NEW YEAR - C

JANUARY 01 - NEW YEAR – YEAR C: Mary Mother of God (Num 6:22-27; Gal 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21) Theme: Let us preserve in our hearts the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ Reflection: General introduction of the day - Today, the Church asks us to celebrate three important feasts: Mary, Mother of God; The New Year; and The World Peace Day. In this way we are full of continuous joy of the Christian life and vocation. - Mary, Mother of God: the Church has proclaimed, the ever virgin mother of Jesus who is both fully divine and fully human, as the mother of God. Therefore, when Mary has given her final consent of ‘being a servant of the Lord’ she has already become the part of the redemptive design of God and when she has given birth to Jesus and thus becoming his mother she has become also the mother of God her creator himself. We celebrate this maternity of Mary today. - The New Year: we have yet another year of the grace of the Lord. We are in the central point from which we move back to the memories of the year just passed away and from which we look forward to the hope of the year just started. Memories of the past always serve us as the ‘events of experience and learning’ (past year) and thus we have ‘ample of possibility’ (present year) ahead to really live and to make our life worthy-livable. We celebrate this moment of entering into New Year today. - The World Peace Day: Peace is the ‘single word and common task’ of the world’s nations today. ‘We want peace’, ‘let us work for the peaceful society’, ‘let us construct a world with peace and justice’ are the ‘daily cries’ of the people. Very happy to hear this news. But peace is not a word but an action. It’s not just a prayer for peace but there is need of everyone’s responsibility to work for it. Let us pray for the peace, yes, indeed, it is the gift of the Lord and but we have to also ‘work’ for the peace with our kind words and with our merciful acts, yes, indeed, it is our human task. We celebrate this world peace day today. Particular introduction of the day - Celebration of Eternity in time and space: - We are here today to celebrate the eternity of Christian life and salvation. It seems little strange in this context of our feast. But it is apt and true. Today we celebrate ‘The Eighth Day’ of the Christmas. Ordinarily speaking there are only seven days a week. We measure our time and our days and months with this. Eighth day of the week usually never appears in our general calendar of time and year. Still the Church makes us to celebrate this eighth day of Christmas and ‘also of the Easter’. - Our Christian faith makes us to celebrate these eight days of feast as ‘One and Same Event of Jesus Christ’. By celebrating ‘the eighth day’ we go ‘out of our ordinary measurement of time’ and thus ‘we move out of our general time’. That means that we go beyond our time and beyond our human measure. - This going beyond our normal counting of the days and time is at the same time means ‘entering into another, unusual, countless and unlimited measurement of time’. It means in a simple word, we enter into eternity; which also means that we enter into the time and space of God himself. - Thus by celebrating the eighth day of Christmas today we celebrate our Christian mysteries without limit and without end; we are to continuously and tirelessly enter into the joy of celebration of God’s Word and Event for us. - God entered into the time, space and history by the incarnation, so that he could move the same time, space and history into eternity of his own nature and being. Theologically these words may seem to be very strong and incomprehensible to our human mind and we can understand with the simple reason that it is not human doing but God’s own will and work. - The joy of celebration of Jesus’ entrance into the world and into our midst (John 1:14) has to be for us ‘continuous and lifelong and even beyond’ celebration of life and mission of Christian faith. - In the simple words, we cannot celebrate the midnight or day mass of Christmas on 25th December and say that we have finished our celebration of the great feast. No, we do not have an end to our celebration. We do not have a limit to our joy of Jesus’ presence with us. We do not have a need to conclude our feasting of faith and life. Every Christ is born in us and every day he fulfills his work of salvation in us with the power of his Spirit. Any feast for that matter and in a special way two great feasts: Christmas and the Easter because they are the two pillar of our life here on earth and our future life there in heaven. - Therefore, today we celebrate ‘our entrance into eternity’. We are reminded today that we are not people of limited time and space but we are called to live in eternity, means, to live in the Lord. We have to be mindful of this truth every second of our life and only then we will be able to keep up and live up to the worthy of ‘being the people of eternity’. Message of God for us today - First Reading: Blessing of the Lord o It is a message of blessing pronounced by God himself to Moses; o It is a blessing that the priests have to confer to the people of Israel; o It is a blessing with the same words that God himself commanded to use; o It is a blessing which contains all the possible requirements of spiritual nourishment for the life:  It contains the blessing of the Lord: thus, his presence  It contains the care of the Lord: thus, his power  It contains the splendor of the Lord: thus, his glory  It contains the grace of the Lord: thus, his choice  It contains the peace of the Lord: thus, his gift o It is a blessing which we too have to make it our own and thus our life itself should become a blessing for us, for our neighbor, for our community, for our society, and for the entire world. o Therefore, on the first day of the year we shall keep in mind that it is a time to rejoice because we are given a blessing and it is a time to share because we are given a vocation of reaching out this blessing to others. Therefore, on the first day of the year itself, we have a grace on one hand and we also have a task on the other hand. - Second Reading: Christian dignity of being children of the Lord o St. Paul reminds us today the ‘fact’ and the ‘fruit’ of the coming of the Lord into the world:  The fact is that the Lord has entered into the time and history ‘under the same law’ and ‘through the natural and worldly means’ of being born of a woman (not by the woman because woman is not the cause for the birth but the Spirit of God; and not through the woman because it is not human act that caused the birth but divine intervention).  The fruit is that we are saved from the law and slavery of the old law and we are made ‘children of God’ by the working of the sanctifying grace of His Spirit which makes all of us shout and cry out with One Voice and with One Heart: Abba! Father! As the children we are no more slaves for anything of the world and anyone of the world but we become the heirs of his life and being – thus we become the partaker of his eternity. - Gospel: Example of Mary and the modality of the shepherds: o In the gospel of today, which is the continuation of the gospel passage of the Christmas, we have two models for our Christian journey: they are, first – Mary and second – the shepherds; for our reflection let us start from the shepherds because they are the ones who are found in the beginning and towards the end of the gospel of today; o Shepherds: After hearing the good news of the birth of the savior in Bethlehem from an Angel, they started their journey towards the manger to see the baby. In the journey of the shepherds we find four steps that made their experience of joy of the savior full and perfect:  First step: ‘going’ (v.16): they have immediately set out to go to reach the place indicated by the angel so that they could see the savior born for them; they could not remain there in the fields because the news is so exciting, so marveling and so powerful that they could not stay ‘firm’ on their ground but wanted to move to see how and what this baby ‘born for them’ could be.  Second step: ‘referred’ (v.17): they have seen the baby and with the joy of his sight they could not control their emotions and their feelings; they started talking about all that has been said to them by the angel and they tried to describe all the events that have taken place in their venture into finding the savior;  Third step: ‘returning’ (v.20): the power of joy is not personal. It makes the one who finds it to go and share it. It does not keep quiet until it is given to somebody else. It is so contagious that all become partakers of it. The same thing happened to the shepherds. They could not control their joy of seeing the baby and talking about him; they immediately returned to spread the good news to others; in other words, they have soon shared their joy of the savior with others. The joy of the Lord makes the person to return to his life and to his work to live it and to share it.  Fourth step: ‘praising and glorifying’ (v.20): Joy of the eyes that have seen the wonderful act of God soon has become the song of praise and thanksgiving to God. The shepherds feeling themselves blessed and fortunate to have this experience of ‘watching’ the baby who has filled them with hope of salvation, kept on offering their hymns of praise to the Lord for his presence amidst them;  Fifth step: ‘our step’: now it is our turn to take the model of the shepherds and do the same. First, we have to listen to the good news of salvation and then ‘go out’ to see the reality of the words proclaimed; the savior is born for us and we have heard the good news and thus we go to the church to see and experience this ‘birth of the savior’ for us and before our naked eyes. Second, we have to ‘talk’ and ‘speak’ all that happened; we can ask ourselves a question here: did I ever speak of the event of incarnation after my Christmas Mass to at least few of my neighbors? Did I spend some time to witness Jesus’ birth for me and in front of me? We have to use our tongue and our lips to ‘refer’ the things of the Lord; if we have an answer for this question, it’s well and good; otherwise we have ‘revise’ who we are and what we are until today. Third, we have to return from the presence of the Lord, after the mass, into the world, into our families and into our life; we are not called only to pray and to sit wondering at the events of the Lord but we are called to ‘live’ them and to share them with the others. Fourth, we have to give praise and glory to God for all his marvelous acts for our salvation; the experience of the joy that we have received from our participation in the mystery of incarnation makes us to glorify God and to offer our whole life to him; therefore, just watching and listening is not the end of Christian life but ‘living, sharing and thanksgiving’ is the final step of our life and mission. Let us for this Christmas and the time that follows, learn to ‘go’ to see the Lord, to ‘refer’ his words and message, to ‘return’ to our life with task of sharing our joy and thus, finally offering our lives as a sacrifice of thanksgiving and glory to God. o Mary who has kept everything in her heart: between the ‘coming’ with the hope and ‘returning’ with the joy of the shepherds there is the ‘attitude of Mary’ which we have to notice and take as an example to continue our wondering of the mysteries of the Lord and specially of his incarnation into the world. “Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19): this is the silent-admiration of Mary with all that is happening in her and around her. Yes, indeed, God’s great deeds are in fact talked and proclaimed; but more than that, they are to be ‘treasured’ and ‘pondered’ in one’s heart;  Mary Treasured: treasure is something precious and to be safeguarded and kept preserved. Treasuring something is an act by which one ‘makes his own’ all that he wants to secure; it is an act by which one saves all that he gathers and receives; precious treasure is treasured preciously; about the event of the ‘birth of the savior’ all those who gathered there around manger were amazed when they the shepherds told them the words of the angels and their finding of the baby and their experience of an inner joy; there are certainly Mary, Joseph and shepherds and there could have been also the near ones who would have gathered; in any case, the shepherds were joyful and exclaimed the wonderful acts of God in their midst; but “Mary, on her part, has kept all these words in her heart”. This is the unique and marvelous attitude that Mary has demonstrated before the magnificent joy that God has endowed her with; All have preferred to talk and chat but Mary has preferred to ‘treasure’ them because she alone knows how precious these words and event are because ‘she’ has participated in it with her ‘amen’.  