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.

CHRIST THE KING - YEAR B

THIRTY FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – B: Solemnity of the Christ the King (Daniel 7:13-14; Rev 1:5-8; John 18:33b-37) Theme: Jesus invites us to place ourselves under His Kingship Reflection: Kingship of Jesus Christ revealed in His Ultimate Obedience and Service - Culmination of the liturgical year with the sovereignty of Jesus: Today is the last Sunday of the Liturgical year B. From the next Sunday, from the first week of Advent, we start new year of liturgy. We have been preparing ourselves throughout this year just for this: to get place in the kingdom of God inaugurated and revealed to us by Jesus Christ. We have been listening to his voice which has come to us through the Scriptures. We have been nourishing ourselves with his spiritual food which has come to us through the celebration of the sacramental mysteries. Day by day we have been growing in faith. We have completed our race of faith of this liturgical year. At the end, today, if we find ourselves under the reign of Christ, our race has reached its destiny. Otherwise, we have not yet made an adequate attempt to the leadership of Jesus. We need to examine over our life of faith: where and how did we start our movement? How far we have reached? Now where are we exactly? Aim of the reflection of the gospels week by week is to form and reform ourselves so that we are always with Christ. In this way, the church invites us each year to begin the liturgical year with the dedication and to complete it with the commitment. Today, after our one year of faith journey we need to accept, follow and embrace the sovereignty of Jesus. - Radical Question and Quest into research – Did Jesus ever proclaim himself a king?: If we gaze into the gospels it is clear that Jesus has never proclaimed himself a king and he never wanted to claim to be a king. Almost all the gospels speak of the kingship of Jesus only in the presence of Pilot and before his judgment. In outset, the conversation is very simple and casual without any intensive approach. Pilot asks Jesus: ‘Are you a king?’ and Jesus does not confirm but only affirms: ‘you tell it’ (Math 27:11), the same appears in Mark 15:2, and Luke 23:3; the discourse is not continued on the kingship, not even the scribes and the Jewish authority; they just bypass it as though it is not the exact thing what they wanted to talk. In John’s gospel the dialogue between Pilot and Jesus taken dramatic turn as we read it in today’s gospel (John 18:28-38). Here, on one hand, Pilot wants to hear the personal testimony of Jesus proclaiming himself as a king and on the hand, Jesus replies first with the silence and then with the kingdom from above. Neither here, Jesus wants to declare himself as king. He reveals only the purpose of his presence: I have to come to give testimony to the truth (v.37). All these citations show that Jesus is not interested in being ‘raised to the glory of the king’. - Kingship! Both hidden and at the same time revealed: On one side, Jesus does not reveal his kingship. In fact, Jesus never wanted it and he is not so much interested in proclaiming himself a king. He is aware and conscious of only his mission. He has come to be with the poor and therefore, to identify himself as – humble and obedient servant – sent by God to proclaim and fulfill the kingdom of God. On the other side, the revelation of his kingship has never been stopped. From the moment of his annunciation to Mary (Lk 1:30ff), with the promise that the one who is to be born will be a king, to the moment of his death on the cross with the inscription on the cross – Jesus king of Jews. It is revealed by first Angel Gabriel, by the Magi, even by simple people when they wanted to make him a king after the miracle of multiplication of bread, and on the cross; Readings Kingship is a crown for His Total Self-surrender to the Will of God - Jesus Christ accepted to assume the figure of the son of man (first reading): The revelation of the Scriptures is that Jesus Christ is given the power and is made the Head of everything. He is raised up in glory and given the power. “To Him are given the power, glory and the kingdom; all the peoples, nations and languages were serving him: his power is an eternal power, which never finishes, and his reign will never be destroyed” (Daniel 7:14). This is the vision of Daniel long before the coming of Jesus into the world. In his vision he does not see the One who is coming as the king. He sees someone similar to the “son of man” (Daniel 7:13). But this son of man is later given the power and the kingdom. Here, Jesus Christ is manifested as the Son of Man, not as a king. Jesus gives completion and perfection by calling himself as the Son of Man: “Son of Man has to be delivered into the hands of the sinners and they will put him to death and on the third day he will raise again”. Jesus proclaims his death three times before his actual death. All the three times he proclaims himself as Son of Man and not as a king. But this son of man will be raised up to the glory and will be given the power just because Jesus Christ accepted with all his loving will to be the figure of this son of man prophesied in the Old Testament. - Jesus Christ accepted to be the faithful testimony of God’s love for the world (second reading): Theology of John is quite different from other gospel writers. For John Jesus Christ is the Word of the Father who has come down from heaven. His purpose of coming is not to dominate the world and manifest his glory in the material manner. His only mission is to reveal God’s love for the salvation of man. John reveals the mission