OT III [C] Neh 8: 2-4, 5-6, 8-10; I Cor. 12:12-30; Luke 1: 1-4; 4: 14-21

One day in an introductory Bible class one of the participants asked: "Why are there four Gospels rather than one?" Certainly things would look a lot easier if there was only one Gospel. Everything we read in that one Gospel would then be the gospel truth, pure and simple. Now that we have four Gospels that often differ significantly from one another, things can be quite confusing. When you come to think of it, however, you begin to realize that things would be a lot worse if we had only one Gospel. If we had only one Gospel we would think that there is only one way of understanding Jesus and how he relates to us. But now that we have four different Gospels, each of them telling a significantly different story of Jesus and his mission, it becomes easier for us to see that no story of Jesus can exhaust the whole truth of what Jesus is. As limited human beings we can only tell part of the story of God.

This reminds us of the story of the six blind men who set out to discover what the elephant is. The first blind man feels the elephant's side and says the elephant is like a wall. The second blind man feels the elephant's tusk and says it is like a spear. The third feels the trunk and says it is like a snake. The fourth feels the elephant's leg and says the elephant is like a tree. The fifth feels the ear and says it is like a fan. And the sixth blind man feels the elephant's tail and concludes that the elephant is like a rope. You could imagine the bitter disagreement that would ensue among them if they got together to discuss the nature of the elephant. Every one of them would insist that he is right and the others wrong. But the truth of the matter is: yes, he is right, but then so also are all the others. Each of them has a valid experience of the elephant but no one of them possesses the full knowledge of the total reality of the elephant. Even when you put all the six images of the elephant together it still does not capture the full vision of the elephant.

After Vatican II the church's reading of the Gospels on Sunday was revised into a three-year cycle: year A for the gospel of Matthew, year B for Mark, and year C for Luke. The gospel of John is read on certain Sundays interspersed within the three years, such as the Sundays of the Easter season. We are now in year C, the year of Luke. The question we shall be asking ourselves this year is, What aspect of the mystery of Christ does Luke highlight, as distinct from the focus of the other Gospels? A certain scholar has outlined in one word the aspect of Christ that each of the Gospels highlights. Matthew highlights the Christ of majesty (who heals by word of mouth alone, never touches people, never hungry, never angry, etc.), Mark highlights the Christ of might (who proves he is the Messiah by his acts of power and authority over natural and demonic forces), Luke highlights the Christ of mercy (who reaches out to the poor, the outcasts, foreigners and women) and John highlights the Christ of mystery (who was with the Father from all eternity and who has come into the world to reveal this hidden mystery, the truth that leads to life).

Today we begin reading the Gospel of Luke. In his opening preface (1:1-4) Luke tells us why he wrote the gospel. It was to explain to Theophilus, probably a Roman official, what Christianity was all about.  In telling Theophilus about the Christian faith, Luke finds the incident in the synagogue in Nazareth very useful. In this incident found only in Luke's Gospel, Jesus makes a solemn declaration of his mission in the world. We can call it the Jesus Manifesto. People who initiate a revolution usually start off with a declaration of their manifesto. Karl Marx started by publishing the Communist Manifesto. Martin Luther started off with the publication of the 95 theses in Wittenberg. Jesus has come to start a revolution of mercy and love in the world. And here in today's Gospel reading he publishes the Christian manifesto:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. (4:18-19)

In these few words Jesus claims that he is the One sent "to bring glad tidings to the poor, liberation to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and freedom for the oppressed"—language that reflects the Biblical year of Jubilee.

We need to receive Christ’s freedom, live it and pass it on to others: As members of Christ’s Mystical Body, we share in the freeing, saving mission of Jesus.   But we are captives of sin. We need Christ to set us free. We are often blinded by our evil habits, addictions and need for financial security. Once we receive true liberation from Christ, we have to share it with those we encounter in our daily lives, families, neighborhoods, parishes and workplaces.  

The readings challenge us today to listen to the Word, accept it into our hearts, then put it into practice as we live out our lives, liberating ourselves and others from all types of bondages.   As Jesus comes alive in our hearts, let us be ready to become Spirit-filled instruments of Christ’s saving freedom and healing.

