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.

Waiting with Joyful Hope

1st Sunday of Advent Nov. 27, 2011 (Mk 13:33-37)

"Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: 'Watch!'"

The Church once again celebrates a new liturgical year and she begins this with the Season of Advent. Advent literally means coming. In this season, the Church invites us again to wait for the Lord who came once and will come again.

The Gospel for today reminds us of our responsibility to prepare for the final days. Jesus urges us to be alert and to be "watchful".

Being watchful does not mean being like the guards in Luneta Park who stand there and keep watch until other guards take their shift. Neither does it mean being free to do whatever while we wait for something to happen. Being watchful means being faithful to our master as we wait for His return. And faithfulness means being loyal to our tasks all the time - not at the time most convenient to us, but all the time. And what is our task? It is to be obedient to God's commands all the time.

As faithful and watchful servants, we must not be too weary of thinking of Jesus' return. The "end times" always cause too many unnecessary speculations and distress. But as Christians, we "await in joyful hope the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ". We are happy as we await the Lord. We are joyful because the Lord's coming means salvation for us. We only need to fear the Lord's coming if we have not prepared ourselves and have not been loyal servants of His. As Jesus Himself said, "May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping." May we not be found unfaithful on the day of the Lord's return.

As we await the Lord, we must be alert. This means that we must never put out guard down. We must never, at any circumstance, think that it is alright to be unfaithful and to commit sin at the moment because we can always repent later. For all we know, that could be the last moment of our lives. Wallowing in sin and putting off repentance for some other time is not faithful watching for the Lord. It is procrastination.

As the new liturgical year begins, may we heed the call of the Advent Season. May we always bear in mind the Lord's exhortation to stay awake. The Lord is coming and we must always be ready, joyful and faithful for His coming.

Advent Comes Before Christmas

2nd Sunday of Advent Dec. 5, 2010 (Mt 3:1-12)

In those days John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: "A voice of one crying out in the desert, 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.'"

John wore clothing made of camel's hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.

When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

Aside from the Lenten Season, Advent is a season when the Church reiterates the constant call for repentance. Everyday, we are called to return to the path God set for us as we journey to find Him. But Advent reminds us in a special way that God Himself is coming to us and that we should prepare a way for Him.

The message of John the Baptist, therefore, is an important part of the Advent message. John reminds us that when someone is coming, the natural response is for us to prepare. Now since our expected visitor is Jesus, we must remember that the preparation we must do is not just decorating, feasting and buying gifts. These lose their meaning when we forget to prepare our hearts for Jesus.

Christmas for most of us today has become a meaningless joyful season. Little by little, we are removing Christ from Christmas. This is because some of us don't participate in the Advent season's journey of repentance and joyful spiritual preparation. Every year, we celebrate Christmas; but how does this yearly celebration change our lives aside from emptying our pockets? Christmas joy will always fade if our joy does not come from Christ.

John the Baptist reminds us not to be indifferent with affairs of the soul. As the Advent season continues, we are reminded to prepare for Jesus a road that leads to our hearts, without fear, anger or sin as obstacles along the way. We are invited to turn away from sin and to focus on welcoming the God who desires to enter our hearts. Instead of cleaning and decorating our homes and feasting, we must remember to clean our hearts defiled by sin, furnish our souls with holiness and to feast on God's Word in order to prepare for Jesus' visit.

The Pharisees and Sadducees in our Gospel today symbolize the people who refuse to prepare for Jesus' coming because they don't see the need for it. John, in exhorting the Pharisees, in effect also reminds us that simply being a Christian is not enough. We must live fruitful lives and our repentance must be made manifest through a life of holiness. Anyone can say he's repentant, and many people say they believe in God. Nevertheless only a few really live as children of God.

Jesus always comes to us in our daily lives. And finally, He will come again to be our judge at the end of time. This is a reality that we must not take lightly. Christmas is not just a mere reminiscing of how Jesus once came to be born here on earth. It is a reminder that He will indeed come again to gather those who are His, and to condemn those who were not fruitful and who did not prepare for His coming. In the end, the peace that was foretold in today's First Reading will be the abode of those who belong to Jesus.

