Sonday Sonrise: Homilies for Sundays and Solemnities of Years Abc

By Benjamin A Vima

SONday SONrise is from an international priest at the USA who has been a priest for forty years and is a preacher of Gods Word day in and day out, especially on Sundays, to see that every one of his flock drinks truly the living water that flows out of Gods throne whenever they participate in Jesuss banquet and his discourse in their churches.
Every homily found in this book is based on the firm belief that Sunday service is the central part of our Sabbath observance as the community of God in Jesus. As Pope John Paul II said, On this day we celebrate the identity of the parish community encountering the Risen Lord in the table of the Word and the table of His Body.
This book of homilies is published mainly for the people who consider Sunday/holy day obligations as the Lords command. It will be of great help to them while going through the Sunday/holy day scriptures before they go to their services, so that they can be attuned to the Spirits move during the liturgy of the Word. It will enrich their understanding of what that days preaching as their pastors break the Word of God. It will also be of great help to their Lords day family gathering at home to converse together little more about the Word of God with spouses and kids.
These homilies are only my personal reflections on the scriptural readings. I have prayerfully labored over them while writing. For sure, I have written them with love, uttered them in faith, but was always led by the Spirit of Jesus. Though this is chiefly for my favorable audience, others, especially my priest friends and preachers, can use it too and enrich their favorable congregation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Dec 6, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466902015

Benjamin A Vima

Rev. Benjamin A Vima has been a diocesan priest for forty five years, performed his pastoral ministry in various parishes both in India and USA as well. Besides his philosophical and theological studies, he holds two masters: one in Religious Communications from Loyola University of Chicago and another in People’s Theater Communications from University of Illinois at Chicago Circle Campus. He has authored several books, seven of which have been published already through the help of Trafford Publications, Indiana. At present he is retired from his parish administration and pastoral ministry but continues to spend his time in praying, writing and visiting the sick and the homebound. He too continues to accept calls from various churches around America to perform church services and preaching ministry.

Book preview

Contents

Dedication

Introduction

I. Sunday Homilies for Advent &

Christmas Season

II. Sunday Homilies for Lenten Season

III. Sunday Homilies for Easter Season

IV. Sunday Homilies for Ordinary Time

V. Homilies for Solemnities & Feasts

Dedication

SONDAY SONRISE is dedicated to my brother Fr. Vima Dasan SJ, who was my inspiration to become a priest. He has been till this day a rolemodel to me in my spiritual and ministerial life through which he wants me to be fully fulfilled as he has been. Thanks to him I am what I am today as an efficient religious communicator in the vineyard of the Lord. Being a prolific writer and effective homilist he continues to be my critic, editor and encourager as well.

Introduction

My dear friends

Before you start reading this book, I suggest that you know the background-reasons for its publication: First one is my 40-years-aching as priest and preacher of God’s Word day in and day out, especially on Sundays, to see every one of my flock drinking truly the Living Water that flows out of God’s Throne whenever they participate in Jesus’ Banquet and his Discourse in their churches. As you know, more than two third of Christians around the globe go to Churches on Sunday to observe and celebrate it as the Lord’s Day. We observe it as the Holy Day of Obligation because it is the second commandment of God: Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD, your God. No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your beast, or by the alien who lives with you (Ex. 20: 8-10); we want to act in the footsteps of God who rested and blessed it holy. In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the LORD has blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy (Ex. 20:8-11); we rejoice on that Day admiring and praising God by remembering gratefully all his marvelous deeds he has been doing in our midst. For remember that you too were once slaves in Egypt, and the LORD, your God, brought you from there with his strong hand and outstretched arm. That is why the LORD, your God, has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day (Deut. 5: 15); we too observe Sabbath as a sign of the irrevocable covenant between God and ourselves. So shall the Israelites observe the Sabbath, keeping it throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. (Ex. 31: 16)

Besides all the above-mentioned OT factors that influence us to observe the Lord’s day there is a remarkable and ground-breaking fact that inspires us to continue it in a more enhanced and renewed way. This inspiration comes from the Lord Jesus in the Gospel. While he was faithful to the Sabbath observances he taught his disciples what are the worthy ways of observing the second Commandment, because he said The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, and added, The Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath. (Mk. 2: 27-28) From the revelation of Jesus his disciples understood the true meaning of this Sabbath observance and added more nuance to it. They began observing the Sun Day as ‘Son Day’, namely as a celebration of the new creation that happened in Jesus Christ. St. Justin the Martyr writes: We all gather on the day of the sun, for it is the first day after the Jewish Sabbath, but also the first day when God, separating matter from darkness, made the world; and on this same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus became the sunrise (Son-Rise) to the humanity on this Sunday (Son-Day). St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote: No longer we live for the Sabbath but for the Lord’s Day, on which day our life arose. Those who lived according to the old order of things have come to a new hope, no longer keeping the Sabbath, but the Lord’s Day, in which our life is blessed by him and by his death.