of the Word already in the beginning of his writings. In his gospel, John proclaims that the Word has come down to give the testimony to the Father. Even in today’s second reading, taken from the book of Revelation, demonstrates who is actually Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is first of all, a faithful testimony, first born of the dead, and finally is the sovereign of all the kings of the earth (Rev 1:5). John does not indicate Jesus as a king at first instance. For him, the kingship has been given to him by the Father for the faithful subjection to the Father in fulfilling his will of redeeming humanity. Only after being the testimony of God’s love by his word and deed, only after offering his life on the cross with obedience and only after rising from the dead, he becomes the king of the universe. Therefore, the purpose of his coming is not to take over the humanity in his hands as the only author but to be the testimony of His Father’s love doing only what His Father commands. - His mission is to give testimony to the truth, not to be a ruler of the world (Gospel): as we have already seen above, the confrontation between Pilot and Jesus is dramatic. Finally, Jesus affirms only one thing: “for this I am born and for this I have come into the world: to give testimony to the truth” (the ending words of today’s gospel). Every word he has spoken and every action he has accomplished is not from his own will but from the will of the Father who has send him into the world. This is only testimony that Jesus gives of himself and nothing else. All other acclamations are from the overwhelming joy of the people who has seen his astonishing presence and power. Even before his death, in front of Pilot, he holds this testimony. He affirms only one thing that his kingdom is not of this world. But never speaks of, or proclaims himself as king. His kingdom is given to him by the Father for the faithful testimony he has rendered in the world and for the humanity. Conclusion We are invited to learn that “to reign is to serve” - We are called to acknowledge Jesus Christ as the King of the Universe: Jesus has manifested his ultimate obedience and humility to His Father. God, His Father, has revealed His regality/kingship to the people through different ways and modes – God always speaks in the various means. By this we understand that it is finally the ‘simple and perfect event’ of ultimate obedience to the will of God that made him ‘the king over all’ (Phil 2:6-11). It is God who has put everything under His subjection so that everything will be brought back it its original place: being in God – that is, God be all in all. o But the church acknowledges and proclaims Jesus the King because of His ultimate sacrifice for the salvation of mankind as a Good Shepherd – the shepherd who gives his life for his flock; she proclaims him to be the ‘king of the universe’. thus, He becomes Shepherd-King. o Universe – both creation and the humanity – is affected very badly and is in the clutches of sin and death and is, therefore, in need of a savior who will have an ultimate victory over these two powers - sin and death - and places the universe in its right post. Jesus is a king because he wins and he is a king of universe because he wins over the powers that hold in their power the whole creation and thus becomes the ‘King of the Universe’. Jesus is the king because he wins the sin through his innocent sacrifice and the death through his resurrection to new life – gives back the kingdom of peace and justice to God. o His victory is not with the army of the world as he professes in the court of the Pilot but belongs to the other world and therefore, to the world of the Father and His Angels; therefore, his fight and his war is not with the horse and sword, which is the normal understanding of a king, but with the Spirit and Love, a new, radical and a spiritual understanding of kingship. This is the criteria through which he will also, one day, call everything into judgment: with the manifestation of love in the proper life; this way, thus, he becomes the ‘King-Judge’. As such he divides the good and the bad and places them in the posts they deserve for their testimony of life on earth. - To place ourselves under His kingship means “to follow him and to serve our brethren”: The Path made Simple and Accessible. First we have to follow him: We need not struggle too much in order to enter the kingdom of God. The path is already paved. Only thing we need to do is to listen to his invitation and to follow him with commitment. His call is: ‘come, you blessed by my Father into the heavenly kingdom’. And he affirms that those who listen to him are his sheep: “my sheep listen my voice”. To follow him means exactly this: to place ourselves in his footsteps. Second, we have extend our service to our fellow beings: great deeds are not demanded from us. God asks from us our daily and small things: A slice of bread to the hungry. A glass of water to the thirst. A piece of cloth to the naked. A kind word to the disappointed/stranger. A small visit to the sick. And finally, in a word, a merciful glance to the needy. These ‘daily gestures’ are the fulfillment of the totality of the beatitudes that Jesus proposed already at the beginning of his mission of ‘realization of the kingdom of God.’ We are called to do this and once we do these little things to the little ones around us, we are sure of standing at the right side of the judgment seat – through which we receive crown of glory and eternal happiness. Therefore, Let us place ourselves under the kingship of Jesus Christ and thus become part of God’s kingdom so that we are in the Lord and the Lord is in us.

