May the Lord bless you with grace, peace, and health in the Holy Spirit.
It is 05th December 2021. We celebrate the second Sunday in Advent.
We reflect Baruch on 5:1-9 / Philippians 1:3-6, 8-11 / Luke 3:1-6
As a symbol of the Sunday of Peace, let us light the candle of peace and welcome Christ, the King of Peace among us
It is time to return to basics. We are all walking or running or rushing in our own path we are comfortable. We like to leave a mark and create an impression by walking in our paths so convincingly. But the readings suggest that we all need to create a path that leads to God and one another.
But the 2nd Sunday of Advent calls us to prepare a cleaner, even, and refined path for the Lord. It is a time of conversion. It is a time to purify ourselves from sin and to renounce enmity, hatred, indifference and unite in friendship and fraternity. It is a time to invite our souls to be adorned with virtues. In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist exemplifies for us the coming of Christ, who forgave sins and sanctified people through the voice of the desert.
We will show interest in making many extravagant decorations for the Nativity and living in harmony with those around us. In this week of Peace Sunday, let us say peace in the world and peace between nations.
Our life is a spiritual journey, not a material one. It is not good to waste our life equipping ourselves materially but to try to connect with others by creating new roads, means and measures. So, let us invest all our energy in the beauty outside. In order to convey peace and tranquillity, we constantly create a few opportunities that seek out people and help them.
May the King of Peace be born in us, bring us joy and prepare us to act as instruments of peace. Christ offers a model relationship that overcomes all enmity. The flame within ourselves that was lit during our Baptism dispelling all darkness. Realisation and recognition of our darkness is grace. Christ is the light risen for us to bring about reconciliation in our community and enlighten all.
Hence, Advent is a time of conversion and repentance. It has four components. First, being sorry for our sins. Secondly, we need to Repent. Thirdly to wait for the coming of the Lord. And lastly to prepare for the path for the Lord to come into our lives.
St. Luke presents us with a set of names to make us understand the exact time, the political situation, the religious situation, and the place of Jesus’ birth. He wants us to believe that the birth of Christ is not a story or a fable, but it is about a person the entire humanity was waiting for.
John the Baptist invites us to prepare the way for the Lord.
Baptism of John the Baptist – it is not the Sacrament but a sign of repentance that leads us to metanoia which means to be sorry for the past sins and brokenness and leading us to have a radical change and let go. We all have a portion of our life regarding forgiveness to deal with that is dropping off the baggage of emotional burdens.
It is a time of reaffirming our commitment to the Church and Christ and to have a profound change of heart and reconcile with God and those who have hurt us.
A rich man lived in great prosperity and great happiness. Over time, he became a robber. But, from time to time he will also do some helping for the poor. One day God appeared to him in a dream saying that God wanted to come to his house. The rich man also arranged everything so meticulously to present invite the Lord in his house. The rich man welcomed God and said, “Take whatever money, gold, and other things I have in my house.” But God told him that all that he had belonged to Him except one thing. God told him, “Give me only the rough spots of life you live, the wrong path you are going on, your wrong actions, your sins that is the cause of all these.” Realizing this, the rich man confessed his sin and refined himself and his actions.
Readings of the day call for us a return to the path that leads to God. Repentance is the turning of the heart from sin to a new path. What we need to tidy up here is not rough terrain or ridge ditches but our personal life and inner person.
The book of Baruch has only six-chapter. The prophet invites the people of Israel to do their examination of conscience and to accept that their degradation and unhappy and painful living due to their attachments to sin and sinful living. The people will have a new name: “Righteous Peace, Godly Glory.” For God will lead Israel with joy, in the light of his glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.” (Barch 5:9).
What needs to be filled in our hearts is love, peace, joy and what needs to be removed are selfishness, jealousy, and sinfulness! Let us get rid of the rough path, zig-zag lines, angular thoughts and come forward to create a new path.
The valley of greed that haunts humankind needs to be filled. When we have unquenchable desires, we tend to become greed. “Be careful that you do not give in to greed” (Luke 12:15). “Materialism is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). May the Lord help us grow spiritually daily. God bless you.