May the message of Advent remain in our hearts and minds even after the season. May we always remember to care about our spirit, for when Jesus comes, He will care, not too much about how we made merry, but about how we prepared for His coming.

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.

The Humble Manger of Our Hearts

2nd Sunday of Advent Dec. 6, 2009 (Lk 3:1-6)

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert. John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:

"A voice of one crying out in the desert:
'Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.' "

We prepare a lot of things for Christmas. We prepare food, gifts, parties and many other things that we usually associate with joy. We know Christmas is the birth of Jesus so we do all the things we do when we celebrate birthdays. But today, it seems that Christ is disregarded in His own birthday celebration. Christ, the true light has been replaced by thousands of Christmas lights that give us a sense of joy but does not really remind us of Christ.

Last Sunday, the Gospel warned us to be ready for the coming of the Lord. Jesus told us that we should not be busy with the pleasures of the world, so as not to be caught by surprise when the world ends. Today, the Gospel gives us an example of how to prepare for Christ's coming. John the Baptist tells us to prepare the way of the Lord, to fill every valley and to make low every mountain and hill. This means that we should do away with what is not pleasing to God and instead, have the values that He wants us to learn. To prepare for Christ's coming, what we need to do is prepare our hearts. Like the candles of our Advent Wreath, the light in our hearts must shine brighter and the sin must melt away.

Preparing the way of the Lord means preparing ourselves. Jesus will be born in our hearts. Are our hearts free from sin and worthy for our Savior to dwell in? The best preparation for Christmas is spending Advent as a season of repentance, of doing away with sin, like John the Baptist who prepared the way of the Lord with a baptism of repentance. If we prepare so many things for friends and family this Christmas, if we clean our houses for our visitors, all the more should we prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus. After all, it is His birthday.

Like the John the Baptist, we must also be heralds of the Lord. As faithful Christians, we ought to remind our neighbors of how to truly prepare for the joy of Christmas. We can party and give gifts. But we must not forget, and must not let others forget, that the celebrant in the party is Christ, and that gift-giving means radiating the love God expressed by giving us His Son. The joy of Christmas is folly if Christ is removed from it. Therefore, we can best prepare for Christmas by focusing on Jesus and preparing the most comfortable place for Him, in the humble yet worthy little manger of our hearts.

Steadfast Waiting

1st Sunday of Advent Nov. 29, 2009 (Lk 21:25-28, 34-36)

"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."

We begin our Liturgical Year with the Season of Advent. Advent means "coming". In this season, we reflect on the coming of Christ. We prepare for the second coming of the Lord at the end of time, as we remember how He came to us in time, as a child, some twenty centuries ago. Advent, therefore, is a season of waiting. We wait for the coming of Jesus in our hearts and as judge at the end of time.

We are living in between Christ's coming two thousand years ago and His coming at the end of time. The early Christians used to cry, "Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!". But now, more than two thousand years after, that cry seems to be getting softer and softer. Christianity has survived through time, but the longing for the return of Christ seems to be weakening. Faith has become limited to just admitting that there is a God. People attend Mass as if it were a program. They stand, sit and speak whenever needed, but do not pray. We no longer nourish our souls, as we are too busy with worldly affairs.

This is what Jesus warns us about. We must not be too preoccupied with the anxieties of life. All these things to which we give value will all disappear anyway. They are ephemeral. And the tasks that we are so busy with are not as important compared to the task Jesus expects us to do - steadfast waiting. Jesus expects us to be steadfast in faith, hope and love. He expects us to follow His teachings and to hold on to His words. He expects us not to belong to the world. He expects us not just to wait, but to be loyal Christians while we wait for Him. This is what steadfast waiting means.

In the Second Reading, St. Paul says that we ought to be holy before God. He exhorts us to live in a manner pleasing to God. A life of holiness entails imitating Christ, living according to how Christ taught us to live. This life is characterized by a steadfast faith that consists in knowing, loving and serving God. Our faith should be active, producing fruit, not only in our lives, but also in the lives of those around us.

