds us that when we are baptised in the name of Jesus we will receive the Holy Spirit, a divine power that will help us towards God when our will power fails. All we have to do is ask and keep on asking.

Change is not beyond any of us however much you think it   probably is. John might have given the Pharisees and Sadducees a hard time but in truth the message is clear. “There is none so lost, they cannot be found, none so helpless that their life cannot be changed.”