BAPTISM OF THE LORD: Is 40:1-5, 9-11; TITUS 2:11-14, 3:4-7, LUKE 3:15-16, 21-22

Today is the feast of the Baptism of  Our Lord. It is the event when God the Father revealed to the world that Jesus was his beloved Son. It was also a revelation of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The Baptism marks the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. Even though he had no need to be cleansed from sin himself, he receives baptism to take our place, so that we in turn, when baptized, take Jesus' place, and thus  become "sons in the Son".

Baptism is a huge symbol -- it's the water of creation. At its basic level, baptism is the death of the old self. Before anything new can be born, the old has to pass away. In the nature we see death and rising. Winter is the season of death…but in the spring we see the dead trees and plants springing up to life. This occurs in the spiritual realm too.

Water causes death as well as gives life. The great flood of the time of Noah, caused death of all the living beings, except those in the Ark with Noah. The waters of Red sea caused death for the Egyptians, but became a source of life for the Hebrews and freedom from the oppressing Egyptians. When one goes down under water at baptism he loses breath which sustains life. But when he rises from the water it is like coming back to new life. So, in baptism one dies with Christ and rises in Christ, like Jesus rose from death.

In Baptism Jesus exchanges his divine life with us and he takes our mortal nature and makes it immortal by merging it with his nature and life. French writer Henri Barbusse (1874-1935) tells of a conversation overheard in a trench full of wounded men during the First World War. One of the men, who knew he only had minutes to live says to one other man, "Listen, Dominic, you've led a very bad life. Everywhere you are wanted by the police. But there are no convictions against me. My name is clear, so, here, take my wallet, take my papers, my identity, take my good name, my life and quickly, hand me your papers that I may carry all your crimes away with me in death."

The Good News is that through Jesus, God makes a similar offer. When we are baptized, we identify ourselves with Jesus. We publicly declare our intention to strive to be like Jesus and follow God's will for our lives. When we are baptized, our lives are changed. We see people and things differently than before. Baptism enables and empowers us to do the things that Jesus wants us to do here and now. And we are able to love as he loved. Such identification is life changing.

Those who are baptized in Jesus need to nurture that new life so it can grow and mature.

Developing our friendship with Christ is the main project of our whole life. But even so, we can identify three steps that can help us focus our ongoing efforts to become more and more united with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ: those are- knowing him, loving him, and imitating him. When we were baptized, God’s own life was poured into our souls; it was planted like a seed in fertile soil. But every seed, in order to grow to maturity, needs three things: water, sunlight, and nutrients. The seed of divine life in our souls also needs three things in order to grow to maturity. The more fully we come to know Christ, especially through prayerful reading of the Gospels and time spent with him in the Eucharist, the more we will come to love him. And the more we love him, the more we will want to follow and imitate him, especially in his perfect fulfillment of the Father’s will and his tireless, active love for all people.

If we let these three motifs of knowing, loving, and imitating Christ set the rhythm for our daily living, we too can please the heart of God and be filled to overflowing with his life-giving love, just like our Lord.

 Life is a continuous conversion. In every setting in which we are put, we have to “put on the new person.” There are whole areas of our lives which have not yet been brought into subjection to Christ, and it can only be done by this continuous conversion. Paul tells in 2 Cor.10:5 ..bring your every rebellious thought captive in Christ and make it obedient to him. Once we are able to do that, our spiritual growth in Christ becomes strong and steady.

Our baptism calls us to live as the children of God in thought, word and action. It give us the grace to grow daily in intimacy with God by personal and family prayers, by meditative reading of the Word of God, by participating in the Holy Mass, and by frequenting the sacrament of reconciliation. It is a day to thank God for the graces we received in Baptism, to renew our baptismal promises and to preach Christ’s ‘Good News’ by our transparent Christian lives of love, mercy, service and forgiveness. Thus ultimately we may hear the words of the Father: this is my beloved child in whom I am well pleased.

