II Sunday in Advent:[A]: Is11:1-10;Rom15:
4-9;Mt3:1-12
Introduction: On the one
hand, salvation is God's doing, and we cannot earn His blessings. Today's first
reading, from Isaiah, emphasizes that, through his Son, God does all the
saving. On the other hand, we must cooperate with God because He cannot
force his bounty upon us. That is why John the Baptist in today’s Gospel
summons us to play our essential part by
leading lives of repentance,
conversion and renewal, thus preparing the way for the Lord's second
coming. We start this process by preparing for the celebration of
Christmas, the Lord’s first coming.
Scriptural Lessions: After Peter’s preaching and testimony about Jesus on
Pentecost day, his message provoked the congregation to ask: “Brothers what then shall we do?” Peter
responded: “Repent and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of
your sins” (Acts 2, 14-38). There is no other time better than this season
of Advent when we, must ask this same question: “What shall we do to be worthy
of the Lord’s coming? In response to this question the Church says to us on
this second Sunday of Advent: “Repent
for the kingdom
of God
Joke: A
millionaire announced to Mark Twain, "Before I die, I will go to the Holy Land . I will climb Mount Sinai
and read aloud the Ten Commandments." Twain observed, "I have a
better idea. You could stay home and keep them."
Anecdote: Many years ago, there lived a great and holy teacher
called Rabbi Saadiah. He had hundreds of pupils, and all of them had a great
thirst to learn. One winter morning, two of his pupils who happened to be
walking in the mountains, while approaching its summit, saw to their great
surprise, their master sitting on the snow covered ground, weeping, praying and
engaging in other acts of penitence. This beat their imagination and they
wondered: “What could such a perfectly righteous person as their teacher
possibly need to repent of? Could he have committed some sins, God forbid?
They hurriedly departed from that place. Later that day, they asked their
teacher what the scene they witnessed was all about. “I do that every day,” he
said to them. “Every day I
repent and plead with God to forgive my shortcomings and failings in my service
of Him.” “Of what
failings do you speak?” They asked him. Then the Rabbi told them this story:
“One day an old inn keeper received and served me so well without realizing who
I was. When I left the next morning someone told him: ‘That was Rabbi Saadiah.’
Immediately, he came after and in search of me. When he caught up with me, he
jumped from his carriage and fell at my feet, weeping: ‘Please forgive me!
Please forgive me!! I did not know that it was you!’ I made him stand up, and
then said to him: But my dear friend, you treated me very well, you were very
kind and hospitable. Why are you so sorry? You have nothing to apologize for.
‘No, no, Rabbi,’ he replied. ‘If
I had known you were the one, I would have served you in a completely different manner!’ Suddenly I realized that this man was
teaching me a very important lesson in the service of God. I thanked and
blessed him, and returned home.” “Since then” the Rabbi concluded, “every
evening when I say the prayer before sleeping, I go over in my mind how I served
God that day. Then I think of that old innkeeper, and say to myself, Oh! If I had known about God in the
beginning of the day the way I know him now, I would have served Him in a
completely different manner! And
that is what I was repenting for this morning.” This is what we must do every
day this season of Advent and beyond.
Practical Applications: 1) We
need to prepare for Christ’s coming by allowing him to be reborn daily in our
lives: Through prayer, penance, and sharing our blessings with
others.
2) We need to must examine our conscience and find out the sins
within us. Every closing of the day will be a good time
for this examination.
3) We need to wait prayerfully for the second advent of Jesus. John’s answer as to how the Jews should wait for the Messiah was that they should wait for the Lord with repentant hearts and reformed lives. We can start by praying from the heart. Let us remember that the Holy Mass is the most powerful of prayers because it transforms us into Eucharistic people. As Mother Theresa said, "Do small things but with great love".
Second
Sunday of Advent: Introduction
Message: Reform your lives; live in God’s peace so that justice
may flourish.
