Fourth Sunday in Advent-year B

4th Sunday in Advent


Good morning every one. I am so happy to welcome you all to celebrate today’s holy Mass. My special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today, dear friends every time we come to church we celebrate God who sent His only Son Jesus to us, every time we come to Church we celebrate the Son who willingly accepted to be incarnate as human among us and every time we come to Church we celebrate the Holy Spirit the giver of life.
Once a mother was making breakfast for her children Kevin and John. They were fighting with each other on who would get the first pancake. The mother thought that was the best opportunity to teach them a lesson and she said, “Boys, do not fight with each other. If Jesus were here now, he would say “Let my brother have the first pancake” Then Kevin turned to John and said, “John, you be Jesus”
Today we celebrate fourth Sunday in Advent. Today’s gospel talks about Jesus, Mary and Joseph; it talks about Joseph saying he was engaged with Mary. The Holy Bible says that Joseph was a pious man who did everything according to the will of God.
Once a man approached a disciple of a famous rabbi and asked, “ tell me why your master conceals his miracles. I have personally witnessed his miracles and even collected data that shows the authenticity of his divine wonders. Then why does he do this?” The disciple said, “Yes, I myself observed these miracles. I think I can give answer to your questions. First the master recoils from being the center of attention and secondly he is convinced that his miracles should take them to God not to himself”.
Joseph was a man who focused only on god and that is why we do not hear much about him. When we are like him, God will continue to shower upon us his countless blessings.
We then meet with our Blessed Virgin Mary in the gospel today. It is about annunciation. The angel Gabriel brought the good tidings to all. Though Mary hesitated in the beginning, she said, ‘let it be done according to your will’ and thus she completely participated in the salvation story.
There is a beautiful story about St. Jerome. One day Jesus appeared to him and said, “Jerome, what will you give me?” Saint Jerome who was a famous writer then said, “I will give all my writings to you” Jesus said, “It is not enough”. He then said, ‘I will give you my life of mortification and penance”. Jesus said, ‘that is not enough”. Jerome began to cry and said, “I do not have anything to give you” For that Jesus said, “Jerome, you can give me your sins”.
When we give God what we are and who we are, there we participate in the divine plan of love and kindness. Our Blessed Mary surrendered herself to God and thus became the mother of Jesus. Let us give ourselves to God.
Today’s gospel talks about the birth of our Savior, the Messiah; Jesus who was the Only Son of God became like you and me and lived among us. He brought life and light to all saying, “those who follow me will never die but will have life everlasting”.
Some years ago, a cloister of a Carmelite convent was opened to the public. Many people visited and saw how the nuns were living. Then a man who was visiting looked at one of the nuns and said, “sister, look at the house pointing to a big beautiful house that was standing on a hill far away, if you were given a chance to live in that house, would you have left that house to have become a poor Carmelite nun, praying, fasting and doing spiritual activities twenty-four seven?”
The nun looked at him and said, “That is my house”.

Jesus who is divine became human for us. He became one among us to show the unconditional love of God and we who follow Him and we who come to Church and receive all the church’s sacraments learn to humble ourselves before God and others like Mary and Joseph, we too will give birth to Jesus; we too will bring His love and kindness to all. So let us keep Christ who is the Only Messiah and Saviour. Amen.

Second Sunday of Advent-B

Second Sunday in Advent- John the Baptist Sunday
Good morning every one. I am happy to welcome all our parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today and I would also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Christ. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we hearing the constant calling of our Lord Jesus to follow Him, every time we come to church we experience the healing power of Christ and every time we come to church we are asked to live out the message namely love and forgiveness of Christ our Lord.
One day a man spotted a lamp by the roadside and he picked it up, rubbed it vigorously and a genie appeared. “I will grant you your fondest wish,” the genie said. The man thought for a while and said, “I need a spectacular job and job that no man ever succeeded at” The genie smiled and said, “you are a housewife”.
Today we celebrate the second Sunday in Advent and this Sunday is called John the Baptist Sunday. John the Baptist the forerunner of our Lord Jesus Christ came to prepare the way of the Lord. His message was, ‘The Lord is coming, let us prepare the way”.
Today we are called to become John the Baptist and prepare the way of the Lord for those who want to come to Him to experience the love and kindness.
John the Baptist’s message contains three important things namely calling, healing and living out the message.

1. Calling: Once a prisoner who lived in a solitary confinement for years and who never saw or spoke to anyone saw an ant coming to his cell. The man was so happy to the ant and he took the ant and put it in the palm of his hand and was amazed at it’s beauty and fed the ant with one or two grain. He was transformed by seeing an ant. Then one day he realized that it had taken him ten years of solitary confinement to know the beauty of that little creature. A same kind of experience happened to El Greco the Spanish painter. One day he was sitting in his dark room and his friend called him saying, ‘ the Sun is shining. Come out to the light and he said, ‘ No I will not because it would disturb the light that is shining within me’
Those who intensely search the Lord will always find Him. Every baptized person is given the gift to find Him through means of prayers and other spiritual practices. When we look for him, He will manifest Himself to us. Once we experience the Lord, then like John the Baptist we too will begin to call others to the light namely Christ our Lord.

2. Healing: Once while three monks were going to a village to preach the Good News came to a river bank and realized that they had to cross the river to go the village and then they saw a beautiful woman also standing on the bank wanting to cross the river, so one of the monks carried her on his shoulder and thus they all crossed the river. When the monks came back to the monastery, the other two monks went to all and said what had happened. They all came to the one and said, ‘We monks are not allowed to touch a woman and you carried her on your shoulder’. They all criticized him and it went on and on for many days and then one day, the monk called the other two and said, “By the way, I carried the woman and let her go many days ago and why are you still carrying her in your minds?”
Healing comes when we leave certain things behind. When we hold on to unholy things of ours and others, we distant ourselves from Christ but instead when we leave our old ways of hatred, revenge and jealousy, we become new in Christ our Lord.

3. Living out the Gospel message: Once a pious catholic had a neighbor who never went to church or did any spiritual thing in his life. Every Sunday when Joe went to Church the other man went fishing. Every time the man saw Joe, he always said to Joe, ‘Joe, I am going fishing, are you going to join me?” Joe used to say, ‘I am going to Church” then one day the neighbor looked at Joe and said, ‘Joe, how come every time I go fishing I invite you and you never invite me to church. That day Joe experienced something new.
Living out the gospel message means helping others to know the love and kindness of God. Today so many people do not come to Church and so many are not experience the love and forgiveness of God not because they are bad or they are unholy but because they are not feeling welcomed. We do not extend Christ’s love and kindness to them. Let us become John the Baptist and call them to the Lord. Amen.