EPIPHANY-Is 60:1-6;  Eph 2:2-3, 5-6;   Mt 2:1-12

Today we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany of our Lord. The Greek word epiphany means "Manifestation". It is an older feast even than the feast of Nativity. In the western Church on this feast we remember the Magi who came from faraway lands to worship the baby Jesus. They came guided by a star. Being nature worshipers who had no scriptures, God revealed Himself to them through the means available to them in their own religion. Through the stars they were able to learn of the birth of Jesus and find their way to him. They came as pagans, they worshiped Jesus as pagans, and they went back home as pagans. They did not convert either to Judaism or to Christianity. Their worship was acceptable to God and God directed them in their journey home through a dream. This shows that God does have a relationship with people of other religions who are neither Jews nor Christians.

There is only one God, and all who seek God with a sincere heart are led to Him, though they call Him by different names. One thing Christians have in common with members of other religions is that we all worship the same God. We all are children of the same Father. This truth is hard for religious people to appreciate because religious people all over the world tend to claim that they have exclusive access to God and the truth.

In the Old Testament, the Jewish people believed that they were the exclusive people of God. They divided the whole world into two: the Jews who were the people of God, and the Gentiles who were not. Some of their prophets and wise men tried to correct this belief by reminding them of the universal love of God for all humankind. But it was not until Jesus came that this idea began to sink in. As the letter to the Ephesians states, Christ made both groups, Jews and Gentiles, into one people and broke down the dividing wall of hostility separating them (Eph. 2:14).

In the past, Christians tended to make the same mistake as the Jews of old by claiming that there is no salvation outside the church. Then Vatican II came along, the church opened the windows to the Spirit of God, and came to recognize that God’s truth is available to people of other religions, although not to the same degree that it is available in the church. The difference between the Christian faith and other faiths, therefore, is not that we possess the truth of God and they do not, but that, thanks to God’s unique revelation in Christ, we can know and see God’s truth more clearly, love God more dearly, and follow God’s ways more closely in our daily lives. But again don’t mistake to believe that there is salvation “outside Christ”. No. There is only one mediator between God and man- Jesus Christ. If people of other faith are saved, they are saved only through Christ. Jesus is the only way to the Father. The Catholic Church has and holds all the treasures of the Church Jesus founded on the Apostles. So, it is the ordinary means of salvation offered to us. Believing the teachings of the Bible and holding fast to the traditions handed down to us through the centuries and receiving the sacraments we are promised heaven. But God who gave us this means, is not bound by his own laws. He keeps his promise but he is above the law he made for human beings. He is free to work outside the frame work he laid out for human beings. Therefore he can save people of other faiths, through extra ordinary means, but only through Christ. People who leave the Catholic faith and go to other faiths can be compared to people who leave a safe bridge (the Church) and choose to walk a tight rope to cross a flooding river. People leave Catholic faith primarily because it is more demanding than other faiths. But in fact they don’t realize that they are choosing even tougher path to their goal.

The magi needed not just their wisdom to seek the new born king; without the knowledge of the religious authorities, they would not have known where to find him. So it is with us in our own search for the meaning of our lives. First of all we Christians have the wisdom of our Scriptures, the Word of God. It is to this Word, who is ultimately the person of Jesus, that we owe our primary obedience. Here we hear the summons to take to the road. But if we just rely on our own interpretation of the Bible, then we may easily misunderstand what it says. So we listen to the scriptures as members of the Church, a community which stretches across two thousand years. We listen to the wise and holy men and women who have wrestled with the Word, and learn from them. God is always guiding us, but that doesn't mean that the journey is easy.  These three wise men had left their homelands far behind in order to follow their star, but right when they seemed to be arriving at their destination, the star disappeared.

If they had turned back at that point, they would never have found the light of Christ, the light they were thirsting to find, the meaning they longed for. We are often in the same situation.  We know God is faithful, and we want to trust him, but we lose sight of the star.  That's when we have to exercise our faith in God - to keep following his will no matter what.

There is someone in our life now who has lost sight of the star and thinking about turning back.  They are doubting God's faithfulness. Maybe they are finding it hard to accept one of the Church's teachings.  Maybe they are facing suffering and loss.  Maybe they are stuck in sin and are drifting further and further away from the light.

Whatever their specific situation, they need to be reminded that God is faithful, that even though a cloud has covered up the star, the star is still there, and if they keep following God's path, their journey will lead them to the light.

