In 1911 Captain Robert Scott and four other British explorers set out on foot for the South Pole. They traveled 800 miles through deep snow and bitter cold. A year later they reached the South Pole. But on their journey, their glorious victory turned into bitter defeat. Two men died along the way. The other three froze to death just a few miles from safety. When the bodies of the men were found, the last words that each had written were still readable. One of the men was Bill Wilson, the doctor of the expedition.
Twenty years before, Bill had attended Cambridge University. His classmates nicknamed him “the cynic.” He had a mean personality and an even meaner tongue. He once wrote to a friend, and I quote: “I know I am...proud...bitter...insulting...and always selfish.”
On the polar expedition, “Bill the cynic” became “Bill the peacemaker.” And just before he died, Captain Scott wrote to a friend: “If this letter reaches you, Bill and I have gone together. We are very near it now; and I should like you to know how splendid Bill was...everlastingly cheerful and ready to sacrifice himself for the others. His eyes have a comfortable blue look of hope, and his mind is peaceful.”
Meanwhile, in his last hours Bill Wilson wrote: “So I live now, knowing that I am in God’s hands to be used to bring others to him, if he will a long life...[for me], or to die tomorrow. We must do what we can and leave the rest to him...My trust is in God, so that it matter not what I do or where I go.”
The story of Bill Wilson powerfully illustrates what God’s word challenges us to do in our lives. The Gospel today invites you and me to take to heart the words of John the Baptist: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand!” St. Paul in his letter to the Romans
challenges us to live according to the spirit of Jesus, saying: “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one voice glorify...God.”
Bill Wilson’s remarkable change of heart, his profound conversion is a living example to us all of what the Church urges us to do during this Advent Season. It urges us to “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” When Bill Wilson was at Cambridge University, he never dreamed how close the kingdom of God was for him. He never dreamed that in 20 short years he would be called by God to give an account of his life. And Bill Wilson’s classmates never dreamed how much he would change in those 20 short years. The man who was proud, bitter, and selfish became a man who was splendid, cheerful, and self-giving. The man who was known as “the cynic” became the man who was known as “the peacemaker.”
My brothers and sisters, history is filled with men and women like Bill Wilson - men and women who began life as selfish individuals and ended life as loving, generous people. The witness of people like Bill Wilson is an encouragement to us all of the grace and power of the Lord to begin the process of conversion in our own lives - moving us from self to others, from spiritual immaturity to become men and women of Gospel integrity.
Advent is a time when we recall what God had in mind for us when he created us. Advent is a time when we recall what God wants us to become. Advent is a time when we recall that God wants us to make a difference in this world of ours. Advent is a time when we try to respond to God’s plan for us as generously as the men and women whose goodness has left a lasting legacy in our own lives. This is what Advent is all about. It’s the season that invites us to be open to the grace that can indeed transform us from sinners into saints; from spiritual infants to men and women of adult faith whose minds and hearts have been made new by the Good News of Jesus Christ.