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”.
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