Mary pondered them: mystery of God and his interventions are very often incomprehensible to the human limited mind and reason; God entering into the world taking a human form is highly un-intellectual and un-philosophical of the time. God’s entering into the world as a poor and disguised baby in the manger is too hard even to those religious and awaiting authority of the time, that is the priests and leaders of the people of Israel, to understand it and that is the reason why they are not able to accept him (John 1:10-11); both reason and faithful waiting failed; both philosophy and so called religiosity have not succeeded in recognizing the mystery of God amidst them; it is only poor and simple shepherds who were able to ‘believe’ and ‘to go’ and ‘to find’ and ‘to return with praise and glory’ and finally filled their life ‘with the joy of the presence of savior amidst them’; it is so complicating and yet it is so simple that the mystery of incarnation is not invited by the elite and literate officials of the time; BUT, the evangelist Luke uses this conjunction to show the difference between those who talked and shared about the joy of the baby savior and those who actually taught us with their silent attitude that the mystery is so deep that we cannot be momentarily joyful; Mary knows how deep is this mystery; she knows that this mystery is not fully manifested; she knows that the same mystery in the process of its revelation will demand total life of the participant; she is the participant of the mystery and so she has to give up all her life and her being for the perfect realization of the mystery; that is the reason why she is still deeply pondering where could this mystery of Jesus leads her and the world to; with all these thoughts in the mind she preferred to ponder them over than speaking about them and thus manifesting momentary joy than complete personal sacrifice and transformation in and for the mystery of God.  In her Heart: Mary has gone beyond the mind and thought she knows that the mind can falter and thought can doubt the interventions of God; therefore, she has kept everything in her heart; heart is her only place for the indwelling of God’s design and will; as one of the Early Fathers of the Church said “Mary has conceived God in her heart before she conceived him in her womb”. As soon as she said ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it done to me according to your word, she has given birth to the ‘redemptive plan’ of God and thus carrying in her heart already the eternal project of the Father who wills to send his Son by the power of the Spirit; thus her heart is ‘always open and recipient’ of the mystery of God and now the mystery of incarnation. Only in the heart it can be safeguarded and preserved well even if the mystery is shattered with the human doubts of the mind and reason; heart/will has always a place to embrace and meditate deeply all that is not incomprehensible; that’s the reason why Mary has preferred in keep all thing in her heart; heart is silent and joyful when the events occur either desirable or undesirable; the mind cannot stay firm and the tongue cannot control both the moments either of joy or of sorrow; instead, the heart is always ready to ‘ponder’ the meaning and value of the things happen in our life; therefore, it is possible only to the heart to comprehend what is happening and to ponder over when it is not comprehensible;  Like Mary we too are called today to treasure all the wonderful interventions of God in our life on one hand simply rejoicing internally and to treasure as well all that we are not able to understand on the other hand simply placing them in our meditation and thus seeking their context and meaning for us today; let us not be disturbed or too much worried of the thing we don’t understand; let us accept that we are humans and we cannot grasp everything of the world with our small mind; and how much difficult it should be with the ‘actions’ of God; therefore, let us only in complete trust and in confidence wonder over the mysteries of Christian faith; let us preserve them in our heart and ponder over them because every event that happens in our life has a meaning and a purpose for our life and for our Christian journey; let us take Mary, mother of God and of Us, as the example and only in this way we can be ‘calm and tranquil’ in moments of misunderstanding, incomprehension and of un-recognition. New Year or yet Another Year? - Another Year: We never have ‘new year’ but we only have ‘another’ year; we often make the concepts and we ourselves do not really understand their meaning; I would prefer to say that we do enter into the year with the first day of every year but we enter not into new year but into another year; there is lot of difference if only we have time to reflect over it; day after day the time passes; year after year the possibility of another year starts; with the term ‘new’ we often fall into misconception and we enter into false preparations and false celebrations; if we celebrate every year as new year we have to also celebrate every day as new day but why we don’t? everything is a matter of time or tickling of the clock; one moment passes another enters; one minute passes another arrives; one week passes another is at our disposal; one month passes another knock our door; one year passes another opens us the possibility of choices; it is not more than this; why we make so much preparation and spend so much of money and organize so much of program? Why finally we neglect and give up our spiritual renewal? Is it not false festivity? Let us celebrate not as a new year but ‘another year’ which God has kept in our hand opening the possibility of betterment of life. - Wishes of Better Life instead: We may celebrate New Year, because we are already in the clutches of worldly and false attractions, and even if God himself comes down to stop these we are not ready to do it; so what are my words after all? We exchange wishes of the New Year and these wishes make round today and whole of this month. It is well and fine. Let us only try to understand well what we are celebrating and what are our wishes for; wish can be just a combination of few beautiful words; is it enough? Is it a real and true wish? Where is our heart and mind when we utter these words? Do we really wish it? What does a real wish signify? We have to answer all these questions before we exchange our wish. If we have an answer we are ‘worthily’ exchange the wishes and not wishes of New Year but of better life. It should not be the wish of pretention but a real wish; real wish is not only saying a few words but ‘doing everything possible’ to make the wish come true; are we ready to do it? we wish today and from tomorrow we live as though we are strangers; in this situation what could the meaning of our celebration? - Today is the starting of ‘another year of possibility for the better life’: we may not have fulfilled all that we wanted fulfill; we may not have reached the goal we wanted to reach; we may not have completed all that we wanted to complete; we may not have come to the human growth and spiritual renewal that we really wished to have; Today is the opening of another possibility; today is the time to enter into another year; today is the appointed or given time and space for us to ‘have a betterment of our life’; more than celebration and wasting of time with false imaginations and false prestige, it is a ‘time given’ to us to ‘ponder and work out for the self renewal; it is not our time; we are not in grade of adding even a single moment to our life; it is a time ‘provided’ for us, provided for us by God as we believers hold, and provided by luck/or some other unknown power as non believers hold; in any case, it is time ‘provided’, not earned by our human efforts; let us keep this truth in mind before we celebrate ‘any form of time’ – be it a birth day or feast day or new year. Only then we will really ‘enter into the celebration of our life and our mission’ on earth, in and for the world. It is not to discourage the celebration but it only for the meaningful celebration that this reflection is aimed; Conclusion: Better Life with the Presence and Power of Baby Savior Born For Us Today - We are the children of God and we have to enter into the life and being of God and that is, into eternity; this time is temporal; this time passes away; these celebrations too fade away; night time we celebrate and day time we worry for the life; so simple is the reason; let us not go after pretending life but ‘open’ life; we live only few years; we have minimum time to live in the world; why do we waste it with misunderstandings, with struggles, with faces of sorrow and with the complaints of life; let us live it and make other live; - We have two personalities for us to imitate and to go forward in our journey of another year: o Mary who taught us to just wonder at the working of God rather than finding reasons because divine interventions go beyond our normal thinking; let us take the example of Mary and ‘treasure in our heart’ all the incomprehension and failures of knowledge and thus giving space to the Spirit to work in us and to bring forth from our heart the savior. o Shepherds who taught us to find God in the simplicity of life and openness to the truth and availability to the divine inspirations and to rejoice over them and give glory and praise to God; great thing is the summary of the simple things just as the great ocean is the summary of the single and simple drops; so also God acts in the simple hearts that are ready to listen to him, that desire to see him, that set out to meet him and finally that renders due praise and glory to the Him; let us try to understand this and live as simple and available as the shepherds to the mystery of God for us and amidst us. In this way let us safeguard well in our hearts the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ. May God Bless Us Today and the Days to Come.

