Today, November 30, 2025, the Catholic Church begins the liturgical season of Advent, a four-week period that announces the Nativity and the glorious return of Christ in a Kingdom of justice, peace, and absolute liberation.
In a world drowned by oppression, this announcement resonates like the cry of John the Baptist: God comes, not as a tyrant who imposes himself, but as a Savior who respects human freedom and dissipates the chains of evil. It is a call to active hope for a Kingdom where «the name of God is sanctified and his will is done on earth as it is in heaven», as we say every day in the Our Father.
But in Mexico, this promise clashes head-on with the reality of an authoritarian populist government that suffocates the manifestation and expression of ideas, turning democracy into a mirage.
Advent invites us to look forward, to a future where Christ returns to inaugurate an era of full freedom. It is not an anachronistic messianism, but a spiritual dynamism that unites interior waiting with exterior action. Saint John the Baptist, precursor of the Messiah, cries out in the desert: «Prepare the way of the Lord!». This way is one of stripping and conversion, of breaking with the idols of power that enslave.
In contrast, the current regime in Mexico has woven a network of control that suffocates precisely that preparation. The so-called transformation has systematically eroded democracy: global indices record a collapse in freedoms, with the destruction of institutional checks and balances such as the Judicial Power and autonomous bodies. The concentration of presidential power is a deliberate strategy that culminates in repression and electoral fraud, like the last of the accordions, canceling citizens' rights and silencing dissent, now under the threat of a judiciary that wants, by agreements, to limit the rights of citizenship.
Under this authoritarian populism, the persecution of freedom of expression tends to normalize. Independent journalists are harassed, exiled, or worse under the systematic attack of the hordes loyal to the regime that curtail the truth. Peaceful demonstrations are stigmatized as «coups d'état» or «provocations». On social networks and public forums, the official discourse demonizes criticism as «treason», while promoting a cult of personality that equates the leader with the «people».
These official actions foster a climate of discontent where free expression becomes a vital risk. The announcement of Advent, of the God-who-comes to free us from evil, confronts any regime that erects itself as a false savior, even if, in the name of transformation, it tramples human dignity, although it claims to be distinctly humanist.
The Kingdom of Christ, announced in Advent, is contrary to this authoritarianism, especially in a country that was founded under the announcement of the Gospel. It is a Kingdom of service, not of domination; of dialogue, not of imposition. While the Mexican government innovates in authoritarian repertoires—from the capture of institutions, prosecutor's offices, and social sectors, to the digital surveillance of opponents—Advent reminds us that true liberation springs forth to make a Kingdom a reality that is not a metaphor, it is a reminder that there is a conversion that surpasses any “transformation” social.
The Advent meditation of Benedict XVI, delivered on December 4, 2006, offers a luminous and urgent conclusion. The remembered pontiff emphasizes that Advent renews the announcement «God comes» in the present continuous that bursts in to free us from evil and death, respecting our freedom. «Advent is more suitable than ever to become a time lived in communion with all those who await a more just and more fraternal world», calling the Church to shorten the final wait with the construction of peace. This vision is not utopian; it is prophetic.
In Mexico, where authoritarian populism suffocates voices, Benedict's message summons us to embody that hope: to manifest ideas without fear, to recognize the signs of Advent: to demand justice without complacency, to prepare the way for a Kingdom that liberates, not that chains, despite covering it with the apparent benevolence that everything is being transformed.
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