“John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (Mk. 1:4)

How good are you at taking advice? Who can tell you the truth? Are you the sort of person that takes advice easily, learning well from others? Or, are you stubborn, barely able to admit you’re wrong or don’t know? There are folks like that, you know. They’re often not fun to be around.

I call it the “Whitfield Carpet Principle.” It can be stated like this: Each person must have at least one other person in his or her life that can speak truth to them, “call them on the carpet” about their nonsense, call them out about their foolishness. Otherwise, such a person is a jerk, and quite possibly worse. It is, I have found, an almost universal principle—almost as true as gravity.

Now this principle holds in the spiritual and religious realm too. Without someone to call out our foolishness, we risk becoming spiritual and religious fools. We become the pathetic makers of our own religion. We become spiritual jerks, and usually lonely.

Which is why it’s important to be able to hear the Church’s call to repentance. As John the Baptist called the people in his time to repent, so sometimes does the Church and her preachers do the same. But can you listen? Are you the sort of person who allows the Church to speak the truth to you? This is a huge problem, found among both the right and the left, this unwillingness to listen to the Church, to the gospel, and to Jesus, because we think we know better.

So, think about what it means to listen to the Church. Can you hear her call to repentance? Do you take the Church seriously at all? It’s an important question—one that must be answered before Jesus comes, before you can see him.