HOLY FAMILY - YEAR C

SECOND SUNDAY OF NATIVITY – C: FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY (1Sam 1:20-22, 24-28; 1 John 3:1-2, 21-24; Luke 2:41-52) Theme: May the love of the Nazareth Family enforce our families Reflection: Holy Family of Nazareth is an Ever Model for all the families of the world - We are placed in front of the family of Nazareth: Crib is the image of Holy Family. We are still in the joy of Christmas. In fact, if ever we could ask ourselves what is the first gift of God made Man into the world, here is an answer? The first gift of the Baby Jesus to the world is His Family. Choosing to born in it he has made the crib itself a family. What a great lesson he gives from the crib to the world: the crib, the stall, the hut, the palace… the place is not the matter, the love amidst the members of the family is all that matters. No walls can contain the love that sprouts and grows in the family relationship. We are still in front of that Crib which has become the tent for the Ever Living Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The Church, placing the celebration of this feast in the middle of Nativity Joyful moments, has given us a the Holy Family as the model of our families. The great occasion to empower our family rapport with the force of the Model Family. What could we learn from today’s celebration? Just one thing: the small and holy family of two thousand years is still valid and enforcing for us today. Whatever we call in the daily life – the moments of difficult, the sorrow, the anxiety, the confusion, the fear and also few moments of joy and happiness – are already confronted and lived by that Holy Family long time back. In fact, it teaches us that the life is a beautiful mixer of various events, they be joyful or sorrowful. It encourages us to take what is important and necessary and renounce the what is futile and temporary. Just looking at the crib is enough we get the courage to go forward in life constructing a such a home for ourselves. Father, Mother and the Children resting always together in the small hut but with the large and generous heart to the other. - Mary and Joseph are the models for all the parents: The readings of today propose two tasks that the parents are to do. Enough for the parents of today to look at Mary and Joseph to learn what is their responsibility towards their children. The first reading speaks of Ann who offers her son to God. The gospel speaks of Mary and Joseph taking the boy Jesus to the God’s temple for the celebrations. Once, after the festive days, they did not find Jesus they return to find him. From him two tasks of the parents come out: to guide and to search for the children. o To Guide the Children in Faith: Mary and Joseph has guided the young Jesus in the faith and into God’s house which is the primary responsibility of the Christian parents. Indeed, this is the promise that the parents make during the baptism of their child. The priest would ask: You, Parents, do you take up the task of guiding your child in the faith, in the sacraments and in the word of God? and the parents immediately give their consent saying: yes, we do. Today is the day to recall to our mind the promise they have made few years back and to examine and see how far they have fulfilled it. o To search for the Children in Hope: How much pain and anguish both Mary and Joseph must have undergone when they did not find their son in their return journey. They stopped. They inquired. They returned. They searched. And finally they found. These are the gestures of search and research. They neither gave up their search, nor they gave the pain of return. They continued their search until they found him. Mary could not stop expressing their anxiety and fear: Son, why did you do this? Your father and me, we are searching for you so much with anguish! The words are so humanly that they touch the depths of the love that the parents have for their children. That is the reason why, even the parents of today, use them often. The love of the parents is same either two thousand years back or two thousand years after: they search for their children’s well being – it is not an act of anguish but an act of love. The children of modern times have different roads and confusing life and often they find themselves lost. They are thrown away by the passions of the world. They are torn apart by the attractive but temporary pleasures. They are missing their destiny. They finally reach to the level of questing themselves, their parents and even God: what is my life? How far my parents are loving us? Is there God at all and if he is there why He is allowing all these filth in the world? The bundle of questions make them burdened. Here enters the responsibility of the parents. The parents have to place themselves “walking towards them” with pain and with love to find them and to lead them back to life, just as Mary and Joseph have done. - Jesus is the example and the force for all the children: The Gospel reveals also the responsibility of the children in the figure of young Jesus. They have two attitudes to learn from Jesus: to discern the proper destiny and to obey the parents. At the outset they look very simple and easy achieving but they need lot of commitment and dedication. o To discern the proper vocation and destiny: It is not so easy to know and to discern the destiny in the midst of multiplicity of choices. The world offers some destinies. The parents desire other destinies. The proper consciousness ask for something else. But finally there should be only one destiny chosen and lived. Twelve year old Jesus has done it. He stands as example of the young generation of today. He knows it and he does it immediately without wasting a single moment. He sits with the doctors and the authority of the temple: questions them and replies them. He is on his mission. He is so clear in his vocation and destiny that he answers to his parents: why are you searching for me.. do you not know that I must be for my Father’s will. How far the children of today are conscious of their vocation? How far they acknowledge what is the goal of their life? How far they are clear of what they are doing? How far they are aware of the way they travelling in? they are responsible for making right choice and to choose their destiny. Here is the Christian faith helps them to discern their proper vocation. With the power of the faith they can discern well. o To obey the parents in freedom: is it so hard to listen to the parents and accept their plans? Are their ideas so out-fashioned? What and where is the difficulty to understand that the parents desire only their well being? These questions are ever present in time and in history. The confused children always face these questions. They often think and they are taught that liberty is to do what they feel to do and not what their parents impose to do. But basic reality is this: parents never impose anything that their children cannot do and they insist because of their love for their children. Because they insist they do not become bad parents. Because they leave their children for their complete freedom, they do not become good parents. Genuine and true parents do suggest, show, help, and guide the children for the destiny. Obedience is not a contradiction to the freedom. Young Jesus is example for the children of today. The Gospel proclaims that Jesus has returned with them, remained with them and obeyed them. Being God he could have done as he wished but he allowed himself to be under the guidance of the parents. He obeyed them because he has confidence and trust that they teach him the ways of faith and guide him to the destiny. Obedience helps the children to enter into the sphere of the parents. Only here the children can understand the immense love and the continuous sacrifice of the parents. The true freedom of the children is filtered and matured in obedience and subjection to their parents. Not so easy to understand. Not so easy to accept. But it is the fact. Jesus himself manifests it. The children of today are invited to learn this from the young Jesus. Prayer and sacrifice: the virtues of the Holy Family’s Love - Placing God’s will in the prime post: The family of Nazareth, very tiny and infamous, has become the Holy Family because of the priority it has given for the divine design. Each member of this family surrendered totally for the plan of God. They have offered themselves to the fulfillment of divine will. Joseph’s readiness to do the will of God is praise worthy: Joseph is indicated that Mary is conceived with the power of the Holy Spirit and thus to take her without fear, he immediately brought her home. Joseph is told by an angel to take the child and the mother and to escape to Nazareth, he instantly gets up and takes them and does as the Lord commanded him. Mary’s eagerness to embrace divine plan is ever exemplary: the annunciation has come to her and she has accepted it with joy saying – I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it done to me according to your word. She silently submitted herself for the God’s plan – with silence she followed Joseph to Nazareth, with silence that she pondered all that she is not able to comprehend immediately leaving the consequence to God’s will. Jesus is the model for the accomplishing of God’s will: today’s gospel is the example for it and Jesus says – I must be doing the things of My Father and there are various reference to prove his ever willingness to obey his Father. As a totally family, Jesus – Mary – Joseph, has put God in the primary post. “God first and the rest next” – is the slogan of the Family of Nazareth and that’s why it has become Holy Family. - Mutual openness and sacrifice: another important virtue that the families of today have to learn from the Holy Family is “openness and offer” of one to the other. This is the highest act of love: to be open to the other and to give oneself for the other. This mutual sacrifice and love makes them an exemplary family for all. Mary has openly and with sacrifice has given everything of her for the establishment of the family: her movement towards Joseph with respect and obedience and her movement towards Jesus with affection and love. Joseph also, being a father of the family, gives himself utterly for the well being of Mary and Jesus and thus safeguards them every moment. Jesus is also open and obedient to his parents and this is why he is grown up in all the aspects – in the intelligence, in the age and in the grace before God and before men. Such openness and sacrifice of one another is needed in today’s families. When this lacks, lacks also the unity and thus origins the division. Each one has to be for the other. Each has to sacrifice their personal circles in order to create a family. It is the unity that keeps the family alive and meaningful. The words “according to me…” has to disappear and “according to us…” has to take its post. Only then, there is togetherness, there is respect, there is growth and there is finally happiness. This is what lacking in the families of modern days: each builds a blocking wall to the other because they need privacy. Very good. Privacy is needed because of the proper nature. Yet, unity cannot be destroyed because it is the nature of the family. In total self-giving of one to the other, the Holy Family becomes a model for us today. Let us learn from it the virtue of being open to the other and to sacrifice of what is personal for the common good of the family. May the Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph – Fill us with the strength of unity and love! Let me conclude with my song which will bring to our presence the reality of the Holy Family: Song of the Holy Family Family! Great Family! Spiritual Family! Exemplary Family! Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph! A Family, Filled with Joy and Affection! A Family, Ripened with Love and Unity! A Family, Won the Difficulties with the Friendship! A Family, Confronted the Cries with the Patience! Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

CHRISTMAS – B (Midnight Mass: Is 9:1-3, 5-6; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14) (Day Mass: Is 52:7-10; Heb 1:1-6; John 1:1-18) Theme: Let Us Become Ourselves A Crib For The Lord Reflection: - Happy Feast and Happy Christmas to all of you. It’s Great Day. It’s a Joyful Day. It’s a Blessed Day. It’s a Marvelous Day. It’s a Delightful Day. It’s a Luminous Day. It’s a Day of the Lord. It’s a Day of Man and It’s a Day of Appointment of God with Man. The list can go on. We are very happy and elevated to hear all these excellent and beautiful words. Yes, indeed, they are true and they are a reality ‘Today before Our Own Eyes’ because ‘Is born for us a Savior’. - It is the Day the Lord has made and let us rejoice and be glad in it. Today is not the day the humanity has found or has organized or willed. It is the Day the Lord himself willed, planned, proclaimed and placed before us. We are called to rejoice over this Day. We are called to overwhelm this Day. We are called to leap with joy of this Day. And finally we are called to be glad IN this Day. And today is the Day because ‘Is born for us a Savior’. - Being glad in it means ‘making the day our own’ and ‘making the Lord’s doing our own’. It means also ‘entering ourselves into the design of God’s salvation’. It means also ‘living and proclaiming the same joy which is given to us’. We are here to ‘listen’ to that Good News. We are here to ‘see’ that Light. We are here to ‘experience’ that Grace on Grace. We are here finally ‘live’ the joy of being part of God’s Day. We are really partaker of his holy will because ‘Is born for us a Savior’. - Day of Love: Above all today is the ‘Day of Love Incarnated’. Today is the day that has proved that ‘love’ is no more a word, no more a concept, no more a idea or no more a wish. Today is the day that has proved that ‘love’ is a presence, that love is a ‘being with’, love is a ‘giving’ and ‘offering’, that love is a ‘loving action’. We are happy to see this ‘transformation’ of word-love into love-action. Love has become ‘flesh with the flesh and bone with the bone’. It is not four lettered word anymore but ‘it is an event happened, still happening and will happen for ever’ because ‘Is born for us a Savior’. Festivity of the ‘Sun’: ‘Sol Invictus’ - In the roman empire of that epoch there was a feast of the celebration of the sun. According to the roman culture of the time, during the season of winter the days