NEW YEAR, MARY, MOTHER OF GOD. Nm 6:22-27, Gal 4:4-7; Lk 2:16-21

A Catholic pastor in a small Alabama city of mostly Southern Baptist Christians decided to put up a Christmas crib in the town square. The priest with some of his prominent parishioners approached some rich people and businesses for donation. When they went to see the rich editor of the local newspaper the priest explained the project: “Many people, especially the children will be inspired to see Jesus, Mary and Joseph and animals right here in the center of the town.” The editor agreed to help on condition that Mary must be left out. Otherwise, it would be promoting your Catholic denomination. The priest said: “Tell you what. Tell me how you can show a birth without a mother, and I will agree to leave Mary out.” The editor had no answer and the Mother was with her Child in the town square.

In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis said that no subject in our Faith needs to be approached more delicately than this, and one of the reasons he cited was that Catholics have a natural affection for Mary, and when Mary is attacked, Lewis says that Catholics respond with that “chivalrous sensibility that a man feels when the honor of his mother or his beloved is at stake.” Lewis says that Catholics feel this way about Mary “very naturally,” but there is one person who feels that way about Mary even more naturally than we do: her literal Son according to the flesh — Jesus Christ. As the obedient, infinitely Holy, Son of God, the Lord Jesus was a very firm believer in the commandment to honor one’s father and mother. So, if we were to talk about Mary in an impious manner then we would be offending not only Mary but also Christ by denying his mother the glory that he himself gave her.

Today’s Feast of Mary, the Mother of God is a very appropriate way to begin a new year. This celebration reminds us that the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, is also our Heavenly Mother.   The Church puts the feast of this solemnity on the first day of the New Year to emphasize the importance of Mary’s role in the life of Christ and of the Church. In celebrating her special feast day, we acknowledge this great gift for the Church and world; we call on her to be actively involved in our daily life; we imitate her virtuous life as a great inspiration; and we cooperate with all the graces we get through her. As he was dying on the cross, Jesus gave us the precious gift of His own mother to be our Heavenly Mother. Therefore the Church has had a very strong love and intercession to Mary, Mother of God.

A senior priest went to his bishop with this complaint: “Now I have great difficulty in preaching. I cannot get the people's attention." After stroking his chin His Excellency suggested: "Say something striking at the beginning of your homily." "Could you give me an example?" begged the old padre. "Well," suggested the bishop, "you might start like this: 'I am in love'; 'I am in love with a married woman'; 'Her name is Mary'". Next Sunday the priest started his sermon thus: "The bishop is in love'; He is in love with a married woman'. After an embarrassing pause the priest continued: "But I have forgotten her name." 

We can honor Mary by cultivating an interior life like hers. Mary meditated on, that is, thought about and prayed over, the events of her life in relation to God’s plan of salvation. Her words at the wedding feast of Cana reveal her basic orientation, which we can apply to ourselves: ‘Do whatever he tells you.’

Today in Holy Communion we will receive the Body of Christ, which was formed in the womb of Mary. When we do, let's ask our spiritual Mother to teach us how to take care of the precious faith we have received just as she took care of the baby Jesus.

New year day is the time for us to look back and thank God for all the blessings of the passing year and looking forward to and pray for a very good new year enabling us to live glorifying God. “Lord, for all that has been, Thanks! For all that will be, Yes!” said Dag Hammersjshold. There is a proverb:“Cherish your yesterdays, dream your tomorrows, but live your today." This becomes easier when we make God the center of our life and realize His presence in all the people around us.   Just as the moon borrows the sun’s light to illuminate the earth, we must radiate the Light of God shining within us. 

The lessons from the failures in our lives should help us to avoid the things led to failures and do things differently to achieve success.  Albert Einstein said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." 

One man called his parents to wish them a happy New Year, his dad answered the phone. "Well, Dad, what’s your New Year’s resolution?" he asked him. "To make your mother as happy as I can all year," he answered proudly. Then his mom got on, and he said, "What’s your resolution, Mom?" "To see that your dad keeps his New Year’s resolution."

Our new year resolutions should pertain us and directing to control our actions not of others. Because my happiness rests on my decisions, my attitudes and my actions.

In the   first reading, God gives Moses and Aaron the formula they should use while conferring the Divine blessing upon the Israelites. Let’s use the same to bless everyone who will come across our path: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace: today and every day of the new year.