Today let’s promise him to do our best this week to remind those around us that God can be trusted, that it's worth it to follow the star.

The magi left their comfort and their routine in search of the prince of peace. They fell to their knees in homage, their learning made them humble, and their wisdom led them to recognize the Divine in the fragile flesh of a child.

Like the Magi let’s offer God- the gold- our talents and efforts, our incense- our prayers and worship, and the myrrh-  our sufferings and sorrows. After this Mass, let’s go back in a different way, not the way that would lead betraying the Lord, but glorifying the Lord and declaring the world that we have see the savior of the World.

Christmas-2012

Glory to God in the highest and PEACE to people of good will. We repeat this message of the angels  in our Gloria every Sunday except in Advent and lent. Peace is something every generation sought after. In fact every generation thought that their previous generation had more peace and less crimes, violence and wars.

Why is it that we don’t have peace within ourselves and between ourselves in spite of our celebrating the birth of the prince of peace year after year. ? Peace comes from forgiveness. You may have heard this saying:

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer. But our greatest need was forgiveness, So God sent us a Saviour. Roy Lessin.

The primary mission of Jesus was to forgive sins. The angel said: You shall name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Therefore Peace flows from forgiveness. Right after the first sin, we see the rupture of peace between the first couple. Adam said: SHE gave me the fruit. They started to accuse each other.

Absence of peace is always the result of un-forgiveness. Un-forgiveness leads to bitterness, anger, grudge, and murder. So the cause of rupture of peace is the failure to deal with sin that is within ourselves.

Our public schools have been teaching children that evil does not reside in their souls and is therefore, by default, circumstantial. They teach evil does not reside in you, it is something outside of you. So, instead of fighting the evil inside, one is tempted to go and fight evil outside of oneself. This is what Adam Lanza did, by shooting the innocent children in New town, Ct. He thought evil resided in his mom and the children whom she spend most of her time with. So he decided to destroy them both. Even some of us may think the cause was: his psychology, his mother, the divorce. It’s something outside him, instead of looking at the real cause that was in him.

The London Daily Mail reported on Dec. 19 that a former classmate claimed Lanza “worshipped the devil and had an online page dedicated to Satan. And he played violent video games. He encouraged the evil take deep root in him by using to these evil practices. So, his psychological imbalance was only the secondary reasons. Not all people who have similar imbalances go shooting like he did.

So, what we have here is not a gun problem but a sin problem. Sin can only be handled by God. Only he can forgive our sins. Instead of inviting God into our life we turn God further away from our nation. And the further we drive Him out of our society, out of our schools and courts, and out of our media and out of our homes, or the more we give mere lip service to religion, the worse, things can get.

Our schools no longer teach the Ten Commandments, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled school prayer was unconstitutional in 1962. As long as the nation continues to “marginalize God” in its public life, the country can expect “more and more of these types of tragedies.”

We are raising generations of people with no faith in God or Jesus and, hence, no moral conscience and no self-control and no teaching of religious values. When we send our kids to games on Sundays without giving them a chance to attend the Church, you can expect them to behave weirdly.

The greatest wrong with the present generation is that they say there is no absolute good. They say they know and can decide for themselves what is good. This morning one young man came to me and during the course of the conversation he said: Even though I don’t fully believe the bible or in the Church, I am good. I said, who said you are good. What is the criterion to decide you are good. Is there any criterion by which you judged yourself as good ?  One young man came to Jesus and addressed him: Good teacher … Jesus reacted this way..why do you call me good..? Only God is good. It was not that Jesus was not good. It was not that he was not God.. but he wanted to tell him that everything is judged good or bad in reference to God. So away from God you can judge nothing to be good. The closer you are to divine values you are good. Even if some one who does not believe in God is said to be good, it is because he draws goodness from God without openly admitting it. Today’s generation says abortion is good, gay marriage is good. The pope said this week ‘there can be no peace with out dealing with abortion and gay marriage’. Because they stand contradicting to biblical values.