As Christians, we should realize that the happiness this world offers is never permanent. Hence, we must not burden ourselves with the pursuit of these things, to the extent that we forget to prepare for the life beyond this world. If we hold on to the things of this world, Jesus warns us that the day of judgment shall catch us unprepared, by surprise, like a trap.

Jesus said to Martha, "You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed" (Lk 10:41-42). He makes the same exhortation to us today. "Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life."

At the end of time, when there shall be tribulation, we cannot hold on to the things we own, nor to the things we have accomplished. We can only hold on to the fact that we have become faithful. With this steadfast faith, we shall have the confidence to face the Son of Man, the assurance that we shall belong to those whose redemption is at hand. We shall be able to stand erect and raise our heads.

Always Put Your Best Foot Forward!

First Sunday of Advent Nov.30, 2008 (Mk 13:33-37)

Jesus said to his disciples: "Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.

"It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: 'Watch!' "

Today, we begin a new liturgical year as we enter the Advent Season. Advent literally means "coming". In this season, the Church invites us to reflect on and be ready for Jesus' Coming. We are reminded of the fact that Jesus came to us in the past. He lived with us and even died for us. Aside from that, we are also reminded that we should be ready for Jesus' return and that the exact time of His return is unknown to us all, except to God, of course.

We Christians are all in waiting. We believe that Jesus will come again to judge us. This act of anticipation is not at all alien to us. We wait for many things in our lives. We wait for the arrival of a visitor. We wait for the birth of a baby. We wait for the results of important exams. We wait for our favorite TV show. We wait for our favorite love team to go steady. We wait for so many things, important or not.

Our Gospel for today appropriately opens the Season of Advent. Today, Jesus invites us not just to wait; he invites us to watch, to be vigilant. We have no idea when Jesus will be coming to judge us. Nevertheless, we are given a task as Christians and also as individuals. Each of us has a special task in this world. As Jesus said, "He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work..." (Mk 13:34). He expects us to be faithful to this work or task until He comes again. He tells us, "May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping." (Mk 13:36).

When we are expecting a critic or supervisor who will check the efficiency of our work, we always put our best foot forward. We make sure that he will see us at our best. This isn't bad. But sometimes, this has a negative bearing. The tendency is that we only give our best when we know that we are going to be evaluated. In the case of Jesus' coming, this kind of attitude will not work. How will we know when to put our best foot forward when we have no idea when He will come to "evaluate" the way we lived our lives? What if He comes when our "best foot" is being rested and our "inferior foot" (If there is such a thing!) is forward?

The solution: We should always put our best foot forward! We shouldn't give our best just because someone will evaluate us. We should always give our best in everything. Applying it in our daily lives and our spiritual lives also: we should be good always. We should live our whole lives as Catholic Christians. Holiness is not a mask that we wear only when inside the Church or when we want to make a good impression. It is a garment that we Christians should feel naked without.

There is wisdom in the words, "Live today as if it were the last day of your life." In the same way, we should always live as if Jesus were going to judge us soon! The Gospel is telling us to be good all the time. But it does not tell us that we should be good just because we might be punished. We should not do good just because we "dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell." (Act of Contrition). We should grow from this reward-and-punishment morality to a more mature one. We should do good because of our faithfulness to and our love for God who is "all-good and deserving of all our love." (Act of Contrition).

Blessed are we if Jesus finds us faithful when He comes again! To end this reflection, let us take a glimpse at a character from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: the lamplighter. This lamplighter is ordered to light his lamp every night and to put it out every morning. The planet where he's staying rotated more rapidly as time went by. Eventually, a day in his planet became as short as a minute. Therefore, he had no time to sleep for he had to light and put out his lamp every single minute. He may be absurd, but he is faithful to his orders! When Jesus, our Master, comes back, how glad will He be if he finds us faithful to the task He left us with!