Christmas: During the Day. IS 52:7-10; Jn. 1:1-18

Once there was a Rabbi who asked his disciples the following question:  "How do you know when the darkness has been overcome, when the dawn has arrived?"  One of the disciples answered, "When you can look into the distance and tell the difference between a cow and a deer, then you know dawn has arrived.” “Close," the Rabbi responded, "but not quite."  Another disciple ventured a response, "When you can look into the distance and distinguish a peach blossom from an apple blossom, then you know that the darkness has been overcome."  "Not bad," the Rabbi said, “not bad! But the correct answer is slightly different.  When you can look on the face of any man or any woman and know immediately that this is God’s child and your brother or sister, then you know that the darkness has been overcome, that the Daystar has appeared."  This Christmas morning when we celebrate the victory of Light over darkness, the Gospel of John introduces Jesus as the true Light Who came from Heaven into our world of darkness to give us clear vision.

The Christmas is one of the great feasts of the Christians. But it is not the greatest feast. Easter is feast No. 1, Pentecost No. 2 and Christmas is No. 3. The Roman Church started celebration of Christmas only after Christianity was recognized as the state religion. But feasts of Easter and Pentecost were celebrated from day 1.

In medieval times the celebration of Christmas took the form of a special Mass celebrated at midnight on the eve of Christ's birth. Since this was the only time in the Catholic Church year when a Midnight Mass was allowed, it soon became known in Middle English as Christes Masse (Christ's Mass), from which is derived Christmas.

One of the striking features of the Gospel of John is the way it depicts the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. The other gospels usually tell us stories about Jesus. Then, like the disciples, we are left to ask, "Who is this, that wind and sea obey him? Who is this who feeds the multitude on a couple of loaves and a few fish?" But in the Gospel of John, there's never a doubt who Jesus is, because he tells us. Usually he does so with a statement that begins with the words, "I am." Put him in a situation and he will clarify who he is and what he has come to do.

You can put him in the desert surrounded by people who are chronically unsatisfied, and Jesus says, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35).

You can put him in the midst of people who are confused, people who ask, "Who are you, Jesus? What makes you different from all the other gurus, rabbis, and religious leaders?" And Jesus says, "I am the gate for the sheep. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture" (10:7, 9). It is an act of self-definition.

You can put him at graveside, in the midst of grief-stricken people, and Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live" (11:25).

Or put him in the midst of people who feel disconnected by life's difficulties, and Jesus says, "I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing" (15:5).

In the Gospel of John, in one situation after another, Jesus defines himself and says, "This is who I am...." In the eighth chapter, Jesus says, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life" (8:12). His words echo the opening words of the Fourth Gospel, where the writer defines the person and work of Jesus in terms of light. "What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people ... The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world" (1:3-4, 9).The prophet Isaiah said, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light."

If John's Gospel were the only one we had, this is all that we would know about Jesus' birth: before his name was Jesus, his name was the Word, and he was with God from the very beginning of creation, bringing things into being, making things happen, shining light into the darkness.

He was God's self, God's soul, God's life force in the world. He was the breath inside all living things. He was the electric spark that charged peoples' hearts. He was the fire inside the sun. He was the space between the stars. He was the axis around which the galaxies spin.

Yet, he is the Word made flesh, and lies there as helpless to speak as any infant.  Only in silence can this silent Word be heard.  The new blade of grass does not make a scene or a noise; neither does the Word made flesh. He made his entrance in a manger away from the hustle and bustle of political activity. You need the quiet and simplicity of the shepherds to behold him.

He has chosen to come to us so weak and naked in order that we may each do something for Him…Mary's Son tells us that all we do or do not do for one of the smallest of His little ones, that we do or do not do for him.

Christmas tells us that God came to walk in our shoes and therefore, at times, if you do not find him clearly or hear him loudly does not mean that he doesn’t understand your pain.  Christmas is special because it reminds us concretely that God is indeed with us. So let’s go home to the heart of Christmas and embrace Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, who will not leave us in the best or the worst times. May this Christmas make you feel that God in Jesus is closer to you than you are to your own breath. May he be your comfort and consolation always, at every step of your life. Amen.