It is true Sunday Mass or service is the central part of our Sabbath observance as the community of God in Jesus. As Pope John Paul II said, On this day we celebrate the identity of the parish community encountering the Risen Lord in the table of the Word and the table of His Body. However, the greatest mistake people make is to consider the attending of an-hour-long Sunday service is that all to observe the Lord’s Day holy. However today’s celebration of the Lord’s Day as it is observed in many churches looks very gloomy and private enterprise. Many have been using it as a denominational identity with the sense of exclusivity; some come to the Lord’s Day celebration out of obligation-phobia; a few of us have been coming to the church at least once a week to visit our favorite church building; it is true also we have been coming to the church on Sunday to meet some of our friends and buddies, to chat with them and to go for a meal to a nearby town restaurant; there are good many of us who have been using this Sunday gathering in a town church as a road leading to Sunday Shopping; is there not an elite group found in every parish attending the Sunday masses because it like its pastor as its doll and pet?; most of us come to this celebration of the Lord’s Day only to be blessed by God and not to be a blessing; many among us, especially the young ones grudgingly attend the Sunday services with the unfulfilled expectation of fun-oriented theatrical experience from them; almost all of us consider the weekend, especially Sunday, as the only time of rest. We feel that a good rest is generated only by entertainment from TV and other media; very sad factor is that we have been participating in Sunday celebration as one of the minimum time-spent activity in our busy schedule of the weekend. This is because of our social and economical system that makes us work 6 days outside and only one day inside of our homes.

In order to have a meaningful and fruitful celebration of the Lord’s Day we are advised by many spiritual leaders to use the entire Sunday as Holy and Separate; join with our community of believers in one mind and one heart in celebrating the Eucharist; spend more time than in weekdays in personal prayer and meditation of the Word; gather our family at home in enjoying the togetherness and nearness of the family bond; spend time with our spouses and kids and even our neighbors in group prayers and Scriptural discussion; and to spare more time, money and talent toward the proclamation of the Good News and to engage ourselves in works of charity, especially the corporal works of mercy. I present this book ‘SONDAY SONRISE’ to support our Christians to celebrate the Lord’s Day in a more profitable and fitting manner.

The other reason for this publication is more personal. Though a foreign-born American citizen, living and working as pastor and preacher in the States for more than 15 years, yet I find it hard to reach out to my parishioners with my heart-felt messages of the Gospel of Jesus, effectively and fruitfully. I am a Communication student. I have gone through a special course even in Speech Communication. However I still fall short of using suitable and proper accent peculiar to Americans, especially the Americans in Eastern Oklahoma. As many of my International priest-friends have shared with me, I too feel the same disappointment when I hear some of the congregational members remarking, ‘Father, we could not understand you.’ In my Communication studies in Chicago my professor used to encourage me not to fall victim to some bogie audience that always threaten any public speaker. He indicated that according to an audience research, while 25% of the audience would be hostile and the other 25% indifferent, the remaining 50% will always be on the side of the speaker. So he advised me to focus my whole attention on the favorable portion of the audience in every one of my public speeches. This was ok as a student.

When I got fully involved in my preaching ministry in parish church environment, and specifically in a foreign environment, I found out that such an audience-research was not applicable to every context. Hence I had to approach once again the same professor some years back and explained to him my plight. He asked me to write down my own evaluation about the audiences I am acquainted with. I presented to him what I experienced: In the case of a pastor preaching his homily in a church environment where his audience is the regular attendees of the same parish, they are different from any other general audience. Those parishioners who dislike their priest (probably 10%), either they don’t attend his Mass, or go to some other church; Besides, they do not, prior to the homily, even browse through the weekly bulletin or any other free handouts which are normally available in the church lobby. There is another group among the church audience (10%) who never care for a theologically-oriented or biblically-founded preaching from their pastor; there are a few among this group who may listen to the preacher if he cracks some funny jokes or relate anecdotes or give out some startling views on any burning issues or make some interesting announcements about some current activities in the community. They also keep their watch ticking or tickling every five minutes! This reveals that according to them, a homily that is prolonged beyond five minutes is worth nothing. After five minutes of listening, all their senses stop cooperating. Another 10% of the hearers, due to their disabled hearing-sensitivity cannot listen to the speaker properly. This kind of hard-to-hear situation would have been caused either by old age or by regular listening to noisy sound through environment or modern audio technology or by psychological problem created by their prejudices against strangeness or newness around their lives.

The rest of the 70% of the parish congregation are true and sincere audience who, eventhough the voice and accent they hear, the appearance of a person they see, seem little difficult to cope with, try to listen and understand what their pastor wants to convey to them. These parishioners come every Sunday to their Church not attracted by the loveliness, the colorfulness and the smartness of their pastor. Their main purpose in participating in the Church service is to worship their Lord, to feel his nearness and that of their fellow parishioners; above all, they are led by the Spirit who dwells in them. They consider the Sunday Worship as a family sacred obligation for listening to their God, for communing with Him in the Eucharist and for lifting up their thanks and petitions for every fellowman in and around their lives.