The Pope said the family in Western society is undergoing a "crisis that threatens it to its foundations," owing to false ideas of human nature that equate freedom with selfishness and present God-given sexual identities as a matter of individual choice to the profound detriment of humanity dignity.

It’s not accidental that there’s no room for the Christ-child at the inn. This rejection is a perennial attitude of the whole human race. We have to change that now as ‘there is no room for him in this country, except on the dollar bill which is also kind of being challenged.

Let’s remember the words of St.John: to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.” Let’s respond to God’s call to holiness, let’s be the living residences of the Incarnate God; remembering that the more we push him out of our life, we become lost in our sin and left with peace-less life.

Advent IV [C] (Dec 23) Micah 5:1-4, Hebr. 10:5-10    Luke 1:39-45

Repeated prophecies about the coming of a Messiah abounds in the sacred writings. But these prophesies were shrouded in obscurity. A clear picture of the Messiah is  given in about 700BC by  prophet Mica. We listened to his description in the First reading. The reading clearly says that the Savior will be born in Bethlehem. Basing on this the Jewish leaders were able to inform Herod when he was searching for Jesus that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem.

Why did God send prophets announcing the coming of the Savior ? For the same reason we reserve rooms in a hotel when we go on a tour- so that we may get enough room to stay. So that our purpose may be achieved without difficulty. But we know in spite of proclaiming in advance of the coming of the Savior, the bible says that he did not have room even in an inn. When we hear about that we feel very sorry about that situation. We wish if we had been there we would definitely have given him room in our home.

The church keeps three or four weeks of advent so that we may prepare well for the coming of the Savior. But does Jesus really get a warm welcome at the end of our preparations ? Well, this email which supposedly have been sent by Jesus will reveal the truth.

As you well know, we are getting closer to my birthday. Every year there is a celebration in my honor and I think that this year the celebration will be repeated. During this time there are many people shopping for gifts, there are many radio announcements, TV commercials, and in every part of the world everyone is talking that my birthday is getting closer and closer. It is really very nice to know, that at least once a year, some people think of me. As you know, the celebration of my birthday began many years ago. At first people seemed to understand and be thankful of all that I did for them, but in these times, no one seems to know the reason for the Celebration. Family and friends get together and have a lot of fun, but they don't know the meaning of the celebration.

I remember that last year there was a great feast in my honor. The dinner table was full of delicious foods, pastries, fruits, assorted nuts and chocolates. The decorations were exquisite and there were many, many beautifully wrapped gifts. But, do you want to know something? I wasn't invited. I was the guest of honor and they didn't remember to send me an invitation. The party was for me, but when that great day came, I was left outside, they closed the door in my face.... and I wanted to be with them and share their table. In truth, that didn't surprise me because in the last few years all close their doors to me. Since I wasn't invited, I decided to enter the party without making any noise. I went in and stood in a corner. They were all drinking; there were some who were drunk and telling jokes and laughing at everything. They were having a grand time. To top it all, this big fat man all dressed in red wearing a long white beard entered the room yelling Ho-Ho-Ho! He seemed drunk. He sat on the sofa and all the children ran to him, saying: "Santa Claus, Santa Claus".  As if the party were in his honor! At 12 Midnight all the people began to hug each other; I extended my arms waiting for someone to hug me and ... do you know ... no one hugged me.

Suddenly they all began to share gifts. They opened them one by one with great expectation. When all had been opened, I looked to see if, maybe, there was one for me. What would you feel if on your birthday everybody shared gifts and you did not get one? I then understood that I was unwanted at that party and quietly left. Every year it gets worse. People only remember to eat and drink, the gifts, the parties and nobody remembers me. I would like this Christmas that you allow me to enter into your life.

I would like that you recognize the fact that almost two thousand years ago I came to this world to give my life for you, on the cross, to save you. Today, I only want that you believe this with all your heart. I want to share something with you. As many didn't invite me to their party, I will have my own celebration, a grandiose party that no one has ever imagined, a spectacular party. I'm still making the final arrangements. Today I am sending out many invitations and there is an invitation for you. I want to know if you wish to attend and I will make a reservation for you and write your name with golden letters in my great guest book. Only those on the guest list will be invited to the party. Those who don't answer the invitation will be left outside. Be prepared because when all is ready you will be part of my great party. See you soon.