Christmas Midnight (Is 52:7-10; Heb 1:1-6; Jn 1:1-18/1:1-5,9-14)

Once there was a Rabbi who asked his disciples the following question:  "How do you know when the darkness has been overcome, when the dawn has arrived?"  One of the disciples answered, "When you can look into the distance and tell the difference between a cow and a deer, then you know dawn has arrived.” “Close," the Rabbi responded, "but not quite."  Another disciple ventured a response, "When you can look into the distance and distinguish a peach blossom from an apple blossom, then you know that the darkness has been overcome."  "Not bad," the Rabbi said, “not bad! But the correct answer is slightly different.  When you can look on the face of any man or any woman and know immediately that this is God’s child and your brother or sister, then you know that the darkness has been overcome, that the Daystar has appeared."  This Christmas night when we celebrate the victory of Light over darkness, Isaiah says: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.

Jesus is the true Light Who came from Heaven into our world of darkness to give us clear vision.

The Christmas is one of the great feasts of the Christians. But it is not the greatest feast. Easter is feast No. 1, Pentecost No. 2 and Christmas is No. 3. The Roman Church started celebration of Christmas only after Christianity was recognized as the state religion. It was celebrated with Epiphany until then. But feasts of Easter and Pentecost were celebrated from day 1.

In medieval times the celebration of Christmas took the form of a special Mass celebrated at midnight on the eve of Christ's birth. Since this was the only time in the Catholic Church year when a Midnight Mass was allowed, it soon became known in Middle English as Christes Masse (Christ's Mass), from which is derived Christmas.

At the birth of Jesus the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord. The angels were the first to be given the message of the birth of the Savior.

Since David was a shepherd, it seems fitting that the shepherds were given the privilege of visiting David’s successor in the stable.  If these shepherds were the ones in charge of the Temple sheep and lambs which were meant for daily sacrifice in the Temple of Jerusalem, no wonder they were chosen to be the first to see the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world! Shepherding was a lonely, dirty job, and shepherds found it difficult to follow all the obligatory religious customs.  Hence, they were scorned as non-observant Jews.  So Baby Jesus selected these marginalized people to share His love at the beginning of his earthly ministry.  The shepherds expressed their joy and gratitude by “making known what had been told them" (v 17).  Just as very ordinary people later became witnesses to the Resurrection, very ordinary shepherds became witnesses to the Incarnation.  Other than the angels, they were the first to proclaim the Good News of Jesus' birth.  Once we have been privileged to experience God's presence, we, too, have a responsibility to share that experience with other people -- to spread the word -- to proclaim the Gospel.

Son of God came as Emmanuel, God with us, to share the misery of human beings. Look at the baby Jesus, wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, smiling helplessly at his mother Mary - that is the true God, a God who comes to meet us right where we're at. As Emmanuel he understands us and can relate with our wretched life.

There was a very young minister who had been called once to minister to an old farm widow. Her husband had just died, and the minister went with all his earnest intent to be as much comfort as he could to her. Most of his knowledge of grief was abstract and academic, and so he went and said the best words he knew to say. He tried to convey his care, but while he was doing that, there came into the room another older woman about this widow's age. She walked across and without hardly a word, she embraced the grieving person and all she said was, "I understand, my dear. I understand."

Someone told the minister later that this second person had just lost her husband six months before and, therefore, she came out of a shared understanding of what his friend was experiencing. And he could almost see the bridges of understanding coming to exist between them. That woman who had shared the same experience as his grieving friend had a way of connecting, had a way of making clear that she understood, that this minister was not able to, because he had not walked in her shoes.

Christmas tells us that God came to walk in our shoes and therefore if you find him silent at times does not mean that he doesn’t understand your pain.  Christmas is special because it reminds us concretely that God is indeed with us. So let’s go home to the heart of Christmas and embrace Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, who will not leave us in the best or the worst times. May this year’s Christmas make you feel that God in Jesus is closer to you than you are to your own breath. May he be a comfort and consolation to you always and may you always remember: Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.2

CHRISTMAS VIGIL MASS 2016

All religions involve mankind's effort to get back into a stable and healthy relationship with God - that's why they can appear to be so similar. But Christianity is the only religion in which mankind's effort to find God is met by the unimaginable event of God himself deciding to come down into human nature so that he can be more easily found.