When my professor heard what I reported to him, he said to me: Fr. Vima, again I remind you what I had said while you studied in my class: Don’t be disturbed by the bogie audience. Always concentrate on your favorable majority audience. Hence from then on I started being least bothered about those who leave but waiting, like a good shepherd, for their homereturn. Now I pay more attention to my favorable audience in my preaching duty. I esteem these people as my audience, while I think of others as spectators and chief guests. After every Mass while I hug everyone who attends Sunday worship and show my love and respect I attentively listen only to the feedback of those 70% of my congregation. They are the true critics of my preaching. I love preaching not only as my priestly duty but as my life, as my vocation and as a prophetic call of God from heaven.

Over the years, my lovable and grace-filled audience have offered me many criticisms, some sharp, bitter and hurting. That is part of the gifts I am expected to receive from my people. Of course, I had had enough criticisms from my professors and fellow students in Communication classes. Yet I love to hear from my own parish audience in person. Among this adorable audience I know fully well a few still find it hard to understand me. There are many who want fully to grasp what the Lord and the Church want them to learn through me on every Sunday. Therefore with a heavy heart and tears of joy and sorrow I have been trying hard to reach out to my God-given people through various means. Wherever I was serving as pastor, in order to help that 70% of my audience in their search for God’s food, I was publishing every Sunday my homily-notes in the form of a bulletin-letter so that the audience can take it and read once again at home and reflect over what they had heard on that Sunday.

Many of my friends in the congregation suggested that it would be more useful to them if they had read my homily-notes before they come to church. I thought it was a wonderful idea. Hence you see now this book in your hands. This is a compilation of all homilies for Sundays and some festive and holy days of the Liturgical years-ABC. I would recommend my readers to go through each Sunday reflection before they go to their churches for the Services so that they can be attuned to the Spirit’s move during the Liturgy of the Word. It will enrich their understanding of what that day’s preaching as their pastors break the Word of God. This book will be also a great help for the Lord’s Day family gathering to converse together little more about the Word of God with spouses and kids. I wish all my readers the best SONRISE in their lives on every SONDAY. Though this is chiefly for my favorable audience (70%), others, especially my priest-friends too can use it. Many of those stories and anecdotes I have added to every homily as a warming-up introduction are taken as SONDAY loan from many of my senior priests and preachers. I am grateful to them all. Unfortunately many stories I use in my homilies have no source cited. I assume they are in the public domain and the author is unknown. However, if you know the source I would be grateful if you would email to me so that I can acknowledge. However kindly don’t look for any flowery American idiomatic, journalistic and novelistic writing in this book. What you will find here, are only my personal reflections on the Scriptural readings of each Sunday, and they are particularly meant for my favorable audience. However I want to assure you that I have prayerfully labored over them while writing. For sure, I have written them with love, uttered them in faith, but always led by the Spirit of Jesus. I am very positive and hopeful that the users of this book too will experience the same.

Benjamin A. Vima

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I. Sunday Homilies for Advent &

Christmas Season

First Sunday of Advent—A

Is. 2: 1-5; Rom. 13: 11-14; Matt. 24: 37-44

This Is The Day

I asked the children in one of my catechism classes: what is the unforgettable day in your past life? Everyone gave different answers except one girl who kept silent. I called her to my side and asked, Don’t you have any day to be remembered? She nodded to tell me, ‘no’. I asked, ‘why?’ She began shedding tears. I consoled her. Finally she said to my amazement: In my home everybody is unhappy. They say my mom has got cancer. Her doctor told her she was going to die next month. I want to make everybody happy, especially my mom. I am trying and trying. When I make my mom and others happy, that will be my day, an unforgettable day of my life. What a sweet person she was. I was so edified by her attitude.

When the prophets, apostles and Jesus spoke of the ‘Day of the Lord’, they meant to make our living days memorable. In the first reading we hear Isaiah’s oracle about the day of the Lord, as a day of peace, a day of love, a day of establishment of God’s kingdom. He points out that it will be a day of turning point when swords will be beaten into ploughshares, the spears into pruning hooks. In other words, there will be no more wars, no more terrorism, no more fear of Anthrax, and no more prejudices. Paul too in second reading goes little ahead and speaks of the speedy coming of the day of the Lord. He talks in hour and time. ‘That day is at hand,’ he says to indicate the nearness of the day of the Lord. Matthew in today’s Gospel, as he wrote at the time of crisis in Palestine, reminds his readers about the Lord’s words on the ‘day of the Lord’.

