Vigilance of Faith

1st Sunday of Advent
Dec. 2, 2012
(Lk 21:25-28, 24-36)

Jesus said to his disciples:
"There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars,
and on earth nations will be in dismay,
perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.
People will die of fright
in anticipation of what is coming upon the world,
for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
And then they will see the Son of Man
coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
But when these signs begin to happen,
stand erect and raise your heads
because your redemption is at hand.

"Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.
For that day will assault everyone
who lives on the face of the earth.
Be vigilant at all times
and pray that you have the strength
to escape the tribulations that are imminent
and to stand before the Son of Man."

At the very beginning of our liturgical calendar, the Gospel reminds us of the end. People often sensationalize discussions about the end of the world. Some panic about it, saying that it is near; some want to find out when it will exactly be, through science. As Christians, should we not listen to what our Lord Jesus had to say about the ends times? Jesus reminds us in our Gospel today: "Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand." This is the proper Christian response to the idea of the end of the world: a joyful expectation of the redemption that the Lord Jesus will fulfill in us. This is precisely what Advent is all about.

Advent, being a preparation for the Solemnity of Christmas, also leads us to reflect on the Lord's Second Coming, an event which we should be prepared for - always! This season, therefore, is not just a season of preparation. Advent is a reminder that preparation is necessary every day of our lives! For Jesus came and He will come again.

But again, Jesus reminds us of the kind of preparation we must make. He warns us not to embrace the pleasures of the world nor be too engrossed with the anxieties of daily life. We often struggle to get all that we want here on earth - pleasure, power, money and everything else we can get - and then to keep them for ourselves for as long as we want them. The prevalent idea is: "The world will end so we must do everything we want. We must achieve everything we can." As Christians, our idea is: "The world will end, so we cling to Him who does not end - God." Of course, Jesus does not want us to forget our duties. What Jesus wants is that we live here on earth with our minds and hearts ready for heaven - for eternity.

The proper preparation for the Lord's Coming is the keeping of our faith in Him. With the vigilance of faith, we continue to know, celebrate and obey God in our daily living, even as we await His Coming. When we live without faith, in sin or in apathy towards God, only then do we fear the end of the world, because we would have nothing to cling to. But when we strive to keep our faith and pray for the increase of our faith, we become more and more prepared to meet the Lord, and less afraid of the end of the world. We can only "stand erect" on that day if we know that we are ready to receive the fullness of redemption that Jesus brings.

As we begin the season of Advent, we light candles on the Advent wreath. The light of the candles increase gradually as we light one more candle every week, symbolizing that the light increases as our Lord comes. May that light also symbolize our faith, ever alive and ever increasing, through God's grace!

Cleaning up and Decorating Our Hearts

2nd Sunday of Advent Dec. 4, 2011 (Mk 1:1-8)

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths."

John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.

John was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey.

And this is what he proclaimed: "One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

In this Second Sunday of Advent, we are invited to reflect on the ministry and on the message of John the Baptist. John is the humble herald of the Lord. Before Jesus began His public ministry, John proclaimed a baptism of repentance. He reminded people to take a look at how they are living their lives and in what ways they sin against God. He invited them to repent – to turn away from their sins and to live according to God’s will. This was John’s message: Jesus is coming so fix yourselves up!

The First Reading (Is 40:1-5, 9-11) gives the same message. Israel wandered far from God because of sin, but God has forgiven them. God is “coming back” to Israel. But Isaiah reminds God’s people that they must prepare by making straight “in the wasteland a highway” for God. This means that they must build anew their lives that were laid waste by sin. “Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low.” This means that every weakness and shortcoming they have must be “filled in” with good deeds and an effort to improve themselves. Every destructive thing or sinful deed must be “made low” or done away with. God is coming to them, so they must turn away from what separated them from Him in the first place. This was also John’s message to the people he was inviting to prepare for Jesus’ coming – and also to us. This is what repentance means. This is what God wills us to do, and He patiently waits for us to do it (see Second Reading: 2 Pt 3:8-14).

As Christmas draws near, we will again go through many preparations. Cleaning up and decorating are just some of these. There’s nothing wrong with all these preparations. But we must remember that these are only external preparations. What we really need to clean up and decorate are our hearts. Like the Israelites Isaiah and John the Baptist preached to, we must clean up our hearts and throw away everything that is evil and sinful in them. We must also decorate our hearts, adorning them with virtues, good deeds and prayerfulness. This is the proper way of preparing for Jesus’ coming into our lives. Only when we do this do we truly become ready to commemorate Jesus’ coming here on earth on Christmas, to experience His presence in our lives today, and to meet Him face to face when He finally comes back again.

Let us always remember that Advent comes before Christmas. Advent is a season of preparation, a time for us to heed John the Baptist’s call to repentance in preparation for Jesus’ coming. Let us listen to this voice in the desert. Let us start cleaning up and decorating our hearts.

Keeping the Faith Alive and Awake

1st Sunday of Advent Nov. 28, 2010 (Mt 24:37-44)

For as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left.

Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

Advent is all about being ready. When we know that someone is going to visit us, we prepare a lot for them. This is why we have an Advent Season. As Catholics, we know Jesus came to this world as man; we remember that in our yearly Christmas celebration. We also know that He comes to us everyday in the Mass. Lastly, we believe that He will come again in His glory, at the end of time. Therefore, Advent is our commemoration of Jesus' coming in the past, and our preparation for His coming again.

Jesus talked a lot about His second coming. An example of this would be our Gospel for today. Jesus reminds everyone of us that His second coming would be like a robbery. We are aware that robberies may happen anytime, but we don't know when we might be robbed. The common solution for robbery is locking our doors well. In the same way, we must lock our hearts so that sin cannot enter. We must let only goodness enter our hearts. That way, when the Lord comes, we may open the doors of our hearts to Him, and He will be pleased about how well we maintained our hearts clean for His coming.

In today's Gospel, Jesus exhorts us to stay awake. This means that we should keep our faith burning. We must nourish our faith and live it everyday. As we wait for Jesus, we don't just remain idle and simply live in this world while keeping our faith to ourselves. We must not be content with just having faith and simply believing that there is a God whose story we read from the Bible. The Lord asks us to keep our faith alive and awake in everything we do, even as we live our earthly lives.

We must not treat our faith as if it was just a thing we set aside and then use whenever we need it. We do not just "re-activate" our faith every time we need to have someone baptized, when we get married or when we need to have our houses blessed. Faith is something we must live everyday. It is something that must work in our lives, as familiar and as common to us as our breathing. We must not separate our faith from every thing we do, no matter how temporal our activities may be. If we keep our faith even as we do temporal activities, we avoid committing sinful acts and we remain true followers of Christ

Indeed, this materialistic world is not our true home. Nevertheless, the Lord asks us to remain here to wait for Him, and to build His kingdom here on earth while we wait. He expects us to live our lives as His true followers so that the whole world may see Him and come to believe in Him through our example. St. Paul, in our Second Reading, asks us, "Throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light (Rom 13:12)".

As we begin this new liturgical year, we are reminded of our mission as Catholics. We are reminded that it is our task to tell the world that there is a Christ who came, comes and will come again. By word, and most importantly, by deed, we are to show the world how to become citizens of God's kingdom which is already arriving.

Finally, when He comes in all His glory, may we not be caught unprepared. Instead, may He find us steadfast in faith, untiring in building His kingdom here on earth, and zealously living as citizens of this eternal kingdom.