were short with the long nights. There was more darkness than the light. There was more night than the day. It is only around 25 December that the days of the winter start changing. Little by little there was a more light. Days started to be with the sunlight. The darkness became shortened. In this ‘period of change’ of the winter night into the spring day, there was a feast celebrated in the honor of the sun which comes to illuminate them and to give them the more light. This was the feast of the sun. - The early church has thought of Jesus Christ who has come to the world as ‘the Light of the World’ and his nativity was in the time of winter. In this context the church has delighted herself to call her ‘Savior’ and ‘Messiah’ Jesus Christ as the ‘Sun’ that has come to visit us and to illuminate us. therefore, merging the prophecy of the OT and the reality of NT into one person: the prophecy is that of Isaiah 9:1, “the people who walked in darkness has seen a great light” and the reality is that of the Benedictus of Zechariah, in Luke 1:78, “by the tender mercy of our God, the dawn (light) from on high will break upon us”. Two verses or two prophecies are realized fully and perfectly in Jesus Christ who manifested himself as the ‘Light of the World’ (John 8:12). Thus the feast of the sun has become the feast of the ‘Rising Sun’, Jesus Christ. - By the word ‘sol invictus’ means the ‘invincible sun’: the sun which has its light forever and that light which is never extinguished by anything. Jesus Our Savior is the Sun which makes us awake and keeps us alert and enthusiasm and makes us clear about the things of the world just as the natural sun which makes us rise up in the morning and keep us always alert during the day without falling down and which finally helps us to see the things clearly. Let us turn to the Sun which has shown for us because ‘Today the Savior is born for us all’. Festivity of the Humility - Decree of registration: the manifestation of the power and authority o In the gospel of Luke (2:1ff) we see the Emperor Augustus who has made arrangements for the registration of the names in their proper native places. It is an occasion for demonstrating the authority of the emperor. Through this the power of the emperor is recognized. This is the way to measure the ‘power and authority’ of the empire and the emperor. How much of the land is occupied by him? How much of property he has saved? How much of peace he has acquired in the kingdom? How many people are under his rule? All these are the measurements to know the capacity of the emperor. It is for this reason that even Emperor Augustus has made the decree with the want of ‘showing himself’ as a great and powerful emperor. o Even before this we see King David in the last days of his life doing the same and finally receiving the punishment of God (2 Sam 24:1ff). o God punished David not just because of the census of Israel and Judah he has ordered but because of the intention behind it. He wanted to prove himself great and he desired to have all the praises and glory, thus, forgetting that it is the Lord who increases the number of his people. o In both occasions the emperor has strived for their personal glory and wanted to show their power and authority by their orders and decrees. In both occasions they have neglected the True God, the True King and the True Emperor of the entire world and they have not given him proper glory and praise. - Degree of meekness and humility: the manifestation of God’s reign and God’s glory o Instead, Jesus Christ has shown another path, a different mode of conquering the crown of glory: it is by the total self-renunciation and by utter giving up of oneself. o His total offering of himself for the loving will of the Father and for donating a true and eternal life to the humanity have been revealed in his taking the human form: “though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself and became obedient to the point of death – death on the cross” (Phil 2:6-7). o Jesus found this ‘total self-emptying’ as the only way to offer to God, his Father, the glory. He has made himself small; he has made himself servant; he has made himself loser; he has made himself a sacrifice. o This is the only way to meet God and to be always in his will and way: this the proper message of Christmas: we have to humble ourselves to be partaker of his glory: “who humbles himself will be exalted and who exalts himself will be humbled.” o If we want to live genuinely the message of Christmas we have to ‘low ourselves’, we have to ‘bend our heads’ before him; his birth was in a such small hut that those who enter to see the baby they have to bend and enter in. This may be small gesture but it has a spiritual meaning: that we have to lessen ourselves, we have to humble ourselves and we have to bend ‘our heads full of pride and arrogance’ if we ‘want’ to enter into the small house - ‘tent amidst us’ – prepared by the one who has born for us and to experience his peace and his salvation. o Therefore, Christmas is the feast of celebration and living of humility keeping aside/ emptying ourselves of our desire for power, name and fame, authority, greatness. Only then we celebrate a real birth of the Savior for us and in us. Festivity of contradiction - Jesus makes himself poor and weak while Augustus had made himself great before the world. Jesus makes himself a ‘giver of life and giver of his total self’ while Augustus had made himself a ‘taker of life for his name and for his glory’. Jesus empties himself of his heavenly glory and humbles himself to become a human like us, while Augustus had filled himself with the immeasurable riches of the world and exalts himself to become an ultimate power and authority of the world. - One side there is the worldly greatness in the form of the emperor of the earth - Augustus, on the other side there is the heavenly smallness in the form of the emperor of the whole creation – Jesus Christ; one side there is manifestation of power and authority – Augustus, on the other side there is revelation of poverty and humility – Jesus Christ; - How can we balance this scandalizing difference? Where is the proper meeting point of both of them into one true reality? It is ‘in the birth of Jesus Christ’ – the Christmas; - In the very message of Angels: ‘To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ (Luke 2:11-12). There are two phrases of truth: the birth of the savior and being lied in a manger; the connecting phrase or the central words are important: ‘this is a sign’. - The birth of contradiction of Christian life and existence: birth of savior but birth place is contradictory; according to human mind and human wish, savior is a great person, more over he is the Messiah, the Lord, therefore, minimum thought is that ‘his birth has to place in the palace, his birth should be to the parents who are great like king and queen’. This is the authentic sign for the human intellect. BUT ALREADY CONTRADICITON HAS STARTED. Already a different sign is made. The normal human intellectual sign is changed. Everything has become contradictory even to believe what is really happening: Birth of a savior in the stall, to the poor and unknown parents, in the small village of Bethlehem which is not even identified in the world map of those days. - Therefore, to be joyful in the difficulty, to be patient in the suffering, to be vigilant in the temptations, to be tranquil in the anguish….. the contradicting attitude is already revealed in the mystery of the Savior Born In The Stable. - Today we feel so much disturbed and depressed in the midst of the sufferings and difficulties but living these moments with the hope and love is already manifested to us before two thousand years by the birth of the Savior in the Stable. - Therefore, as Jesus himself said, we have to renounce ourselves/empty ourselves and take up the cross/daily difficulties and go behind him with calm and serenity because He himself is walking before us with the biggest and heaviest cradle-cross. Therefore, during this Christmas we have to learn to accept and to live the contradictory life in our confrontations in the world and with the things of the world. Festivity of Good News that has changed the phase of the world: Good News of Love - The ever refreshing, ever encouraging and ever cherishing good news is that “the Word is made flesh and came to live amidst us” (John 1:14). This is the news and the only news that has promised to change the world, still continues changing it and will continue to change in its journey into eternity. - We have many other good news in the world: with the rapid development of the scientific technology humanity is fast growing, with the knowledge and with the industrial empowerments the political and economic standards are rising to the skies, with the awareness of absolute freedom and ultimate liberty the social, cultural and moral values of the humanity are ‘reaching their highest degrees’. - In spite of all these revolutionary and technological definitions and developments is man going ahead with happiness and joy or is he in the situation of self-closure? A sincere and deep search into this ever trickling question will make us realize the ‘authenticity of the news’ and the ‘efficacy of its proclamation’ whether it is good and useful. - Man is doing anything and everything to be happy, it seems to be its ultimate goal. And our Christian faith teaches that Man is created to be in joyful relationship with himself, with the other, with the world and with God. He is destined to find his felicity in his being ‘rational and relational’ and more than that in his possibility of being ‘spiritual and supernatural’. This happens when man journeys from his rationality to personality and from his personality to spirituality. - His rationality is in his ‘becoming mature in mind and thought’, his personality is in his ‘becoming mature in will and relationship with himself and with others’ and finally his spirituality is in his ‘going beyond all the previous stages and entering into his thirst of the heart and the spirit’. It is here that we may find the limitation of all other ‘linguistic, cultural, even philosophical relations’. Man has to go beyond, yet living all of them, to find true happiness and this we Christians call it – the friendship with God and an intimate bond with him. - And it is ‘to restore’ this broken relationship with God ultimately but passing through our normal and conditional bonds – personal, family, social and political – that Jesus Christ, the Word of God has taken human form: that is what we celebrate now – the Christmas. - This Good New of God’s Entrance into the World has: o Changed the story and history of the humanity: according to our faith, it is for this that the whole story has been placed in time and space; whole story of God’s interventions in the life of the people of Israel from Abraham to John the Baptist has taken place – in view of Him and in the preparation for Him, Jesus Christ, who willed to take up our story as his. This story of God has become history in the very person of Jesus Christ. With the coming of the Word into the world everything has a CENTRAL POINT, for which, to which and around which all move and have its being: Jesus Christ – that is the real Christmas we celebrate today. o Revealed the ‘limitation of human inquiry’ and ‘unlimited and unconditional love of God’: this is the good news that we have received with the birth of the Savior in the Stall.  It has revealed that the human mind and human inquiry has its limitations; it continues to research and research but at a certain point it finds it ‘blocking wall’ or ‘final station’ to get down and start return journey: the human language is limited in describing all the realities of the world, whether material or spiritual; the human science is limited because it may prolong the life but cannot stop the death; the human authority/political power is limited because though there is the possibility of ‘creating global solidarity’ still it fails because of its human fragility; finally even the human philosophy is limited because it may try to define and defend all that exists but at the end of day, it cannot enter into the integral reality of the creation and its systematic formation and the God who guides it and it accepts the limitedness and helplessness of the human ‘reasons and concepts’.  This is the last stop of human intellect and will which is not enough for the ‘ultimate bliss or blessedness’. Here there is some truth that comes to the aid of humanity; that helps him break the blocking wall; that enables him to build the bridge to go still ahead; that guides him to journey forward taking the same train which has stopped in the last station; stations are over but not the journey; stations can be always created and prolonged only if there is will and love to go into the search. The truth that leads the humanity into these unknown and darkened mysteries is only the Word of God: Jesus the Light of the World and he assures that when we walk in him we shall not falter but walk straight (John 8:12). The Christmas reveals this truth of love of God who wants man to enter into his intimacy accepting the human limits and taking guidance of love who makes him move forward with total trust and complete confidence. • Yes, indeed, Jesus reveals to all the peoples the love of God who wills to be in their midst and in their form so that they become partaker of his same love. • Yes, indeed, Jesus reveals that ‘all the human sciences and technologies’ find their ultimate rapport with God because it is from him that everything has taken its origin and it is to him that they return. • Recent Christian Theology explores this truth: Pope Benedict XVI puts it beautifully in his encyclical Deus Caritas est, 12: “The real novelty of the New Testament lies not so much in new ideas as in the figure of Christ himself, who gives flesh and blood to those concepts—an unprecedented realism.” And another theologian Balthasar explores that the incarnation of Christ has taken place “for the two reasons that cannot be separated. First, in order to restore what has been perverted and seduced from its end. On the other hand, it was not our wickedness that compelled the Son of God to become flesh; rather, it was God’s exceedingly great merciful love” (BALTHASAR, Theo-Logic II: Truth of God, p.234).  