Even though the Word of God talks about the day of hope, the day of futuristic life, it’s all meant to make this day of ours memorable. All the prophets pointed out that ‘Now’ is the only and proper time to meet the Lord. Paul says therefore It is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. As every day we live, is the only day we have in hands, Jesus, the Great Teacher, exhorts us saying, ‘you also must be prepared for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.’ He wants us to use to the maximum the present moment available to us in conjunction with the coming of the day of the Lord.

As many of our friends have experienced in the past starting from Noah to George Harrison the prince of Beetles to date, we are waiting for that day of hope, that day of the sun to come, that day of peace to arrive, that day of promise to be fulfilled, that day of wrath to be over, that day of global peace and justice, that day of healing, that day of joy to come. Patient waiting is not passive and silent acceptance of the situation. Nor it is a time of frustration, depression, grumbling and whining. According to the Lord’s instruction, waiting patiently means going through this ‘today’ as the day of the Lord. ‘This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.’ Live this day hopefully but faithfully and joyfully. We should make proper decisions of our life in connection with the day of the Lord to come and those decisions should be wise and strong to join the community in listening to the Word, in love walk, in charity and in good works. We too must try to make decisions rightly in the light of the day of the Lord regarding our settlement of marriage, family management, our profession, our employment, our studies, our entertainment, our leisure and our every act of love and life. Let us lead a life of joy so that others can sing to us, ‘you are my sunshine’.

First Sunday of Advent—B

Is. 63: 16b-17, 19b; 64: 2-7; 1Cor. 1: 3-9; Mk. 13: 33-37

Season Waiting with Thanks and Dreams

A story comes to us from Eastern mysticism that we might want to make our own this Advent. A young monk, being new to monastic spirituality, asked his senior mentor: Abbot, what has God’s wisdom taught you so far? Did you become divine? The Abbot replied: Not at all. Did you become a saint? asked the novice. No, answered Abbot, as you can clearly see. The young one was so perplexed but still he wanted an apt answer from his superior. What then, O Abbot? what was the result of your life-long ascetic life? The Abbot very calmly said: I became awake!"

The Abbot might have been reading in today’s Gospel Be on your guard, stay awake… Staying awake is what being a Christian is all about. Usually ‘alertness, watching and waiting’ are the themes of Advent, but they are also the program of our daily life. One of the reasons for our life-long waiting is, Jesus warns us, to be prepared because he might come suddenly. The other reason is to be thankful to him who is our Master. In Jesus’ parable the owner of the house entrusts his entire house in the hands of his servants and the gatekeeper. He trusted their faithfulness. He has been so good to them in feeding them, paying them well. So naturally out of gratitude for their master these servants and the gatekeeper should be always watchful and alert in taking care of the house in the absence of their master. This is called thanksgiving in deed.

God is our Creator, our redeemer and the sole owner of our life and the universe. The prophet emphasizes that God is our father; we are the clay and he the potter: we are all the work of his hands. As we sing in the responsorial Psalm we are the vines, which his right hand has planted; and we are the humans whom he himself made strong. In other words God has entrusted to us his entire house to be kept safe and sound until he returns. In whatever situation we are in, whatever status we have been held he expects us to be gratefully responsible and faithful in our undertakings. Paul in today’s letter offers us a different reason why we should be thankfully faithful and watchful. He says: I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge, as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore we are to be gratefully watching our owner’s house, namely our body, our family, our undertakings, our community, our church, our nation, our world and our needy persons. And when he arrives;—by the way nobody knows his arrival time. This is what Jesus says: You do not know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.

Another dimension of Advent practice is to wait for the Lord filled with dreams. This is not about our daydreams or nightly heavy-stomach dreams. This is the fact of hoping that should pervade our entire life in this world. Waiting for the Owner’s arrival specifically points toward this. As God’s stewards, guardians, gatekeepers we should be carefully perform our managing and maintaining duties hoping that we will be alert especially at the time when the Lord appears. He will surely reward us. There is always a tomorrow despite the today’s hardships, adversities, temptations and disappointments. Though we may not see him face to face now and even when we pray intensively and perform duties with gratitude still he may seem like cold, indifferent, distant and hidden. Still in this sort of today of tears and problems we have to be watchful with a strong hope that one day the Lord would wipe away our tears, will heal all our wounds, will smite and scatter our enemies and finally he will offer us the due reward at his return which we symbolically celebrate as Christmas as the climax of this Advent.

First Sunday of Advent—C

Jeremiah 33: 14-16; 2 Thessalonians 3: 12-4: 2;

Luke 21: 25-28, 34-36

Maranatha! Maranatha!