Saints and Events in this Week: The
feast of Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is transferred to
Monday, 9th.-Nineth-Patronal Feast Day of the United States of
America; not a holy day of obligation; 11-Eleventh-Wednesday-Saint Damasus I,
Pope; 12-Twelfth-Thursday-Our Lady of Guadalupe; 13-Thirteen-Friday-Saint Lucy,
Virgin, martyr; 14-Fourteenth-Saturday-Saint John of the Cross, priest, doctor
of the Church;
Our Lady of Guadalupe: In 1531 A.D., there was another great moment
of joy. God's progressive Divine Plan regarding the Patroness of the Americas
Early in the morning of Saturday, December 9 th, Juan Diego, a simple
Indian peasant and Christian convert, was walking the two and a half mile
distance to Tlatelolco to attend the celebration of the Holy Mass. As he passed
the Tepeyac Hill, Juan heard beautiful music and a woman's voice calling him.
Looking up the hill, he saw a most beautiful woman who was radiating in white
light. The woman introduced herself as the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Then, she instructed Juan to go to his Bishop and to tell him that a
Church should be built at the bottom of the hill in her honor.
Obeying the beautiful Lady, Juan Diego rushed to Tlatelolco to the Palace of Bishop Juan de Zum'rraga
The next day, on Sunday, December 10, 1531, Juan Diego returned to the
Bishop's Palace. After asking a number of questions, the Bishop told Juan that
he needed some kind of a sign in order to really believe that the heavenly Lady
had sent him.
Once more, Juan Diego returned to the top of the hill and related the
answer to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Consequently, Our Lady asked Juan to return
to Tepeyac Hill on the following day at which time she would provide a sign.
On Monday, December 11th, Juan's uncle was very sick. As such, Juan spent
the day trying to find someone with medical skills to attend to his uncle.
Unfortunately, he did not find anyone to help his dying uncle. Therefore, he
told his uncle that on the following morning, he would go to Tlatelolco to get
the priest to hear his confession and prepare him for death. Because of all
this, Juan Diego missed his appointment with the Lady.
Early on Tuesday morning, December 12th, Juan rushed to Tlatelolco. To
avoid the Lady who might interfere with his urgent need to locate the priest,
he decided to travel on the other side of Tepeyac Hill. What a surprise when
Our Lady came down the hill to meet him! After Juan explained himself to the
Lady, Mary assured Juan that his uncle would not die from his illness. Juan was
greatly relieved when he heard this. Around that time, Our Lady appeared to the
uncle and healed him.
Then, Our Lady told Juan to go to the top of the hill and gather the
flowers that he finds there. Juan did as he was asked. When he arrived at the
top of the hill, he found a beautiful garden of roses. He collected the roses
in his mantle and took them to Our Lady. She arranged them according to her
choosing and then instructed Juan to take the flowers to the Bishop, these
being the sign that was requested.
Obeying Our Lady, Juan once more returned to the Palace. When he came
before the Bishop, he opened his mantle and let all the roses fall to the
floor. At that moment, the Bishop and his whole household were filled with
wonder. On the coarse fabric of the mantle, there was a beautiful portrait of
the Lady. History tells us that it did not take long after that, as requested
by Mary, a Church was built in the honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. To this
date, the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, near Mexico City ,
is one of the most celebrated places of pilgrimages in North
America .
This apparition of Our Lady was a great moment of
joy for the Holy Catholic Church. Less than a decade earlier, Martin Luther had
created division within the Church, this leading to the separation of nearly 1
million Catholics. But now, through Our Lady of Guadalupe, millions of peasants
who formerly worshipped the Aztec god, were converted to the Catholic faith.
While Satan may have enjoyed a short triumph through Martin Luther, Our Lady of
Guadalupe took away his glory and showed him a real triumph, nearly 5 millions
conversions versus the loss of 1 million faithful.
Immaculate Conception: This Feast
commemorates one of the Marian dogmas that has been proclaimed by the Holy
Catholic Church. Its origin can be traced to the 4th century. In those early
days of the Church, theologians believed and taught that the Blessed Virgin
Mary had been kept free of all traces of sin by the grace of God because she
was to become the Mother of the Lord Jesus. This belief coexisted with the
perpetual virginity of Mary, her sinlessness, and her Divine motherhood. Church
history makes known to us that as early as the seventh century, there was a
liturgical observance that proclaimed the Blessed Virgin Mary to be free from
sin.
Centuries later, after consulting with all the
Bishops of the world, Pope Pius IX pronounced and defined on December 8, 1854,
the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Ineffabilis Deus. This dogma
proclaims that the Blessed Virgin Mary, "in the first instance of her
conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the
merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from
all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be
believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful."
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