It's like the farmer who stayed home on Christmas Eve when everyone else went to church because he didn’t believe in Jesus. A terrible snow storm started, and outside the living room window he saw a gaggle of wild geese huddling together in confusion, trying to keep warm. He rushed out into the storm and opened his barn door. Then he went over to the geese - barely able to see them through the blizzard. He tried to coax them into the barn. Then he tried to scare them in. But they just kept jumping away from him, squawking and flapping their wings in self-defense.

After 20 minutes and no progress, he gave up and went back inside. He stood in the warm living room staring out at the geese. And he thought: "If only I could become a goose myself, then I could lead them into the barn and save them." And with that thought, he fell on his knees, right there in the living room, and started to cry. He realized that that's exactly what God had done on the first Christmas night - and that he had been spending his life squawking and flapping in the wrong direction.

I don’t know whether the first part of the gospel reading made any sense to you. A long list of names of people belonging to the ancestry of Jesus. Though we often skip over these lists of names, the Gospel writers took great pains to compile the genealogies and to make several theological points in the process. Strangely enough, the list includes a number of disreputable characters, including three women of bad reputation: Tamar, Rahab and Bathsheba. Perhaps the Lord God included these women in His Son's human genealogy to emphasize God's grace, to give us all hope and to show us that Jesus is sent to save sinners. He comes under the image of a weak human being, so that he could drive the fear of God away from us; so that we could correct our wrong concept of God and we be able to relate with Him.

Ideas affect actions. The idea that we have of another person affects how we relate to that person. If someone gives me a million dollars, I am going to think he is a great guy, and I will treat him accordingly. If I find out that a friend has been stealing from my bank account, I am going to think he is a liar and a back-stabber, and my dealings with him will turn cold. Our idea of someone affects how we interact with them. Communion with God, a relationship with God, this is what we were created for. But the quality of that relationship depends on what we think this God is like.   

Someone who doesn't believe in God at all, will have no relationship with him. Someone who thinks God is an angry, intolerant tyrant will have a fearful, unstable relationship with him. Someone who thinks God as a distant and impersonal force will have a cold, distant relationship with God. God became man on Christmas Night almost 2000 years ago because he wanted to correct our mistaken ideas about what he's like. He wants us to have the right idea about him, so that we can live in a right relationship with him. What is this right idea?

Look at the baby Jesus, wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, smiling helplessly at his mother Mary - that is the true God, a God who comes to meet us right where we're at. He has chosen to come to us so weak and naked in order that we may each do something for Him…Mary's Son tells us that all we do or do not do for one of the smallest of His little ones, that we do or do not do for him. If Christ indeed is in our midst, from now on, wherever you go, or wherever I go, all the ground between us will be holy ground." God is among us and in us. He is Emmanuel, God with us. He understands us and can relate with our wretched life.

There was a very young minister who had been called once to minister to an old farm widow. Her husband had just died, and the minister went with all his earnest intent to be as much comfort as he could to her. Most of his knowledge of grief was abstract and academic, and so he went and said the best words he knew to say. He tried to convey his care, but while he was doing that, there came into the room another older woman about this widow's age. She walked across and without hardly a word, she embraced the grieving person and all she said was, "I understand, my dear. I understand."

Someone told the minister later that this second person had just lost her husband six months before and, therefore, she came out of a shared understanding of what his friend was experiencing. And he could almost see the bridges of understanding coming to exist between them. That woman who had shared the same experience as his grieving friend had a way of connecting, had a way of making clear that she understood, that this minister was not able to, because he had not walked in her shoes.

Christmas tells us that God came to walk in our shoes and therefore if you find him silent at times does not mean that he doesn’t understand your pain.  Christmas is special because it reminds us concretely that God is indeed with us. So let’s go home to the heart of Christmas and embrace Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, who will not leave us in the best or the worst times. May this year’s Christmas make you feel that God in Jesus is closer to you than you are to your own breath. May he be a comfort and consolation to you always, at every step of your life. Amen.

ADVENT IV [A] Is 7:10-14; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-24 

Sooner or later, every one of us comes up against the rough side of life, and we have to face big problems. Dr. J. A. Hadfield, noted British psychologist, commented on this when he said, "When people run up against life and find it too much for them, one swears, one gets a headache, one gets drunk, and one prays" When life gets hard, what do you do? We have a great example in today’s gospel. His name is Joseph, the just man, righteous man.