THIRTY THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - B

tr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> THIRTY THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – B: (Daniel 12:1-3; Heb 10:11-14, 18; Mark 13:24-32) Theme: We are called to attend and embrace the Lord who comes Reflection: We are in the movement towards the end - Recapituation – Parusia – Apocalypse: We are heading towards the end of the Liturgical Year B. Within few days we will be starting the New Year of the Liturgy. The conclusion of every Liturgical Year is with the Solemnity of the Christ, the King which falls next Sunday. In this context, the Church asks us to reflect over the end of times. The Church through the reading of today presents to us what is the final end of the creation. According to the Scriptures and the Christian theology the end of times does not mean the end of the world. The end of times means the recapitulation of whole universe, of whole history and of whole human life in the Lordship of Christ. Recapitulation is the Pauline term (Eph 1:10) used to signify the gathering of every creature under its “Head”, its Lord, its Prince, its King for its final meaning of life. This recapituation has also two connotations in the biblical language: parusia and apocalypse. The first is the Parusia which means the presence: coming of the Lord and its ultimate sense is that “all will be in all” (1 Cor 15:28); everything will find its place and participation in the Kingdom of God; in fact, for this every Christian repeat the words of Jesus in the great prayer of Our Father: “Your Kingdom Come and Your Will be Done” (Math 6:10). The second is the apocalypse which means revelation: God will be manifested in His Ultimate Glory; every veil will be removed and everything will be made crystal clear; every creature will see God face to face and this the fullest of revelation. Our Christian journey is always towards this end: our final meeting with the Lord. - It is a journey with Hope: The biblical revelation provides us the picture of our Christian end. It is to participate in the eternal life that God has promised to us in his project of love. We are already inserted into this participation in the eternal bliss through the sacramental life. But it is still to be achieved in its fullness. Here we encounter the challenge of life: we are given the taste of eternal life but we have to still walk towards it realization. Human life is already made for this: to meet the Lord here and now with the commitment of life in faith and to become one with him at the end of our earthly existence. Here we see the tension between what we are now and what we have to achieve in future. This is the tension in Christian terminology: between “Already” and “Not Yet”. We are already in the Lord but we have not yet seen the final glory. In this context the only redeeming element we have is hope. In the existential tension of humanity the only solution is to hope. Hope will make us live. Without hope we are already dead. Pope Benedict XVI proclaims that the hope sustains the life. His words enlighten and inspire us and keep us walk in faith to live. “it is true that anyone who does not know God, even though he may entertain all kinds of hopes, is ultimately without hope, without the great hope that sustains the whole of life (cf. Eph 2:12). Man's great, true hope which holds firm in spite of all disappointments can only be God—God who has loved us and who continues to love us “to the end,” until all “is accomplished” (cf. Jn 13:1 and 19:30). Whoever is moved by love begins to perceive what “life” really is. He begins to perceive the meaning of the word of hope that we encountered in the Baptismal Rite: from faith I await “eternal life”—the true life which, whole and unthreatened, in all its fullness, is simply life. Jesus, who said that he had come so that we might have life and have it in its fullness, in abundance (cf. Jn 10:10), has also explained to us what “life” means: “this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (Jn 17:3). Life in its true sense is not something we have exclusively in or from ourselves: it is a relationship. And life in its totality is a relationship with him who is the source of life. If we are in relation with him who does not die, who is Life itself and Love itself, then we are in life. Then we “live” (Spe Salvi, 27). - Hope recalls for the research and vigilence: Hope does not mean that we keep aside all our responsibities and wait for God’s intervention. Hoping means leading the life with continuous and untiring research for the meaningful life and vigilence to safeguard it from the evil powers. o Research makes us to see God as the source of life and our destiny. It encourages us to follow what is pleasing to Him and thus enpowers us to accomplish it at any cost. It also enables us to distinguish between that which passes away and that which remain for ever: that which is temporary and that which is eternal, that which is accidental and that which is definitive. Today’s gospel presents to us that everything will pass away and disappear and what remain without any destruction is “the word of God”: God and his love. o Vigilance makes us attentive and careful in the every step we put forward. It reaches us safe to our destiny. It illuminates our path and makes us to see well our road towards our communion with God. It allows us to question ourselves: where are we coming from? What is the origin of our life? Where are heading to? And what is our destiny? Vigilance means to keep awake and answer these question with an adequate significance. It makes us look for the better way. It help us to refresh always our mind, heart and the spirit, thus our words, actions and life. It reminds us that we are accountable for every word we speak, every action we fulfill and every testimony we manifest. It first of all indicates the path that is correct and makes us follow it without missing the way: without slipping into the pit of ruin and destruction. Thus hope makes us to live and to live for the promise of eternal life. Readings: Promise of Eternal Bliss for those who keep awake and attentive in faith and in charity - Those who are in dust will wake up again (first reading): We are given a promise of hope through the imaginary description of Daniel. Those who are in the dust will rise again. Who are those that are in the dust? It may have two meanings: first deals with the present life and the second denotes the eschatological meaning. Remain in the dust means to remain without life. o Firstly, it happens often in the existential