Only IN love and WITH love we can come out of ourselves, empty our heart of all the doubts of faith and difficulties of life, enter with humility and meekness into the ‘stall of Jesus’ and into the ‘sheep of Jesus’ to experience this love that wins everything and leads us to the ‘unbreakable and irremovable’ intimacy with the Lord, for, it is only IN HIM We find our life and our being. This is the truth of Christmas that we have to celebrate. Summary - Let us sum up into few points all that what we have said so that we have not the tips but the truths in our hand for the celebration of this Christmas: - Christmas is the Feast of the Sun which shines forever: Jesus Christ; let us accept this light so that we do not anymore walk in the darkness of fear and falling but walk straight in the way of the Lord. - Christmas is the Feast of the Humility and littleness: Word made Flesh; let us break all our pride and power in order to enter into the presence of the baby born for us so that the life becomes the testimony of humility and tenderness. - Christmas is the Feast of Contradiction: Savior in the Stable; let us realize that we have to undergo these contradictory as long as we are in the world just for the reason of being Christians for, as John Paul II has said “we are in the world but not of the world”. Jesus himself had made known to us this reality therefore, let us accept it and move forward with complete hope and self-emptiness. - Christmas is the Feast of Love: love goes beyond all the human ideas and thoughts and conceptual formulas; true love understands and does everything; it is the only force that makes us ‘confront’ and ‘pass through’ all the human weakness and human relations and finally to enter into the eternal blessedness, that is, Beatific Vision of God; love makes everything possible. Therefore, let us take this powerful weapon of love and win over our selfishness, our envy and our possessive nature so that we can clearly see God’s image in all and thus we may be able to contaminate ourselves first, our community and society next and the whole world finally, with the medicine of love. - Our celebration of Christmas is meaningful only when Jesus – the knowledge and power of God – the immeasurable love of God – is born in us and only if we are ready to make our life a ‘stable’ for his birth and for his indwelling. “To Him the Glory and To Us the Peace.” Amen.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE ADVENT - YEAR C

FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE ADVENT – YEAR C (Micah 5:1-4a; Heb 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45) Theme: Let us learn to see with the “Eyes of the Spirit” Reflection: God manifests himself in the small things - Today, we are entering into the last Sunday of the Advent. We have been preparing since long time, almost from three weeks, for the great celebration of the Holy Day of God’s Birth in the world. We are fast approaching the most awaited day. The more we come closer, the more we have to hasten the preparations. The preparations and also the celebrations in the level of family have been already started. The houses are decorated. The beautiful cribs find their centre at home and in the churches. The exchange of greeting cards and sweets is already on the way. Very good. Can we stop here and say that we are ready to celebrate the great festivity? The question leads us forward to ask ourselves about the spiritual preparations. The more important is the preparation of the heart for the birth of the Savior. With the Word of God we need to decorate our senses. With the Food of God we need to fill our soul. Oh! God entered into the world with the first birth. Enough. What he needs is now not the large world, not the decorated house, not the beautiful church, not even the fantastic crib. What he needs is “Our Little Heart”. He wishes to enter there. He desires to be born there. He wills to remain there. Is that heart ready for the coming of the savior? Creating a space in the heart is the only preparation that Jesus really wants and needs. For this kind of preparation the Church provides to us the readings in which we find the source of our Christian strength. - God reveals himself in the often unnoticed things: The first reading of today reveal the truth again that God does not want a large place but a small place which embraces him. He does not look for the great and famous cities for his birth. He chose a smallest village of the region of Judah, Bethlehem, a town without any special notice and importance except being the birth place of David. In fact, the people of Israel were not in condition to acknowledge the coming of the Lord because they have already neglected and thrown away Bethlehem as having any prominence. David was their king and Bethlehem is to be well edified town because of this great event. But the mode of looking on the part of Israel is changed. They have closed their eyes or at least they have diverted their look from Bethlehem to some other places. With the greedy of fast growth they have kept aside the small villages and started constructing the great citied. The growth is good but negligence of the basement and foundation will cause the house damaged. But unlike them, God did not change his view. He remains faithful for what he has promised. He promised that the Messiah would be born and will arrive from Bethlehem. His greatness can be manifested even in the tiniest things. The prophecy of God through Micah is clear: the savior will come out from the smallest of the villages but with the great power. God has various ways and modes of revealing himself. Looking for him only in the great situations or pleading him only in the grave difficulties is only human foolishness. His presence is everywhere. His power is always available. He speaks and acts in the daily and very common conditions also. Let us not close our eyes. Let us not neglect his words. Let us not hide ourselves from his presence. If only we have the eyes of the Spirit we are capable of recognizing the coming of the Lord in the various forms. If only we are ready to create a space for the Lord in our hearts we are in the grade of “reaching and remaining with him”. What more can we give to the Lord? And what more he can expect from us? Only one thing: to acknowledge and to embrace his coming. Readings: Holy Spirit brings the unity between the Old and the New - Mary gets up and goes towards Elizabeth (v.39): The gospel passage of today puts forward the attitude of Mary in her “getting up” and “going towards” immediately. These two words reveal the perfect readiness of Mary to do anything in her rapport both to God and to the others. Mary is just given the message of salvation through the angel Gabriel that she would be the mother of the Most High; when Mary is disturbed by the message and kept wondering about the words that came from above, angel gave her a sign that her cousin Elizabeth is in the sixth month of her pregnancy. When convinced Mary has expressed her willingness to take up the plan that God has for her by her great Yes: I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it done to me as you have said. What happened here is something beyond a normal interaction. The significance of the two words is to be reflected: o Getting Up: Mary is called for a mission: mission of providing to the world a savior. The one who receives mission cannot sit there idle and still thinking about that how to do it. When one is given the mission, he is given also the strength to realize it as early as possible. Mary knows that God has elected her for a specific mission. With her readiness to carry it forward immediately expressed in her “Great Amen”, she does not want to waste anymore time. She Gets Up. Getting up here mean she prepares and moves ahead to fulfill the mission she has accepted. o Going Towards: Mary is aware that the mission is not for herself and for her personal benefit. With the consciousness of this truth she gets up and goes towards. Going towards here means that Mary is available for all the actions that God fulfills in her and through her for the wellbeing and salvation of all. What she has received is to be distributed to all and to be shared with all. She is full of grace and this grace has to be place for the advantage of everyone she meets. She remains not intact but in movement. - Mary’s movement is “in hurry” (v.39): Mary gets up and goes towards her old cousin Elizabeth. But the gospel passage recalls to us that she in hurry. Why she is in hurry? For two reasons: one, she wants to verify the sign that the angel has given her; and second, she wants to extend her help for her cousin who is in need. Even here Mary’s readiness to act for God and for others is manifested. o To verify and confirm: She did not keep quite when the Word of God has come to her. The sign which is given is to be researched and verified. She has done the same, not that she is doubtful, but for to confirm it. God’s words and actions are to be verified by faith and reason. She does not want to neglect it. She does not want to postpone it. She knows that it is not a simple annunciation but the eternal plan of God for which in fact she was praying and waiting. For this she is in hurry. o To stay with the needy: Mary is taken up by the mystery of God’s action. She is aware that her cousin needs someone in this period. She does not haste. She moves out. She did not think of the distance. She did not worry of what she has to do. All that she is mindful of is this: to be with her cousin in the time of need. First of all, Mary is very watchful towards the need and this is seen also in the first miracle of Jesus at the wedding of Cana. Secondly, she is not only watchful but also acts immediately extending all the possible help from her part. That’s why she is in hurry. She knows well that the help, if not reached in time, is useless. She desires to stay with the needy. - Spirit is the causes the Old and New Testament interact:: There is another important moment in the Gospel. The interaction between Mary and Elizabeth. It is not for the first time that they are meeting. They are relatives. They must have already met number of times. Their greetings were normal in all the previous meetings. But today, the scene is quite different. When Mary has come to her house, Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and proclaims: “Blessed are you among woman and blessed is the fruit of your womb”. When Mary has noticed the joy of Elizabeth and the jump of the child in her womb, She is overwhelmed with tremendous joy and sings immediately “The Magnificat”. It is a different and extraordinary interaction between these two women. It is extraordinary because it is not an interaction between two women alone. Both of them signify something more. Elizabeth is “the end” of the Old Testament. Mary is “the beginning” of the New Testaments. The Old Testament embraces the New Testament. The New Testament comes to visit and fulfill the Old Testament. It is not only their sons – John the Baptist and Jesus – who made the mutual interaction between the Old and New possible but prior to them, already it is manifested in their mothers. What a wonderful moment. It is ONLY the HOLY SPIRIT who made this possible. Conclusion: We are empowered to view the things in the different mode - Let us observe and verify the ways: The first aspect, we are called to learn to observe well and verify the realities. The basic question we can pose ourselves is this: where does the Word of God, through the Scriptures and Church’s representation, is leading us to? Where does the World, with all its rapid developments, is leading us to? Do we really happy and content with the possession of worldly things? God’s word comes to us and embraces us profoundly. It invites us to the life of peace, joy and love. It helps and enables us to confront the material passions and fashions and to create a family of fraternity and solidarity. On the other hand, the world is growing higher and wider with its science and technology. Of course, such development manifests the capacity of human intelligence. But, there is also side by side a consequence. Man closes himself in pride and in selfishness. Either he is afraid of or of indifferent with others. If we are interested to talk about the spirit and if we expose lots of doubts on faith and God’s existence and interventions, we shall consider man’s existence itself. Enough we can find the difference. Man’s mental life is full of stress and fear. His physical life fluctuates with the unpredictable health. His social life is almost hindered because family ties are being easily broken and social injustice and inequalities are mounting up. We do not want to observe these things. We do not want to verify why this is taking place. We do not want to make a research for the human values. But we are very eager and hurry up to blame God when the things go wrong. This is not the human method. This is the human intelligence. Often, this is expression in human foolishness, negligence and partiality. The figure of Mary today calls us to verify the ways of God and the ways of the world. - Let us be in hurry to watch and to help the needy: The second we are called to learn is to be always available to watch and to help those who are in need. When the question of helping others come, there should never be a second thought. Jesus’ life is the best example. Mary’s is model as we see her in today’s gospel. Various saints we have as an inspiration for this kind of spiritual and personal availability for others. - Let us take inspiration from the past: We build our present on the experience of the Past. We lead our present with the hope of Good Future. There is a chain that links the different periods of life. Jesus is come and died, offered us salvation and gone. It is the past. Yet, it is the basis for our faith today. Many times we see it outdated and not sinking with the science. But we cannot neglect the spirit we have in our human nature. When we allow the past to inspire us we have lot of ways already prepared for us. We only have to look at them and walk in them. Then, we will be sure of our destiny. - Let us allow the Spirit to work in us: Finally, it is the Spirit who works. If we look at the things with the eyes of the Spirit, we can see in others, an image of God. Only then, we are capable of understanding them when they talk to us. Only then, we are capable of pardoning them if they do wrong against us. Only then, we are capable of embracing them with love. This is what we need to learn today. Let us allow the spirit to work in and through us.