I have a vivid memory of my youthful days of learning riding bicycle. That was the first day as a beginner of bicycling I was riding my bike in small street in my village. In one corner of that street I saw an elderly lady walking towards me carrying on her head a big basket of fruits. I felt I was about to hit her and unfortunately I did it. I closed my eyes and thought poor lady would have fallen and badly wounded. I felt awful. I planned how to say sorry to her and how to assist her. I opened my eyes. To my amazement I saw her standing in front of me, very close to me holding the hand-bar of the bicycle and its break. Staring at me she shouted, ‘you rascal the break is in your hand. OK.’ Telling these words she handed over to me the hand bar and left with some scornful look. I felt so ashamed but I learned one thing on that day: "Every thing is in my hand, whether to fail or succeed, whether to move on or to put a break to it, everything is in my hand.’ As my bicycle break hand bar is in my hand so is the second coming of Jesus in my life and in other people’s lives too largely depends on my faith, hope and charity.

Every human being expects God’s coming in their time of needs, trials, and problems. Some expect his arrival in the shape of money; others in the form of capable leaders; some others love to encounter his coming in the figure of ‘quick-fix healer, ‘instant provider’, and ‘violent killer’. When God arrives in His mighty power we expect: An establishment of new heaven and new earth where, as Augustine says, the heavenly alleluia is sung in security, in fear of no adversity, where we will have no enemies, we shall never lose a friend; a situation where there will be one shepherd and one flock; a political and social environment in which justice and love would rule; a physical life always healthy, happy and eternal with no annihilation.

It’s not just a fairytale or human imagination to wait for the Lord coming in glory and power in each one’s life and in the community and in the whole world. All these expectations are not unrealistic. They are truly based on the promises of God. While non-Christians believe God’s coming in various forms and figures, we Christians are convinced that the coming of Jesus Christ is the same as God’s coming in our midst. We believe in his coming. We hope in his coming. We trust in his coming. We love his coming. And this is why from the early days of the Church we cry out: Maranatha! Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus Come! It all means: ‘He would come, he is supposed to come, he must come, and he will come.’ As any religious person we Christians eagerly expect God’s coming in Jesus Christ to our rescue, to fill us with his blessings, to feed us to our contentment, and to celebrate our lives’ end with a glorious climax.

But all these dreams and expectations about the coming of God in Jesus can become mere fairytales, as many people criticize, if they are not properly handled. Our expectation about Jesus’ coming must stem from the basic belief of God’s promises and his fidelity to fulfill them. This conviction must get stronger and stronger even if we walk and move in the valley of darkness and in the vale of tears. Secondly as Jesus and his apostles advised, we should be persevering in prayer and vigilance focusing our attention on Jesus who is the beginning, the process and the end. Finally we should be aware of Jesus’ second coming frequently in our very lives.

This is what we should hold as we wait for Jesus’ coming: He becomes alive when we abide in Him. He becomes alive through our assistance, exemplary life and charitable deeds to other persons who are waiting for his coming. His coming at present time may not be as complete or total as he promised about ‘in-Parousia.’ But without experiencing and expressing such daily coming of the Lord there is no way to take part in his final coming in glory and power. May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we have for you, so as to strengthen your hearts, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. (1 Thess. 3: 12-13)

Second Sunday of Advent—A

Is. 11: 1-10; Rom. 15: 4-9; Matt. 3: 1-12

The Promises of God

Fr. William Bausch tells the story of six people who froze to death around a campfire on a cold, bitter night. Each had a log they might have contributed to the fire, but each had a reason for not offering their wood. A homeless man would not give his wood because there was a rich man there. The rich man would not give his wood because his contribution would warm someone who was, in his eyes, shiftless and lazy. A woman would not offer her wood because she had had it with men, and there were men around that fire. A Moslem would not give his wood because there was a Jew around the fire. The Jew certainly wasn’t going to give his and allow another Moslem to survive. An African American decided he would strike a blow at those whose ancestors had enslaved his ancestors. And so the fire died as each person withheld his or her wood for reasons he or she were sure were justifiable.

We have too many unfulfilled dreams and many times we regret about them. That disappoints us, hurts us and holds resentment against God and our own life. However we should know we are the fulfillment of God’s promises. We cannot allow past hurts and present prejudices to destroy our opportunity to bring light to those in darkness. We must allow God’s love to flow through us. This is how we prepare the way for the Lord. The unfulfilled promises of God are not to be considered in the same way as we consider our own unfulfilled dreams. God’s promises are real and truthful. It’s about his kingdom, His Day of joy, peace, harmony, love, and justice. While his promises are about the reality of our life our dreams are about the unreal, shallowness, or a portion of that reality. Its true and factual God’s promises have not been fulfilled 100 percent. There are 6000 and more promises of God in the Bible and we don’t know how many more are stored in other religions’ sacred books. But not all of them have been fulfilled yet.

