Second Sunday in Advent-A

Second Sunday of Advent-A 

Good morning/evening every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today's Holy Mass. Our special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one here today. 

Friends in Christ Jesus, let us thank God Almighty for bringing us all here to this beautiful church of St. Jean de Brebeuf. Let us thank Him for sending His only Son our Lord Jesus Christ to be with us for ever. Let us thank Him for showering upon us His countless blessings each and every day. 

Now let us take a moment to prepare ourselves to celebrate the Sacred mysteries of our Lord Jesus Christ, calling to mind our sins, short comings, failure, pain and sufferings, asking divine assistance and Christ our Lord's forgiveness, mercy and compassion. 

Few days ago, the police who stopped me said, "Papers". I said, "Scissors' and I won and drove off. Good thing I know the police. 

Once a couple were celebrating their fortieth wedding anniversary. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and said, "you are celebrating your anniversary and you both are sixty years old...ask me any two wishes and I will give them to you". The husband said, "Now Fidel Castro died and we want to go to Cuba". And in an instant, they got the ticket to Cuba. Then he was thinking like a good man and said, "we both are sixty. I like some age difference and  I wish my wife is thirty years younger than me". Imagine in an instant the husband became ninety.  

Today we celebrate the Second Sunday in Advent. This Sunday is called John the Baptist Sunday. John the Baptist indicated Jesus Christ, the Good Shephard who loves us all without any partiality and as we go to Him, miracles happen to us all. Yes, we are His miracles and we are His wonders and let us act as people of God.  

Jesus is like a computer. He enters your life and scans your problems. He edits your tensions and downloads solutions. He deletes your worries and saves you. 

The teachings of John the Baptist contains three important messages namely 1. Calling and 2. Healing and 3. 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, finally saw a tiny ant coming to his cell.  The man was so excited and happy to see that tiny creature. He took that ant and put it in the palm of his hand and was amazed at its beauty and fed the tiny creature with one or two grain. He was transformed by seeing that tiny ant. Then one day, he realized that it had taken him ten years of solitary confinement to know the beauty of that little creature. The 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 the means of prayers and other spiritual practices. When we look for Him, He will manifest Himself to us. Yes, when the disciple is ready, the master will definitely appear. Once we experience the Lord, then like John the Baptist, we too will begin to call others to the light namely Christ the Lord.  

2. Healing: Once while two monks were going to a village to preach the Good News of Christ our Lord, came to a river bank and realized that they had to cross the river to go to the village and then they saw a beautiful woman was also standing on the bank wanting to cross the river. Since she was so afraid of the river. One of the monk, out of compassion carried her on his shoulders and thus they all crossed the river safely. Then when the monks came back to their monastery, the word spread everywhere. Every one began to talk about how the monk who is not even allowed to look at a woman, carried her on his shoulders.It went on and on many days. Then one day, the monk called all other monks and looked at them all and said, "By the way, I let her go from my shoulders many  days ago and why are you still carrying her in your minds and hearts". 

Healing comes when we leave certain things behind. And in today's gospel, John the Baptist asks the Pharisees and the Sadducees to leave behind their former way of life and renew themselves in baptism to welcome the Lord our God. As we hold on to Christ-related things, then we become new in Him. 

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 as Joe went to Church, the other man went fishing. I don't understand how people enjoy fishing and hunting. I think fishing and hunting should be against our religion. Every time the man saw Joe, he always said, "Joe, I am going fishing, are you going to join me?' Joe used to say, "No! 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, our friend Joe experienced something new. 

Living out the Gospel message means helping others to know the love and kindness of God. John the Baptist who spent time alone with God in wilderness, came out and began to invite people to God Almighty. Yes, the Lord is coming and we are called to invite others to welcome Him. 

Conclusion: Today we have two types of Evangelization namely octopus-evangelism of Mega-churches and sponge-evangelism of traditional churches. Sponge-evangelism is more like trying our best with people who come to church and soak them with divine love and kindness and then we go home. But on the other hand, mega-churches like Joel Osteen, Rick warren or Joyce Meyers churches have minimum of twenty thousand people for a week end. And they achieved that height because of Octopus-evangelism namely they stretch, extend, reach out, touch and achieve. When we all become like John the Baptist then every church will be a mega-Church. Amen.