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT - YEAR C

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT – YEAR C (Zephaniah 3:14-17; Phil 4:4-7; Luke 3:10-18) Theme: “God-in-us” is the cause and the motive of our Joy Reflection: Let us rejoice for God visits us always - Sunday of the ‘Gaudete’ - the Sunday of Joy: We have entered into the Third Sunday of Advent and the Church invites us to celebrate it as the Sunday of Joy. The preparation for the celebration of the Great Feast of God’s visit to the world and to the humanity is not a preparation with the heavy hearts and sorrowful souls. No, God wills to be with us and with every one of us is the reason which causes infinite joy in us. Our God is not someone who is very distant to us. He is the God of history and of salvation. He imprints the world with his revelation in various modes. In the history of Israel, He manifested himself as the God who appeared to them in the different forms and who spoke to them through number of His “chosen and sent” personages: be it patriarchs, judges, kings and prophets. These special and selected people stood amidst the chosen people in His Name and in His Word. They have demonstrated God’s presence in and for the people. God never abandons his people. The history reveals it and the people of Israel testify it. God wants still more. He loves his people so much that He cannot but stay with them. His relationship and His bond with them is ever lasting and ever faithful. His immense love causes him to be with the humanity in the human nature. His love, which crosses the boundaries of any kind, makes Him to come down to share it with the humanity “being with it and taking its life”. He promised it already in his Law and the Prophets. He waits for the appointed time and the time has come to fulfill this promise. He descends to the world. He reaches man, his beloved creature. He desires to save him by his own life. He finally becomes Immanuel: God with us. What more we need to rejoice. Our God visits us always. His eyes are upon us in every moment. His hand is for us in every instance. His love for us in every situation. The Church reminds us the visit of God in the history and time for the redemption of humanity and calls us to be joyful and rejoicing for His Ever Remaining Presence with us. - “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4): We find this beautiful exclamation and exhortation in the Letter of St. Paul to the Philippians. We have to keep in mind the background of the Letter. Paul was in the prison. From the prison he writes to his people the message of joy. What is the force behind that made him to speak of joy even from the imprisonment? It is the force of Jesus Christ. It is the Spirit of the Risen Lord. He does not ask the people for their prayers so that his stay in the prison comes to an end. He suffers. His pain is intolerable. His is blocked to proclaim the good news of life. He does not complain. He does not accuse anybody for his condition. He does not blame God or Jesus for the sufferings he undergoes. Even from pain he extends warmth love. He knows well and he believes that “nothing can separate him from the love of Christ”. He carries in his heart the hope that “the tribulation, the anguish, the persecution, the hunger, the nudity, the danger, the sword” (Rom 8:35) cannot do any harm to him; they cannot break the loving bond he has with the Christ. Such is the faith and hope that Paul has in His Lord. This made him to be courageous and to proclaim the message of joy. He says that we need to rejoice. Not for few moments and but forever, for always. It is possible because we rejoice not in some strange and foreign force but in the Lord, in the Lord in whom we live, move and have our being. Yes, indeed, we have every reason to rejoice. We have the Savior with us. We have the Spirit by us. We have the Love of God in us. All other forces, be it scholastic, scientific and technological, may give us some joy but soon it will have its end. The only joy that remains for times never ending is “the Joy of the Lord”. It is this joy we need to have. It is this joy we need to live. Finally, it is this joy we need to share. Readings: “He will baptize you in Spirit and in Fire” - Advent of the Day of the Joy “in Spirit”: John the Baptist proclaims the coming of Someone who would fill the world with the Spirit of Joy. His is very clear in his mission of pointing to the advent of the Savior. Already in Luca there is a integral message of God’s presence for the poor and needy. God reveals his love and mercy to those who are humble of heart (Luke 1:46-55 – Mary sings the marvelous deeds of God for those who remain faithful and humble to him; 2:1-20 – The manifestation of the birth of the Messiah, first of all, to the poor shepherds; 5:12-31 – Jesus heals the disable and elects as a disciple a sinner called Levi and thus he takes the side of rejected and untouchables; 6:20-26 – Jesus’ proclamation of the beatitudes and God’s promise of consolation for those who are last and least of the society). These and many more of such references bring out the message that God wants to see the joy in the face of every human being who is depressed and discouraged. The presence of Jesus and his power of miraculous healings and his mission of saving the world is proclaimed by John the Baptist when he say that “I baptize you with the water; but there is someone who comes after me, (…). He will baptize in Spirit and in fire.” - Spirit is the source of life and the fire is the symbol of renewal and purification. Baptism of the water which John was exercising is the symbol of God’s deliverance of his people through the waters of red sea from the power of Egyptian slavery. It was the first step and sign for the Covenant that God made with his people. The baptism of the Spirit which Jesus would give is the symbol of God’s love for his people so that they would be saved from the power of sin and death. It is the sign of the Eternal Covenant that God wishes to make with entire humanity in His Son Jesus Christ. Therefore, true advent of the Spirit is in and through God’s own beloved “Word made Flesh”. He comes down to be with his people and to fill them with Joy. The first indication after the birth of the Savior would be this: Angels sings with joy and the shepherds visit the stall and are filled with the joy. - Salvation is offered to all: John’s presence and proclamation indicate two events. First of all, he is only the one who prepares the way and secondly, he already reveals the truth that salvation is for all. o As Jesus appears, John disappears slowly: The predication of John is not for himself or for his personal name and fame. He is not here to manifest himself. His life is not for speaking on his own behalf. His mission is only to prepare the way for the Messiah and to show him to the world as the bringer of salvation to all by “taking away the sins of the world”. John’s mission exists and extends until he indicates the “Lamb of God” to the humanity. Thus, he is the messenger who prepares the day of the Coming of the Lord Jesus and he proclaims it on the right day: “the one who comes after me is stronger than me” (Lk 3:16). In fact, people were expecting for a redeemer. They were awaiting him. When the John the Baptist appeared preaching and baptizing and calling people to the life of conversion, people thought that he was the messiah; with the curiosity they asked him whether he himself is the messiah (Lk 3:15). o Salvation is placed at everyone’s door: With his gestures of admonishing the various groups of people, John predicts that Joy of salvation is at everyone’s reach. All sects of people were flocking to John for the baptism and for the conversion of life. Among them, there are common people, there are sinners and there are soldiers. They come and ask him what has to be done for having salvation: “what have we to do” is the question that each one poses to John. John on his part asks them just one thing: to be aware of their duties and to do them with the sincerity of the heart. Nothing more. Enough of completing one’s responsibility with the good will: Salvation will embrace him. It does not matter what kind of section of the society he belong to. Only thing that matter is “to fulfill one’s vocation”. By this the message is clear: salvation, good news of joy, is not reserved for the elected people alone but is offered to all who live and act with justice and charity. It will be manifested ultimately in the person of Jesus Christ. His presence and attitude towards sinners, tax collectors and marginalized reveal that anyone can receive the salvation (Luke 7:1-10, 36-50; 17:11-19; 18:9-14). He proclaims that the Kingdom of God is opened to all and it is already amidst them in his person. Salvation makes one part of the kingdom. Therefore, there is a close relation between the coming of the kingdom and coming of the salvation. Jesus inaugurates it and extends it to entire humanity by his own offering on the cross. This kingdom of God and His salvation are nothing but the peace, love and joy in the Holy Spirit and Paul announces it (Rom 14:17). Conclusion: Our joy must be like a perfume that widens its good smell - Not the pain, we need to share the joy: Today, we are invited to learn and take up two attitudes. First, we need to share our joy with others. Many times we bother ourselves and others by pouring out our difficulties and our pains, our sorrows and our sufferings. But our Christian attitude is to be different: share only the joy, the peace and the happiness. Our Christian life is like a perfume. The nature of the perfume is to reach out and to spread its fragrance to others. It cannot hide itself. It cannot close itself. Christian life is also the same. Our life is not only for ourselves. We cannot close ourselves inside our four walls. We need to move out. We need to open the door of our life. We need to break our barriers of personal life. Our life is for others. Christ did not live even for moment for his self-esteem and self-glory. His life is always for others. We stayed with them. He ate with them. He lived for them. Finally, He died for them. He took the pain of others to himself. He took their place. His glory spread also to them all. He is our source and our force to live for others. The meaning of Christian life is only “sharing of our life”. For this first of all we have to receive the joy offered to us. In every prayers and in every sacramental celebration the grace and salvation is given us. We have every possibility to be filled with the Joy of the Spirit if only we avail ourselves for the action of Jesus. Once we are filled with joy of salvation, we do not remain closed and for ourselves. We reach out to others. Our life becomes an alter of sacrifice and love for others. This is what the message of God’s word invite us to learn. - Not ourselves, we need to place Jesus in front: John the Baptist is the personality of our reflection also for this week. People thought of him as the Messiah. He did not take their thoughts and words for his benefit. He did not enjoy their comments. He did not misuse their misunderstanding. It is because he knew and discerned well his mission: to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus. He gave the preference and priority for the vocation that God has given him. He lived for fulfilling God’s will. Today, the invitation is thrown to us to learn from the mission of John the Baptist. We have to give up the tendency of placing ourselves in front. With this temptation we often push back our profession of faith and lose hope and give up the act of love. At this juncture we lose the significance of life and we face distress and distrust. Advent is the time to return to our roots and renew our life. Like John the Baptist, we have to learn to be aware of our Christian dignity and task. Let us place Jesus in front of everything in life. Let us allow him to work in and through us. Only then we will receive the fullness of salvation. Our life will be filled with joy. We become joyful and we share this joy to the world around us.

SECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - C

THE SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT – YEAR C (Baruk 5:1-9; Phil 1:4-6, 8-11; Luke 3:1-6) Theme: We are invited to be the sign of hope in and for the deserted world Reflection: Advent is a time to prepare our hearts to the coming of Jesus - Preparing the way is required: We enter into the second Sunday of Advent. Our preparation is speeded up. In fact, we have completed one week of preparation. We have been attending and embracing the moments in which the Lord is to come. This was the theme of last Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent. We need to open our eyes and see the reality around us so that we can be attentive to the presence of the Lord amidst us. We need to open our hearts and invite the Lord whom we have found through our faith so that He dwells in us and pitches his tent within us. This is the heart of the message of advent: to attend with hope and to embrace with love Jesus who is coming to us. In order to receive him into our life we need to prepare well our heart and our life. - Inviting the guest is the human concern: Jesus is at our door. He has come. He is knocking the door of our life. He wishes to enter in and to be with us. He desires to stay very closer to us. We call upon him: Come! Lord Jesus! We shout with loud voice: prepare the way for the Lord. We sing to him: Maranatha, come and reign our hearts. Is it enough? Our vocal invitation, our verbal call and our noisy singing are only external welcome. External invitation is not enough. We need to do something more. We need to listen to his knock. We need to open the door. We need to invite him personally accompanying him into the house. We take utmost care and we put lot of preparation when a guest comes to visit us. We make two-fold preparation. There is material preparation: we clean the house; we put beautiful carpets; we keep the house with neatness and colorfulness; the previous day itself we buy all that is necessary for providing good dinner; when the actual day comes we put on new vesting and wait for his arrival; and finally, enough any small noise on the door we eagerly open the door as though the guest has already arrived. There is also mental preparation: our mind will be little active and little anxious; little active because we love the guest who is coming and thus we want to give our best; little anxious because we do not want to see any inconvenience to take place; we get to mind all the memories of the past of the guest; our heart gets overwhelmed with the thought of the presence of the guest; when the actual moment of the guest’s arrival appears the heart beat gets doubled; lot of cheer on the face; eyes blow with the joy; and finally we cannot but embrace with lot of affection and love the guest. This is the preparation we make to invite a guest who come into our home just to make a visit. We do it because of our human concern and we make the visit a memorable one. - Holding tight the guest of our life is the Christian concern: Advent is the time where we wait for Jesus who comes as a guest. He comes not as a passing guest but as a guest of our life. He comes to stay with us. He comes to live with us. He comes to share his entire existence with us. He comes to make our existence a beautiful and happy one. How much care and concern we need to take? With lot of joy we may prepare our home materially as we do it for the Christmas, the Birth of the Eternal Guest. But the Guest who is coming does not want material preparation. He prefers for the psychological and spiritual preparation. What we need to do is not a casual preparation. We need to prepare our heart. Our heart is already occupied with lot of earthly concerns and passing passions. The dirt of the intentions are to be purified. The walls of heart has to be decorated with the beautiful words and kind deeds. The holes of falsity, untimely fear and useless worries have to be restored with the power of love and desire for the truth. This is the ultimate and highest form of preparation we can make to invite the guest. Words must be surpassed with the actions. Noise and sounds must be replaced by silence and reflection. Only then the knocking of the Eternal Guest is heard clearly. Only then His voice reaches to our heart. Finally, we jump with joy when He arrives because we have already prepared well a beautiful dwelling place for him in our life. He comes and remains with us. His stay transforms our life. We find an unending joy in his presence. The time of Advent is the time to prepare our life in this manner: interior beauty of the heart is the only place that Jesus finds as his appropriate and worthy dwelling. We need to strive for such preparation. The liturgy of the word, today, calls upon for this interior preparation. Readings: Advent is a time to acknowledge and fulfill our mission and vocation - Appearance of John the Baptist: The Gospel passage from Luke presents to us the figure and the personage name John. He appears as the Baptist because he calls the people into the reception of baptism. He starts cleansing the people from their sins if they truly repent and enter into the waters of Jordan. Even prior to this mission of baptizing people, John’s appearance is connected with various socio-political elements. Luke is very particular in bringing the connection between the appearance of the person and the political situation. He does this for two reasons: o God’s interventions in the history and in the space of time: God acts for his people. He desires to stay with them. He comes to them in order to bring them from their fallen state of sin and death to the risen state of glory and eternal bliss. God is so kind and loving that He personally relates himself to his people. His mercy for them makes him to enter into the rapport with them. This is not just a tale or a story in the air. This is a concrete and real intervention of God through various means: his prophets, his spokesmen, his kings and different forms of conversing with his people. At least, from the time of calling of Abraham and creating for himself a nation with which He calls all other nations into the close knit with him, this design and action of God appears as taking place in real history. Luke wants to indicate that God does not act anymore in the air; that his relationship with the people is no more a story of human creation and imagination; above all, he wants to stress upon the concrete action of God in the history of humanity and in time and space. Like all the personalities of the Old Testament, John the Baptist’s appearance also indicates that God acts through him in the particular time, in the particular place, under particular political dominion, and in the particular mode. It is for this purpose that Luke connects the person of John the Baptist with the narration of the political and social conditions of the time. The text makes this clear to us (Luke 3:1-2). It is in this political context that God sends His word through John the Baptist. Thus, God’s word is revealed not somewhere in the remote distances but in the very history of the humanity. o God’s invitation to the conversion and new life: The appearance of John the Baptist is in fact a call that God extends to all the people to return to Him. It is not the first time that God calls his people to change their life and come back to him. He does it often through various prophets. This is yet another instance in which God’s invitation arrives to the people. This instance and the presence of John is very particular because it is a proclamation, proclamation of God’s salvation that is going to appear very soon and in very near future. John is aware of his mission. His mission is only to prepare the way for the great day of salvation and calling the people to get ready to meet the day. The meeting of God’s redemptive design is possible only when they are alert and awake with the change of mind and purification of the heart. He calls for the penitence and the conversion for the forgiveness of sin by receiving a baptism (v.3). The repentance which is in Greek denoted as metanoia means to change not only moral attitude but also and above all, to change the mentality. Change of thinking, change of expressing and change of behaving. John faithfully accomplishes his mission of predicating the good news of salvation. - Every man will see the salvation of God (v.6): John is the personage that the Church provides us for this week to reflect and also to learn to be mindful of our personal mission that God has endowed us with. The last phrase of the Gospel is the destiny of every missionary appeal. God offers salvation to all and all have the possibility of participating in this salvation. Luke wishes to give a particular message by bringing the words of prophet Isaiah through the mouth of John the Baptist: that God will that all men are saved. Here the message of God takes its wide range and extend to all the corners of the earth. God’s love and his restoration embrace every human being. The salvation of God goes beyond the confines of social, political, cultural and religious aspects. This will take place in the advent of God’s Son who will offer his life for the world as the testimony of God’s ultimate love for humanity. The message of John thus takes new shape (breaking the barriers) and gives new hope (salvation for all). Conclusion: Sign of hope for the passage from the waiting of desert to the finding of well-springs - John is a sign of hope in the desert: The appearance and the proclamation of John in the desert is a living sign of hope for the people of Israel. John could have very well stayed amidst the people and given the message of conversion to the people. It would have been more easier and convenient. But his presence is not in the centre of people nor his predication in the streets of the villages. His mission has its realization in the desert. Why this accent on the desert? There is enough significance. The desert indicates the condition of the people of Israel. Their life is like a desert. They are in desperation. They are without joy. They are without any guide and prophets. They became abandoned. For more than five hundred years they are without God’s prophet who can sustain them. In this condition, John appears as God’s merciful providence to them. God speaks to them again through him. God promises them the nearness of their salvation. The presence of John in the desert signifies that God is entering and embracing their condition to change it and to vest it with the garments of joy. Therefore, John’s presence is a sign of hope for them that their deserted life will be transformed into the life of salvation. - The world is like a desert: On one hand, may be, it is growing rapidly with the technological and scientific researches and as the result man is mastering the world. On the other hand, the danger also exists along with the growth. Man is ignoring and neglecting the presence and power of God who is the author of every life, as a result he becomes selfish, egoistic, consumerist, and finally loses his soul and spiritual life. As he moves closer to the economic, political, social and personal status, he moves away from the manifestation of faith and preservation of the soul. Jesus admonishes: if a man gains whole world and loses his soul, what would be the profit he makes. The world is in reality without true joy. It has become mechanic. System rules it and machines dominate it. Man and his physical, psychological and spiritual world remains unconcerned. There is lot of mental stress and power struggle. Man is working hard and hard and working without any rest. Finally, his work and his living do not balance. At the end of the day, he finds himself at loss. Family is disturbed with the problems of egoistic imbalances: brokenness in the affection and sentiment. Social is affected with the problems of predominance and selfish growth: false prestige takes the upper hand. Mental life is suppressed with the struggle between right to live and scarcity of the possibility to life: loss of peace and tranquility. Spiritual life is at stake with the incoherence between the testimony of the word and the testimony of life: creature questions the creator. Such is the condition of the world and of the man who lives in it. What could be the possible sign of hope for this world? - We are to be the sign of salvation in the deserted world: Today, we are called to be that hope. Our presence in the world to be a sign of salvation and a good news of joy to the world around us. It is possible only when recognize our Christian vocation. Our vocation is to receive the grace from the Lord, live and testimony it with word and deed, and finally to spread the inner joy to the fellow being in and around us. Our presence should give a hope that the Lord is visiting his people. Our predication should lead the people to the springs of authentic and true human life. Our life should be a sign post which guides those who are in utter depression and total loss of life to the feet of the cross. Only there, and there alone, they can drink the waters of renewed life and the blood of salvation. Therefore, advent is the time in which we need to be the testimony of God’s presence and his constant visit to each and every person. We need to do it first of with the interior and personal growth in faith. Then we need to live a coherent life between what we say and what we do. Only then our proclamation will have some effect on the lives of those whom we meet. We need to prepare ourselves to be the way for the coming of the Lord so that all will see His salvation in us and through us.