Prophet Isaiah proclaimed God’s promises about justice, peace, and harmony to be experienced by his people. (Is.11/1-10) He thought these promises would be fulfilled at the time of Ahaz, his king. But unfortunately he did not see the fulfillment of God’s promises in his lifetime, nor to this date as we observe the deplorable and critical situation of Israel today. John the Baptizer, for example, prophesied about Jesus and his baptism of fire and spirit. He foretold the just and loving accomplishments of Jesus. (Mat.3/1-12) Was he there to see these things to be fulfilled? No. He desired to see the glory of Jesus but he was disappointed when Jesus himself came to be baptized by him at Jordan He was dismayed to see the slow and gentle way Jesus started his ministry. This is why from prison he sent his disciples to ask Jesus about his identity. ‘Are you the Messiah truly or have we to wait for another one?’ The climax to all these, he was beheaded before he could experience the fulfillment of God’s promises. Paul, an apostle very close to the heart of Jesus, by the inspiration of Jesus’ Spirit declared about the harmony and peace existing among Jesus’ followers in Rome. (Rom.15/4-9) But, he did not come across the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy about unity of Christians in his lifetime? Nor did he witness the second coming of Jesus as accepted and proclaimed. His earthly life simply ended in failure with the cry of rejection, ‘Father why have you forsaken me?’ This is the life pattern of every disciple of Jesus, including that of Jesus, which simply ended in failure with the cry of rejection, ‘Father why have you forsaken me?’

We know God’s promises through Jesus and other prophets. He did promise of establishing his kingdom of justice, love, peace, harmony and joy. Till this day we have not seen such promises fulfilled in their entirety. However we should never lead a life of disappointment or despair or discouragement or doubt. While those promises have not been fulfilled fully, we should catch sight of, not just their shadow or their beginning stage, but their intensive process of being fulfilled in each and everyone’s life. There are among us many disciples of Jesus who have been inspired by his Spirit to be peacegivers and peacemakers. Some work hard and even die for the cause of justice and peace. There are good many of us, as Paul tells, who aspire and do something to realizing the fulfillment of God’s promise of justice, peace and harmony at home and community by patient endurance. Jesus expects all of us to join his team of realizing his promise of peace and harmony. There is so much to be done to build up a community of peace and justice and harmony. Advent is a season to wait and earn for such fulfillment of God’s promises to come true in our midst.

Second Sunday of Advent—B

Is. 40: 1-5, 9-11; 2Pt. 3: 8-14; Mk. 1: 1-8

Wake up and Shake up

A middle age woman was going through a death experience at her operation room. She asked God if she was going to die. God told her no and announced the good news that she would have another 30 to 40 years. With all the bonus years assured, the lady decided to make the most of them and for that she wanted to shake herself up. She stayed on at the hospital for some more time to have an extreme makeover. She had a face-lift, liposuction, breast augmentation and a tummy tuck. She even changed her hair color to platinum blonde. As a new woman she proudly got out of the hospital. Unfortunately inside the hospital campus she was struck and killed by a speeding ambulance at the entrance. At the heavenly entrance she confronted God and told him, I thought you said I had another 30 to 40 years. God replied it seems Sorry, I did not recognize you.

This is how many of our shaking-ups end. We have changed ourselves, our attitudes, our dealings and our handlings of jobs and businesses by certain amount of hard, crude, bleeding and sweating shaking ups. By them we have tried to beautify our personalities, our life-situations, our families and so on. But it has reached to certain spot where even God could not recognize our identity and worth. We drift away from God’s intimacy and nearness. Some of us have lame excuses to shake us up to the reality of God’s call. ‘Shake-up’ really means a thorough reorganization of life. He is hundred percent right in what he imagines about the reality of Advent as we hear the same shake-up advice in today’s readings. These God’s messengers tell us while we wait for the Lord’s coming in glory we should prepare his way physically, emotionally and spiritually.

In today’s readings Prophet Isaiah, Saint Peter and John the Baptist are urging us to repent as we wait for the Lord’s coming. They want us to repent so that we may be worthy to receive the Lord as he continues to come into our world. Crooked ways must be made straight; bad habits need to be corrected; conversion must continue. This message is nothing but a voice in the wilderness meaning that it comes straight from God. That is why John proclaims it in the desert—a place that has always been associated with divine mystery and freedom. Human control has no place in the symbolic wilderness of divine freedom. Repentance is an ever-recurring message in Scriptures, especially in the teachings of Jesus. His first preaching was about repentance, which was a primary integral part of his Good News. Repent, he shouted, the Kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus’ apostles and disciples did the same way as we read in the Letter of St. Peter today. To this day the Church continues the same call for repentance throughout the year, especially in Advent as we are eagerly waiting for the best to happen in our lives from the Savior.

Since we use and hear the word ‘repentance’ very often we take it for granted or misunderstand its real meaning. It is true most of the Scriptural writings and preaching are very poetic and many times sound like somewhat eccentric drumming beats, and so too it is with the message of repentance. Therefore many of us apply and practice it in our lives in a very shallow way: Repenting means for some going to confession once/twice a year. For others saying very often ‘mea culpa’ and ‘Lord have mercy.’ There are a few going on fasting or having a pilgrimage of repentance to holy places. All these are truly the outward practices and rituals of repentance. There is no doubt about these practices’ results. But most of them are very shallow not having any root within our hearts so that we are prepared for receiving the Lord at his coming.