Love You Always!

Jesus

Do you think this imaginary email from Jesus is close to any reality of our celebrations ? If we think so, still there are two days left for us to change our mind and get down to earnest preparation which would really get Jesus in the celebration. Let Christ be the center of our Christmas. He is the reason for this season. Let’s not celebrate this feast as a holiday, but a holy day when the Son of God came down to earth and dwelt in my heart.

Advent III –C- Zeph. 3:14-18a; Phil. 4:4-7; Lk 3:10-18  

Two men, Charlie and Roger, got together and opened a butcher shop. The business did quite well and they prospered. One day a preacher came to town, and Charlie gave his life to Christ. He tried to persuade Roger to accept Christ also, but to no avail. "Why won't you, Roger?" asked the newly baptized Charlie. "Listen, Charlie," Roger said. "If I get religion too, who's going to weigh the meat?"

Roger has this going for him, that he understands that believing in Christ implies a radical change in personal and professional behavior. Many people who identify themselves as Christians do not seem to get it. According to a Gallup poll conducted in 1987 in the USA, there is little difference in moral behavior between people who go to church and people who don't. There is as much pilfering and dishonesty among church members as among non-members. There seems to be a widespread misconception among Christians that we can add Christ to our lives without subtracting sin. Accepting Jesus as one's personal Lord and Savior is seen as a matter of changing one's belief and not much to do with changing one's behavior. Many street preachers preach, "Only believe, and you will be saved?" Most non Catholics say of themselves as “saved” people. Because they think only by believing they are saved.

They don’t care about how one lives after one comes to faith.

Faith in Jesus Christ saves us. But that faith has to be proven to be genuine by the way one lives. St.James tells us to prove our faith by our actions. Yes, you will be saved by just believing, if you die soon after your coming to faith and you get no time to prove your faith. But if you continue to live on this earth you have to show your faith that it is genuine by your every day actions.

The gospel is a leaven that affects every aspect of our personal, business and social life. To repent is to turn from evil and do good. "Only believe, and you will be saved" is at best a half-truth. Someone explained it this way.
Repentance means to "return from going down the wrong road." Rebirth means to "start anew on
the right road." Faith in Jesus involves not only repentance, but rebirth as well.

William Willimon, Chaplain at Duke University, says that John the Baptist reminds us of boundaries we must respect and gates we must pass through. At Duke, Willimon reminds the students, "If you are going to graduate, you must first get past the English Department. If you are going to practice law, you must pass the bar. If you want to get to medical school you must survive Organic Chemistry." Likewise, "If you want to get to the joy of Bethlehem in the presence of Jesus, you must get past John the Baptist in the desert." The word from John is "repent," which means "about-face" or turning 180 degrees.

Just think for a moment how different the world would be if everyone followed these simple directives of John. John is announcing the coming of the Savior, the Messiah, the Lord of life and history. And he is telling the people how they can enter into a personal relationship with that Savior, how they can come to experience what St Paul calls in today’s Second Reading “the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.”

Christianity is not about doing the right thing. It is not all about morality.  It is about being the right person. It is about faith in Jesus Christ leading to a converted life and right relationship with God. Good works alone do not give us justification. It is the faith that gives Justification. The basic problem with Christian faith today is that we profess to believe but do not match it with practical behavior.

Advent and lent provide us with settings and circumstances hospitable for religious experience. The people who listened to John the baptizer were eager to make changes in their life and they asked him what shall we do ? His answer to them was “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.. Be content with your pay..

 If we, like those people, are eager to bring changes in our life, let’s ask the same question: Lord, what shall I do today to experience and live the life of the Word Incarnate in my life ?

