Second Sunday in Advent

John the Baptist Sunday

Good morning every one, welcome to celebrate today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we are asked to become John the Baptist and help others to experience the love and kindness of God our Father and every time we come to Church, we are called to be forerunners of Christ our Savior showing the way to people who are away from God and every time we come here, we are called to become children of God.

For one Christmas, man decides to get a dog for his son. As he is coming home, he sees a sign saying, “Talking dog for sale”. He rings the bell and the owner says the dog is in the 

back yard. As he sees the dog, he asks the dog, “Do you talk?” The dog says, “Yes, of course. I discovered the gift of talking when I was a child. I used to serve the Canadian military overseas helping the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was the one who helped to kill Bin laden. With my wisdom and knowledge, I helped Stephen Harper to move around the country freely. I have a wife and many puppies and now I am just taking it easy. I could be a good help to you”. The man asks the owner, “how much do you want?’ the owner says, “Just ten dollars”. The dog is so amazing and how come you are selling it so cheap. The owner says, “Because he is full of lies”.

Today we celebrate the second Sunday in Advent. 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 saying, “The Lord is coming and let us prepare the way”.  On this day, we are in a special way, called to become John the Baptist. It is our duty like John the Baptist to call out people to prepare the way to welcome the Lord our God.

John the Baptist message contained three important things namely 1. Calling 2. Healing 3. And living out the message.

Ø  Calling:  There is a story about a man who went to a spiritual Master and said, “Master, I want to find happiness. In search of happiness, I studied the scriptures and visited all the holy places and did everything according to the commandment of God. But I could not find happiness, what should I do?” At this point, the master began to serve him tea. He poured the man’s cup full and then kept on pouring and pouring. Since the cup was full, tea began to spill on the floor. The man then stopped the master and said, “My cup is full. Please stop pouring”. Then the master looked at him and said, “Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions and speculations. And how can I show the way unless you first empty your cup?’ How can we welcome Christ, how can we enter the Promised Land with Him, if we have no place in our hearts for Him? The Lord is calling us to go to Him. The calling of God is constantly invite us to prepare ourselves and help others. Let us leave behind what hinders us to go to Him and welcome the Lord our God.

Ø  Healing

Once two monks were traveling to a distant village to preach the message of Christ and in order to reach the village, they had to cross a river. While they were standing at the banks of the river, they saw a beautiful woman standing and was afraid to cross the river, so one of the monks carried her on his shoulder and thus they all crossed the river. Then when they came back to the monastery, the other monk went to everyone and said what happened. Other monks came to him and asked, “We monks are not allowed to touch a woman and how come you carried a woman on your shoulder. The criticism went on and on for many days and one day the monk called everybody and said, “I did carry the woman on my shoulder but I left her behind many days ago but why are you all still carrying her?”

John the Baptist calling for healing made many people new and holy. They had the courage to leave behind their old way of life and say to others courageously, ‘we left behind the old life and moving forward to welcome the lord’. They all experienced complete healing. Dear friends, every time we help others to heal from their pain and suffering and give them courage to face their criticism that comes from their own family, friends and others, we become John the Baptist.

Ø  Living out

Ø  the Message:

Once a pious catholic had a neighbor who never practiced his faith. Every Sunday the Catholic went to Church and the neighbor went fishing. But the odd thing was, every Sunday, the man invited the catholic, ‘hi Joe, I am going fishing, are you going to join me” the man used to say, “I am going to Church”. It went on and on and then one day, the neighbor looked at Joe and asked, “Joe, every time I go fishing, I invite you but how come you never invited me to Church.  Joe could not say anything.

Living out the message means helping others to know the love and kindness of God our father. When John the Baptist baptized people, He asked them to go out and help others to return to the Lord. And people helped each other and that is why a big crowd was always following John the Baptist.

Dear friends, when we help others to experience the Lord, then we become John the Baptist. Today the world needs Jesus; yes it needs His love a lot of love. So let us be John the Baptist and prepare the way of the lord. Amen.