FIRST SUNDAY OF THE ADVENT - C

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT – C (Jer 33:14-16; Tess 3:12-4:2; Luke 21:25-28, 34-36) Theme: We are invited to attend and embrace the Lord who comes Reflection: Advent is a time to renew our walk of faith - Advent reminds us that we have one more year of God’s merciful providence: From today we enter into the season of Advent. It is the first season with which we begin the Liturgical Year C. It is a period of reflection and preparation for the coming of Jesus. Advent means “coming”. What we are called to do in this time is: to wait and await the advent of the fulfillment of the promises in our life. God has promised man an eternal life and glory. This promise is realized and brought into ultimate fulfillment through the mystery of Jesus Christ. Jesus is our Master and Savior and He is the final goal of our Hope of this earthly life. Every day is the day that is donated to us by the abundant mercy of God. We need to utilize time provided for renewing our mind, our heart, our soul and our spirit, in a word, our entire life. We need to better it by the listening to the word of God, and by pondering over it, as Mary, the Icon for the Incarnation mystery. We have completed one year of walk of faith. We have learned little more about the life of Jesus. We have come little more closer to Jesus after a year of meditation on the life and works of Jesus. We have been following him with the testimony of our word and our deed. The liturgical year of B is over. One year of our intimacy with Jesus we have finished. Now, God provides us another year of liturgical celebrations. God gives us one more opportunity to introspect and see if everything has gone well in our spiritual growth. We are exactly entering into that gifted time: a possibility to examine our life and seek for the further growth in the Spirit of Christ. God himself encourages and empowers us by giving us His Only Son Jesus Christ in the form of the Word and the Sacrament. - Reflection on the Two Advents: We are here today to meditate on the Lord who comes. We believe and we recognize the truth that the Lord has already come. Lord Jesus Christ has come into the world in the past history. He has lived for thirty three years. He has revealed God’s love to the humanity. He has give the testimony to the God’s Kingdom and His redemptive design. He himself is the fulfillment of God’s promise. He brought into realization this promise of salvation of the world in His Paschal Mystery: His Passion, Death and Resurrection. This is the first Advent: the first coming of the Lord in humility and obedience. The ultimate fruit of His First Coming is this: he has opened the doors of heaven closed by the human sin and he has prepared a passage into the eternal life. Every human being is offered such a possibility of entering into the kingdom of heaven. This possibility is always there for the one who places himself in the way prepared by Him. Yet, there is another Advent: the second coming of the Lord in glory and in power. This coming is beyond human expectation. No one knows about it. No one can predict about its arrival. There is only a secure promise that the Lord will come. Biblical revelation throws a special attention to this. In all the gospels there is direct predication of Jesus himself about the Son of Man who will come in Glory (for immediate reference we have today’s gospel). This coming will be very powerful. Every human being and every creature in the world has to face this second coming of the Lord. Everyone will be made present in front of the Lord: they will wait for the reward worthy of their earthly testimony of life. The ultimate consequence of this second advent of Christ is this: he will judge every creature with justice and will reward according to their merit. - Advent reminds us that We are in the Journey to Meet Our Lord: Our present life on earth falls between these two advents. We are here making our journey to meet the Lord. Our journey is enforced by the faith we have in the first coming of Jesus and is enriched by the hope we have in the second coming of Jesus. Therefore, our entire journey is based on the triple virtues: faith, hope and charity. For, in our present journey, faith is point of our departure, hope is the point of our arrival and charity is point of nourishment. In fact, we have initiated our walk through the baptism, where we have professed our faith in the mystery of Jesus Christ. We are still walking, trying hard not to miss the way, along the passage that Jesus himself has trodden for us with hope that one day we will reach our destiny. We sustain our journey with the food: food of charitable works. Our being present to the situation of the community and to the needs of our brethren is the highest degree of Charity we can demonstrate. And Advent is the period in which the Church makes us to reflect on the possibility of meeting the Lord. Advent reminds us that we have not yet completed our race but still continuing it and will continue it until that great day of joy. The readings inspire us and throw a torch on our way and they make easy and available the passage our pilgrimage. Readings Raise the Head and Look High with Joy - Promise of a Sprout of Justice (first reading): God is faithful in his promises. He accomplishes all that He wills in the due and appointed time. People of Israel, whom He has chosen for Himself, are in the land of slavery. They suffer a lot for the infidelity they showed to their God. In this desperate condition, God makes a promise to them through the prophet Jeremiah. The principle essence of His promise is clear: He will make sprout the Messiah who will bring these people back into true life, life of joy and freedom. The one who come will be named as the “The Lord – Our Justice”. People who receive these promises can once again look up with the hope. They need not sit in the pit of discouragement and abandonment. The moment will arrive soon. The moment which will remove the veil of fear and frustration in the people who are struggling in the foreign land. The moment which will cover them with the cloth of justice and joy. This moment is the advent of the Jesus Christ, the Word of God assuming human nature. Through and in His Coming, the Lord has accomplished his act of justice. - Raise up your head and heart in courage and hope (Gospel): Jesus is speaking about the end of times. He already predicates how the day will be. Indeed, for last two to three weeks we have been reflecting on the last happenings. Today’s gospel is crystal clear in revealing the truth of the day of judgment. Jesus makes evident two characteristics of the Last Day: first, something that will happen to frighten those who are not ready; and second, something that will in any way affect those who are ready. First happening consists in the signs that will take place both in the sky and on the earth. In the skies: The sun will not rise anymore, the moon will not shine any longer, the stars disappear completely and there will take place utter darkness. On the earth: there will appear misery and anguish among people, they will face fear and frustration and there will be only death everywhere. This takes place in the lives of those who never expected and prepared themselves for the day. It falls on them as the powerful and sudden attack. In the second happening, something quite different take place. It takes place in the life of those who have followed the way of the Lord. They are the disciples of Jesus. They will not be affected or overtaken by these happenings. Jesus promises and exhorts his disciples: you do not worry or get upset when these things take place, instead, be joyful and raise up your head on high because it is the time of your salvation (gospel). The disciples are those who have already prepared for this hour. They have been attentively waiting for this moment with the life of kind words and charitable deeds. They have been eager expecting it. Finally, when the Day of the Lord has arrived (Advent) they are found ready and worthy. The darkness of the sky will not be to bite them. The fear of earth will not be able to swallow them. They have fought well and become victorious. They are in the grade of meeting the Lord in glory and in power. We are those disciples and we will be firm in our fight against the darkness of doubts and the clutches of perdition. We have nothing to fear. We have nothing to lose. We are ready to meet our Master. We will look high with joy and with hope. To reach such a stage of life we are invited to do two things: attend and embrace the day. Conclusion An invitation to attend and to embrace the Lord who is coming - Attending means “to open the eyes”: we are invited to attend the day of the Lord. Attending is not a mere word. It call for a careful observation. We need to observe the things that are happening around us. Where is my personal life heading to? How is my attitude in the family atmosphere and parental relationships? What am I doing for the society I am living in? what is the contribution that I am making to the world finally with the life I am living in this world? These questions provoke our attention. Each moment we need to examine well the reality in which we find ourselves. We are not blind and we should not be indifferent. We need to open wide our eyes to research well what is taking place in and through us. We are indeed capable of doing this. We are human beings not only with instinct behavior but with the gift of intelligence. We need to be wise in order to be true human beings. As wise and free beings we are given the capacity to distinguish what is good and what is bad. We have to arrive to the level of identifying the good and opting for it because it constructs the life. We need to also learn to throw aside what is bad and not useful because it only destroys the life. Attending, in profundity, means this: becoming capable of looking for what is good and edifying. - Embracing means “to open the heart”: knowing what is good and what is bad is not enough. There is a need for further step. To embrace what is good at any cost. True and authentic wise man does this. We know many things. We analyze number of situations. We observe and distinguish that which is valuable and useful. But when it comes to the matter of holding on to what we have known we step back. Because it is little challenging. It demands concrete action. Our problem lies here. We know well but we do not accept it. The true embrace calls for opening up of the heart. What does it mean? When the heart is open, there exists only one thing: love. Love endures. Love confronts. Love comprehends. Love empowers us with the concrete action. We are invited to do exactly this. We need to attend our life of faith as the first step. And we need to make it part and parcel of our life as the immediate step. - Attend and embrace the Lord who comes: Today, in this first Sunday of the Advent, we are called to be attentive to the coming of the Lord and to be ready to receive him wholeheartedly when he arrives. The truth of faith is this: even prior to our attending and embracing, Jesus himself attends us and embraces us. He is waiting for us with the wide open arms. He is speaking to us with the word proclaimed. He is donating his Body and Blood as our daily spiritual nourishment. Therefore, Jesus himself is the Master from whom we can learn the meaning of attending and embracing. If we close our eyes we cannot attend the coming of the Lord. If we close our hearts we cannot receive him. If we are indifferent to his presence we will be trapped into the obscurity of life: desperation, frustration, fear of even small disturbances. What is ultimately required of us in this season of Advent, therefore, is: to create little space for Jesus in our life. Creating space for Jesus means allowing him to act in us and through us. Then only, we become an advent of grace for others.