While Mary is featured prominently in Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth, Matthew brings Joseph to the forefront, because Jesus becomes part of David’s lineage through Joseph (1:1-17).  Luke tells us of Mary’s obedience (Luke 1:38) and Matthew of Joseph’s obedience.  Luke tells the story of the angel’s appearance to Mary (Luke 1:26-38), but Matthew tells us only that the child was from the Holy Spirit.  But why does the Church couple Ahaz with Joseph in today’s readings?  Because of the stark contrast between the two men, each faced with a difficult situation.  One of them, Ahaz, relied on his own wits and schemes.  Joseph relied on God alone and trusted in Him absolutely. Ahaz sacrificed his own son to appease the Babylonians and showed no mercy.  While Joseph spent his life in protecting his foster-son.  And so we see Joseph, in sharp contrast to Ahaz in the background, as the just and righteous man that he is. 

There are three occasions where angel talks to Joseph in a dream.   In each instance, the angel calls Joseph to action and Joseph obeys.  Joseph doesn’t have a speaking part.  In this first instance, the angel commands Joseph to take Mary as his wife.   In Mt 2:13, the angel will tell Joseph to take the mother and child to Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath.  In Mt  2:19, the angel will, at the death of Herod, tell Joseph to return to Israel.  The angel begins by saying, “Joseph, son of David,” alerting us to Joseph’s lineage.  It is through Joseph that Jesus will be of the house and lineage of David.  Mary’s role is to bear a son, and Joseph’s role is to name him.  By naming him, Joseph makes Jesus his son and brings him into the house of David. After each of the three angelic apparitions in his dreams, Joseph obeys the angel’s commands without question or pause.  His hallmark is obedience—prompt, simple, and unspectacular obedience.  And in this sense, Joseph prefigures the Gospel of Matthew’s understanding of righteousness:  to be righteous is simply to obey the Word of God. In the end, Joseph obediently took Mary as his wife, in spite of his fears, and he claimed her Son as his own by naming him. In spite of his earlier decision to divorce this woman quietly, Joseph nurtured, protected, watched over and loved both Mary and her Child. 

Like Joseph, we need to trust in God, listen to Him and be faithful.  Although we may face financial problems, job insecurity, family problems and health concerns let us try to be trusting and faithful like St. Joseph.   Instead of relying on our own schemes to get us through life, let us trust in God and be strengthened by talking to Him in fervent prayer and by listening to Him speaking through the Bible.

ADVENT III [A] Is 35:1-6a, 10; Jas 5:7-10;Mt 11: 2-11

Not seeing Jesus as a fiery reformer, John the Baptist send his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come or should we expect someone else?”  Jesus answers by pointing to what is happening, quoting what  the prophet Isaiah had said about the works of the expected Messiah: “the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers made clean, the deaf hear, the dead brought back to life and good news is reaching the poor.”  Jesus repeated what he had proclaimed at the synagogue at Nazareth, “Today these prophetic words come true even as you listen.” (Lk 4: 21)

If an unbeliever were to ask now for evidence that the Messiah has come, what answer could we give?  Can we say that, as the heavens proclaim the glory of the Creator God, the earth proclaims the coming of the Messiah-Christ?

We should remember two things:  that the kingdom of Christ, though here, is not yet and that the kingdom of God is indeed invisible.

As Vatican Council II wrote, the Church “becomes on earth the budding forth of that kingdom.”  We are a pilgrim people, fashioning the kingdom and the rule of Christ over human hearts through tears and trembling, through suffering and death, in the midst of sin and selfishness.

Though Jesus himself declared that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” he also said that the kingdom of God is “within us.”  It is “a kingdom of holiness and grace.”  

Though God’s kingdom is not fully established, though God’s rule is primarily hidden in our hearts, it should have effects in our everyday world of flesh and blood.  In other words, why are we not holier than we are?  Why are we not more visible and transparent signs that Christ is with us?

Advent lays an awesome responsibility on all believers, to let the world see that “he-who-is-to-come” is indeed with us. We are the works that reveal, or conceal him. Advent calls us to constant conversion, even radical reform, so that whether playing or praying, laughing or weeping, living or dying, we radiate Christ and his kingdom to the world, here and now, wherever we are.