This kind of shaking up is not just an Advent matter. It is not an extraordinary thing we do only in special occasion. It is an integral part of our daily life. Every day every one of us who want to grow, to succeed, to develop and to accomplish does shake up. Early morning as we get up for the day work we shake ourselves from our sleepiness, laziness and restfulness; during the day we shake again to commit ourselves to our job, our business, our relationship. Many times we shake ourselves to look smart, to be fair and beautiful, to be presentable, to influence others and sell our products and ideas. But most of the time these efforts of our shaking and changing end up in bad results. God invites us today to shake up: Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. This shakeup should be our daily regular workup for our spiritual growth and being capable of receiving God’s graces at his arrival.

Second Sunday in Advent—C

Baruch 5: 1-9; Philippians 1: 3-6, 8-11; Luke 3: 1-6

His Way is High Way

Once Bishop Fulton Sheen the famous Catholic preacher and writer was in Philadelphia to give a speech at the town hall. Walking there, he passed a group of boys hanging out on a street corner. He asked them for directions to the town hall. They told him, and then one asked the bishop why he was going there. Bishop replied, I am going there to make a speech on how to get the heaven. He also added, Would you like to come? The boys declined, saying, If you don’t know how to find the town hall you probably don’t know how to get to heaven.

The boys’ statement may or may not be right. But one thing we learn from today’s liturgy of the Word that if we want to reach heaven we have to prepare the way for it. What does John want to say when he preached ‘prepare the way of the Lord?’ He did not mean that we have to give a facelift to the way of the Lord. God has already constructed His way, a way of redemption and sanctification. It’s a heresy to say we are waiting for God’s redemption. He has already done it through the blood of Jesus. He has proposed already to us that Jesus would be the way the truth and the life. At last supper when Thomas asked how to know the way to heaven Jesus replied that he is the way the truth and the life. He said to Philip, ‘I have been with you so long, still you do not know me.’ So we accepted Jesus is the way to heaven. There is no meaning of preparing and repairing this way. Only thing needed is to know this way, how Jesus is, and how his direction is. John wants us to receive Jesus as the way to heaven and prepare the way for him who comes in our daily life in different ways. This is what we do between the two comings.

God’s way is not our way, because His way is the only high Way. It is OK to construct and develop our own way of living, loving, dealing, relating, buying and selling, eating and drinking, even snoring at night. God is happy to see that we have chosen our way of worshiping and rejecting the way our parents and elders thrusted on us. We have selected our church, our own way of serving, and earning our livelihood. While God appreciates and encourages our caliber and freedom to develop our way of living, He pities us that we have developed a wrong way of esteeming our way of living. We think our way is the best way, because we feel comfortable with it, and we feel our way is conformed to our likes and dislikes, to our whims and fancies. We should know that that is the way to perdition and not to life-fulfillment. Our way must be conformed to God’s Way. Often we try to prepare His way and do not repair our own way. Until our way of living corresponds or is conformed to God’s Way, our waiting and watching for Him is in vain. First we should repair our personal way of viewing His way, His way of coming and going, His way of forgiving and punishing, His way of leading and following, His way of worship and service.

We have great trust in our God’s promises: Amble power to liberate, loving forgiveness to be free of remorse, never-ending bliss in the midst of trials, and eternal peace hovering over the individuals, families and communities. We too accepted Jesus as the fulfillment of those Fatherly promises in this world. We are waiting for His advent in order to see the glory of the Lord revealed in our time. Even Paul and his Christians expected it to happen before they died. Every time the world faces some unusual events, people dream of such end of times. Every one of us deep in our inner world possesses a desire for the complete fulfillment of Heavenly Father’s promises and Jesus’ words. How many times we request Jesus to come down to satisfy us with His end-time power, end-time justice, end-time love, and end-time unity. Sometimes a few of us would have prayed for Jesus’ advent to put an end to the abnormal behavior of certain superiors, leaders, and of some of our own community members!

We are living in a world being divided and confused by millions of ways of viewing God’s way. Unless our way of seeing Him corresponds to how God sees His way, our entire life will be a life of a chicken in a freezer or we will feel like a dying duck got in the midst of spilt oily waves of Atlantic. Before we prepare the way of the Lord, God is already preparing His way through this hazardous and speedy tumult of occurrences, because it is His project. We better repair our ways first and get ready for His advent. Let us then prepare the way, the way we view God’s way!