contexst of man: Man is often desperate and confused with the different forces of life: his life is surrounded by various tensions. He does not live anymore voluntarily. He is forced to live. He is afraid of death, therefore he continues to live. Life is not really a life in his context. He is heavey with the burdens of family incomprehensions, social-economic-political surpress, and spiritual fluctuations of faith. On the one hand, he is dragged to this situation by the passing passions of the world and the flesh. On the other hand, man has given up his capacity to discern what is enough for him. He often blindly placed in the crossroads of the life: he is faced with different directions without knowing what way to take up. Even in the christian life this has taken place. Christian knows and acknowledges what and who is the Truth, the Way and the Life, Jesus. Still he finds himself in the dust of desparation because he has surrendered himself to the modernity of the world. Giving priority to the daily requirements of the world he has pushed back the life of faith. He has lost his Christian dignity and capacity to combat with the evil tendencies. He has fallen into the trap of false prestige, passing power and unnecessary ambitions. His state of life is exactly as in the state of dust: without having true life. Yet, there is a promise to such man and to such christian: a return to life, a coming back to the new life. There is always a way out for him: way of conversion. Infact, the possibility of resurrection from the worldly clutches is offered to him. It is always at the door of his life. He has to only open the door and make it enter. This new life is given to man in and by the mystery of Jesus Christ here and now. As the second reading reminds us: Jesus has offered once and for all a sacrifice of salvation and made whole humanity perfect (Heb 10:11-14). o Secondly, it will take place in the final consummation of the world: the promise of God remains forever. His words remain forever. Daniel proclaim through his visions that all thoso who are in the dust will come back to life. The second meaning of “staying dust” is eschatological. It means that “all those who are dead” ( those returned to the dust) will be resurrected in the end of days for the final judgement. All will see “the day” in which the Glory of the Lord shines. Those who lived according to the faith and love for the Lord will participate in that glory. In stead, all those who refused to accept and to follow the Word will be thrown away into the eternal darkness. - The day will certainly come (Gospel): Although nobody knows when and how, the return of the Lord will surely take place. Jesus himself promises it in today’s gospel and his words will not pass away. The coming of the Lord should not frighten us. The words used, either in the first reading or in the gospel, are “time for anguish”, “judgment”, “the signs from the heavens” – they belong to the apocalyptic language. These words seem to terrorize us, but in reality they are not. They only alert our conscience and our attitude. We need not to fear of all these that will happen in the future. They serve as the guiding steps: they help us to walk in the way of the Lord with reverential fear. In reality, these words and images found in today’s readings, invite us to place our trust in the mercy of the Lord. We need to stand before him not with the terror but with the fear. The fear of the Lord, here, means the reverence, the admiration. It means the gratitude towards God who shows his power not in punishing us but in kindness and forgivenss. A fear which means the hope. The illuminating words of Pope Benedict will encourage us: “A world without God is a world without hope (cf. Eph 2:12). Only God can create justice. And faith gives us the certainty that he does so. The image of the Last Judgment is not primarily an image of terror, but an image of hope; for us it may even be the decisive image of hope” (Spe Salvi, 44). The words of the Pope remind us that there is a task to accomplish: task of committed faith, unwavering hope and unconditional love. Conclusion: Time to prepare the balance sheet our life - We need to prepare the accounts our life: what is the consequence of the reading we have heard? The readings call for our attention and our vigilance. They invite us to prepare an account sheet of all that we have done in life. One day, we need to stand before Jesus and answer his questions. We need to submit to him the list of the things he has called us to fulfill and the things that we have actually done in life. If there is a correct balance between what he demanded from us and what we have accomplished we are safer side. We will see the glory of the Lord. We cannot in any way escape his questionaire. We cannot in any way bypass his judgment. Especially, in our present situation, we need to examine and see how far we have reached in our journey towards him. We need to observe and make an account of the “walk of faith” we started one year ago. The liturgical year is coming to end. Every year, we need to prepare our progress report. Each word we have uttered is accountable. Each action we have accomplished is accountable. Each moment of testimony of life is accountable. We need to make a careful balance sheet our life. In other words, this is nothing but an assessment of our life: evaluating the good we have done and the bad we are tempted to do. What is the result of this preparation of an account of life? - We need to better our future: the result of an examination of all that have done is the betterment of the life. We can better our words we speak, actions we do and the testimony we give. We will be able to add little more kindness to our words. We will be able to add little more vigor to our actions. And we will be able to add little more truthfulness and faithfulness to our testimony. Human life is always a life forward. Christian life is always a life forward and upward. We need to grow. We need to better. We need to clear our way to reach the Lord. All this will take place effectively with the preparation of account of life. It will provide to us the clear picture of our status: what we are and where we are. It will also serve us as a torching light to show our direction. We will be able to place ourselves in the correct position of faith, hope and love. Once we return to original dignity of being the children of God, we have the possibility of walking straight in his ways this time. Only this way we can do justice to our theme of today: let us prepare ourselves to embrace the Lord who is coming.