ADVENT II : BARUCH 5:1-9; PHIL 1:4-6, 8-11; LK 3:1-6

Three pastors got together for coffee one morning. Much to their surprise they discovered that all their churches had problems with bats infesting their belfries. The bats were making a terrible mess. "I got so mad," said one pastor, "I took a shotgun and fired at them. It made holes in the ceiling, but did nothing to the bats."  "I tried trapping them alive," said the second. "Then I drove 50 miles before releasing them, but they beat me back to the church."  "I haven't had any more problems," said the third.  "What did you do?" asked the others, amazed.  "I simply baptized and confirmed them," he replied. "I haven't seen them since."   You may laugh at this. But you will stop laughing when you hear that there are kids in our confirmation class who do not even know who Fr.Bolte is. When he visited the confirmation class one of the kids asked “who are you ?”. Fr.Bolte has been here seven and a half years now.  It is a shame to share it here, but hearing it would open at least some eyes. You leave your children for PSR classes, but they don’t get the opportunity to attend the mass often. Some times I see some kids at PSR staring at me as if what is this foreigner doing here.

Parents and god parents come to present a child to God at baptism. They make promises to bring up that child in the household of faith, and then they disappear. We rarely see them again. What did those promises mean? On this second Sunday of the New Church Year our lesson from the Gospels focuses our attention on the place of baptism in our lives.

John the Baptizer went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, proclaiming: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 

John was inviting people to be purified of the unholy elements in their lives.  Quoting the prophet Isaiah, John the Baptist declared, “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth” (Lk 3:5).   If a king were planning to travel, work crews would be dispatched to repair the roads.  Ideally, the roads for the king's journey would be straight, level, and smooth.  John considered himself as the courier of the king.  But the preparation on which he insisted was a preparation of heart and of life.  "The king is coming," he said in effect.  “Mend, not your roads, but your lives.”  

We are called to examine our own souls on a regular basis, especially in this joyful but penitential season of Advent. We need to take some time to step away from the noise, from the hustle and bustle of our busy world. We need to look into hearts, to see where selfishness has put obstacles in our relationships with God and with other people. We need to see where habits of laziness and self-indulgence have worn away our self-discipline. All of us need to fill in some spiritual potholes and clear away some unwelcome debris, so that the graces God has in store for us this Advent will be able to stream unhindered into our hearts. The heart is the road God wants to follow so as to come into and transform our lives; it is up to us to do the necessary repairs to allow that to happen.

There is no better first step for doing that, of course, than preparing and making a good confession. The Fathers of the Church have called the Sacrament of Reconciliation our “second baptism,” in which we’re brought back to the Jordan and cleansed interiorly as we were on the day of our Christening.  Advent, like Lent, is a season given to us so that we may repent of our sins and be reconciled with God and His Church by receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We have our parish advent reconciliation this Tuesday evening. You will have a choice of 6 priests you can go to make your confession to. Make use of the opportunity to straighten the path for the Lord- to fill in the “valleys” of our souls which have resulted from our shallow prayer life and a minimalist way of living our faith.  We have to straighten out whatever crooked paths we’ve been walking, like involvement in some secret or habitual sins or in a sinful relationship.  If we have been involved in some dishonest practices at work or at home, we are called to straighten them out and make restitution.  If we have been harboring grudges or hatred, or failing to be reconciled with others, now is the time to clear away all the debris.  If we have been pushing God off to the side of our road, if we have been saying to Him that we don’t really have the time for Him, now is the time for us to get our priorities straight.  

Without dying in Christ, without implementing the promises we made at the baptism we cannot live the life of Christ.

 A soap manufacturer and a pastor were walking together down a street in a large city.  The soap manufacturer casually said, "The gospel you preach hasn't done much good, has it?  Just observe. There is still a lot of wickedness in the world, and a lot of wicked people, too!"  The pastor made no reply until they passed a dirty little child making mud pies in the gutter.  Seizing the opportunity, the pastor said, "I see that soap hasn't done much good in the world either; for there is much dirt still here, and many dirty people are still around."  The soap man said, "Oh, well, soap only works when it is applied."  And the pastor said, "Exactly!  So it is with the gospel."

So, if we don’t grow in Christ, if we don’t see God’s saving acting breaking into our lives, it is because we haven’t taken serious the promise we made to God at Baptism.

Let’s pray that the Lord's coming this Christmas will be a heart moving experience leading to life-changing and world-transforming for us; helping us to fill in valleys by repentance, move mountains by faith (Mt 17:20), straighten the crooked ways by healing, and smooth the rough ways by forgiveness.