Third Sunday of Advent—A

Is. 35: 1-6a, 10; Jas. 5: 7-10; Matt. 11: 2-11

The Reason for the Season

As any boy of seven I too asked many questions from my brother. Once as he compelled me to go to church I reluctantly got out of my bed and went with him. On our way as we passed a Hindu temple I asked ‘why do we go to church? He answered ‘To worship God.’ I again asked why don’t we go to this Temple or Mosque? He said, ‘it is because Our God does not want us to go.’ Why does he not want us to go here and only to our church? Because Jesus is present only in our churches. Who is Jesus? Jesus is God’s Son. How do we know Jesus is God’s Son? We know from our Sacred Scriptures. My Hindu friends also told me their Scriptures say that God is present and his saints are present in their temples too? Our Jesus and his Book are the true sources from the true God. Who said it? Jesus himself said it. We believe him because he is the Messiah. Why do we say he is our Messiah? By this time we reached the entrance of our church. My brother stopped and said to me, ‘You go inside. I will come later.’ I went and joined with other boys and girls in prayer. When I came out of the church I noticed my brother still sitting at the entrance of the church. I asked him ‘Why did you not come inside the church?’ He got wild. He was furious. Stop there, he said. I will come or I wont. It is none of your business.’ I could not understand why he got angry that way. Only later when I was interrogated this way by my students in the catechism class I could clearly understand my brother’s desperate situation in answering my hundreds of questions.

However questions are important especially when deal with our spiritual relationship with God, Jesus and with all our religious issues. John the Baptist in today’s Gospel asked only one question, very important to him and to his disciples and his friends. Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another? His question was sincere and very direct. John believed Jesus was the Messiah. He had certain inspirations and even revelations that Jesus of Nazareth was the God-sent man. However after his Baptism Jesus did not perform anything as John expected as a messiah should be doing. As any other prophets in the OT and as all the Jews expected John waited to see a Messiah to be a stringent judge with a searing judgment; a winnowing fan and not a healing hand; a striking sword and not a loving kiss; a fighting warrior and not a wounded healer; a man on fire and not a man of peace; a powerful mighty leader and not a meek and humble servant. So both directly and in distance he saw and heard that this Jesus of Nazareth was not upto his expectations. Therefore with all his commitment to Yahweh and to the transformation of his people he sent this question to Jesus.

What did Jesus say? Very interestingly Jesus confirmed himself as the Messiah by connecting himself and his works with what OT prophets like Isaiah prophesied: Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me. (Mt. 11: 4-6) He proclaims through his answer that he is the Messiah with difference. He is a contradiction, an anomaly and a question itself. He is mystery we say. Jesus is a mystery therefore. He shows himself as an enigma and all his answers would be either riddles or puzzles. He himself is a question. This is why some call him Irish because he answers a question with a question. ‘Go and find out what I do. I am truly a Messiah but a servant Messiah, a suffering Messiah; I am fulfillment but also a continuity; I am joyful but also sorrowful; I am human but also divine; I am Jewish but also global; I am Master but also a slave; I am brave but also meek; I am rich but also the poorest of the poor.’

We are, during this season of advent, eagerly waiting for such a Messiah. But before we wait upon him we should be very clear about his identity. We can vote for his miracles, for his power, for his wonderful deeds. But that is only a half of him. The other half, and surely that is the better half, namely he is poor, simple, humble, kind, generous, forgiving, lovable, sincere and self-sacrificing. If we do not expect and wait for such twofold Messiah we cannot find him and when he comes we fail to see him. Getting his help is very easy but to walk with him and do as he tells us to do is very difficult. Not only waiting for the messiah’s coming is difficult but also after his arrival learning to accept his true identity as Servant Messiah. This is why in today’s second reading James correctly advises us in this regard: Be patient as a farmer waiting to see the fruits of the seeds he had sown in the soil. Be firm and stable with hardship and patience while you are waiting for the Lord, the Messiah. During this Advent let us not wait only for a Santa Jesus to provide us with what we lack but also mainly for a Messiah of the Gospel preached to the poor in spirit.

Third Sunday of Advent—B

Is. 61: 1-2a, 10-11; 1Thess. 5: 16-24; Jn. 1: 6-8, 19-28

Joy-filled Waiting for the Lord

There was a famous preacher who was trying to teach his students to make their facial expressions harmonize with what they are speaking about. When you speak of heaven, he said, let you face light up, let it be irradiated with a heavenly gleam, let your eyes shine with reflected glory. But when speak of Hell—well, then, your ordinary face will do. This third Sunday of Advent is called Gaudete or Rejoice Sunday. We do rejoice today. It is because not only we speak of heaven but also we hope and wait for the coming of heaven in our midst at the birth of Jesus. Everything around the altar is pink, a more cheerful color. We light a third candle, which is pink; the priest is wearing a pink colored vestment. Besides, all those speak to us in today’s readings inspire us toward such rejoicing. Isaiah says: I rejoice heartily in the LORD, in my God is the joy of my soul. St. Paul, for his part,