IMMACULATE CONCPETION -2016

Genesis 3:9-15, 20; Eph. 1: 3-6, 11-12; Luke 1: 26-38)

What is so special about the Immaculate Conception, about the fact that from the first moment of her existence Mary was protected by God from the stain and effects of original sin?

Why did the Church make this Solemnity one of the seven days of holy obligation?

There are two reasons.

First, the Immaculate Conception reminds us of the most basic truth of the Catholic faith and of human existence: we need a Savior.

Today's First Reading reminds us that the human race is fallen. All the suffering, injustice, and misery in the world flow from original sin, the rebellion of the human race against their Creator. That rebellion was a mortal wound to human nature.

It was like an astronaut on a space walk disconnecting the cable that links him to the space station: if no one reaches out to reconnect him, he will float away into oblivion.

After our rebellion against God, we needed him to reach out to us, we needed a Savior.

The Immaculate Conception reminds us of this, because Mary didn't do it herself. This miraculous privilege of being completely protected from the stain and effects of original sin, of being created "full of grace", was a pure gift of God. He filled her with grace from the very first moment of her existence in order to make her a fitting mother for the coming Savior.

When Adam disobeyed, he wasn't alone; Eve was with him. Adam and Eve together were created in God’s image, and together they were entrusted with caring for the world, and together they gave into temptation and caused the fall. And so, when the time came for God to redeem the human race, he considered it appropriate to give us not only a new Adam, Jesus, but also a new Eve, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Jesus alone is the Savior, because he alone is divine, but he has chosen to involve Mary in his work of salvation in a special way. That is why she was preserved from the stain of original sin, from the very first moment of her existence.

The Church's liturgical calendar did not purposely place today's Solemnity in the middle of Advent. We remember and celebrate the Immaculate Conception on December 8th because we celebrate Mary’s birthday (which had made it into the liturgical calendar first) nine months later, on September 8th- Mary's conception was calculated backwards from her birthday, independently of Advent. But providence has made this apparent coincidence into a meaningful God-incidence. Advent is the time when we remember how dark the world was before Christ, and how dark and horrible it still is wherever hearts have not yet welcomed Christ's grace.

The Immaculate Conception was God's way of giving Jesus a worthy mother on earth, and of giving us a worthy mother in heaven. We should thank him for this great gift, and the best way to do that is to follow in our mother's footsteps, answering every call that God sends to our hearts and consciences in the same way that Mary answered her call, by saying: "May it be done to me according to your word."

Every mother wants her children to inherit or acquire all her good qualities. Hence, our Immaculate and holy mother wants us to be holy and pure children. The original sin from which Mary was preserved is the original sin from which we, too, have been freed. The grace of Christ that was hers is the same grace of Christ that is ours. Mary is significant for us because the central factors in her life are the central factors in our own. Perhaps the lesson is that, no matter in which direction we may be facing, we need Mary Immaculate in our lives in order to remember who Christ is and who we ourselves are.

On this feast day, let us ask her to be with us, to guide us, to protect us through her prayers of intercession with her Son, and to share her privilege with us, making our bodies worthy resting places for her son. 

ADVENT II [A]: Is 11:1-10; Rom 15:4-9; Mt 3:1-12  

In today’s Gospel, John the Baptizer urges the Pharisees and Saducees to give evidence that they mean to reform their lives so as to recognize and accept the promised Messiah.  He challenges them to repentance, conversion and renewal. He tells the common people, who are filled with expectation that the Messiah will come soon, to act with justice and charity, letting their lives reflect the transformation that will occur when the Messiah enters their lives.

John advises us to "prepare the way of the Lord." Advent season is a time of preparation. Most Christians prepare for the holidays with lights and gifts, cards and good cheer. But the Church reminds us to prepare spiritually.

John’s message puts joy into Christmas. For it is his message that calls us not to the way that Christmas is, but that the way Christmas ought to be. Christmas ought to be free from guilt and self-absorption. For that to occur there must be repentance.

Turning toward Christ enables us to repent.” Evoking repentance is taking the garbage out. The garbage of our sins, stinks up our lives. John the Baptist is our reminder: Repent and let Christ take the trash out of our life. Be baptized! Make straight paths for Him! Flee from the wrath to come! Produce fruit! This is Advent message. The more we turn to Christ, the more free we become from the bondage of sin.