Second Sunday in Advent-B

SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT 

Good evening/morning everyone, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. 

Last week, I got a call from a telemarketer from India and I asked his name and he said, “I am Paul Anderson”. Wow...That is awesome and how is Pamela doing? Who is Pamela? Pamela Anderson. And he said, “That is not funny”. My friend I know you name, “You are Raj”. Why do you say that? Because in North America, every second person is called ‘Bob’ and in India, every third person is called ‘Raj’. My last name is ‘Selvaraj’. He then said, “since you know my name, we will ban your number from our telemarketing community”. 

Once a doctor looked at his patient and said, “I have good news and bad news, and which one do you want to hear first?” 

The patient said, “What is the good news?” 

The good news is that the tests show that you still have twenty-four hours to live” 

Then what is the bad news? 

I forget to tell you yesterday.  

Once a gallery owner looked at a painter and said, “I have good news and bad news for you?’ The good news is a man came in and asked whether the price of your paintings would go up after you die and I said, “Yes, of course” and he bought every one of your paintings. That’s awesome and what is the bad news. The man was your doctor. 

Friends in Christ Jesus, Today the Holy Catholic Church celebrates the Second Sunday in Advent. This Sunday is in a special way, called John the Baptist Sunday. John the Baptist came with one message namely, “The Lord is coming, let us prepare the way”. 

Today the highest demand is that you are called to become John the Baptist and welcome people back to the fold, the Good Shepherd is asking us to bring back His sheep to the fold.  

John the Baptist came with three important messages namely 1. Calling the people back to the kingdom of God 2. Healing or giving life those who are dead in sin and finally 3. Living out the Message of the Lord. 

1. Calling the people back to the kingdom of God: Once a man was intensely searching something under the bright light of a hdropole. His neighbor who noticed that went over and asked what he was doing. The man said, “I lost my house key”. So, the man also joined him and thus the both began to search for the key. After an hour of searching, upon not finding the key, the exhausted neighbor said, “By the way, where did you lose that key?” the man said, “I lost it at home”. The neighbor got mad and said, “Then, then why are you looking for the key here?” You know what the man said? He simply said, “It’s because it is brighter here”.  The spiritual masters say, “Look for God where you have lost Him” Some might have lost Him in their marriages because they might have forgotten to renew their marriage vows of in good time and in bad and in sickness and in health, I will honor you and love you” Some might have lost Him in the way they treat their children and others might have lost him in their business and so on. And that why once Christ our Lord said, ‘If you remember that you have done anything, anything at all against your brother or sister, leave your offering before the Altar, first go and reconcile with that brother or sister and then come and offer your gifts at the Altar. John the Baptist went all the region around the Jordan and proclaimed a baptism of repentance. Yes, if we find God where we lost Him, then we become John the Baptist to others. 

2. Healing or giving life those who are dead in Sin:  I liked this non-Catholic moral story about two monks going to a village to preach the Scripture. As they were going to the village, they had to cross a river and at the river bank, there was a woman standing afraid to cross the river. So, one of the monks helped her, carrying her on his shoulders. Then, the other monk went to the monastery and told them all what happened. Everybody began to criticize the monk saying, “you should not have carried a woman on your shoulders and so on...” so, the monk looked at the other one and said, ‘I let her go a long, long time ago and why are you still carrying her in your heart?” The powerful voice of John the Baptist invited people to leave behind their older ways and hold on what is new. Every time we help our own sister or brother or anyone to face their challenges, there we become John the Baptist for them. 

3. Living out the Message: There is a beautiful story about a man who never went to Church, but his neighbor always went to church. So, Sundays this man went fishing but never forgot to invite his neighbor, but the neighbor used to say, “Oh I am going to church on Sundays”. One day this man looked at his neighbor and said, “how come every time I go fishing, I invite you, but you never ever invited me to go to Church?”  Living out the message means help others to know the love and kindness of God father and living out the message means helping others to know the sacrifice and victory of Christ for humanity and living out the message means expending ourselves to those in need. 

Dear friends in Christ, when we help others to experience the Lord, then we become John the Baptist. So, let us become John the Baptist and prepare the way of the Lord inviting others to the kingdom of God. Amen. 

  

FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT

First Sunday of advent-C 

Good morning/evening everyone, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. 

Once as a man was checking his cellphone and minding his own business, his wife came behind him and hit him with a frying pan. He was so shocked and asked her why. She said, ‘I found this piece of paper in your pocket and it is written Janes and who is Janes?’ The husband laughed and laughed and said, “Oh, that is a name of a horse I was betting on”. The wife apologized and went away. And within two days, again she hit him with a bigger frying pan, and he asked why. She said, “That horse who were betting on, called you this morning”. 

Friends in Christ Jesus, as we begin the new season of Advent, we are presented with the second coming of Christ our Lord.  the bible says that there is a season for everything. What is here today, will be gone tomorrow. God has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, He has put a sense of past and future into everyone’s mind and yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 

Christ Jesus who left behind His apostles, disciples and followers to continue to His great mission of preaching and healing, is coming back to glorify them and give them life. 

Even before His coming, there will be great cosmic changes. There will be sings in the Sun, the moon and the stars”. Yes, the Sun and the moon will be darkened. The stars will lose their power. The book of Genesis says that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and those first created things will begin to change. They will shape into new eternal form to welcome the Lord our God who asks us to be awake and alert. Our very essence of human will begin to change. We will become new persons. That day, we will know that that the sun light or the moon light are like mere shadow in the light of Christ. He is coming to bring new light and new light to all who believed and followed Him. 

The gospel today asks us not to be worried about our daily things forgetting the coming of Christ our Lord. Today there are so many people worried about worldly and material things. A child who is going to school is a very difficult and hard thing and complains going to school, will also complain to go to work saying, “this job is killing me, and I can’t wait for Friday and that same person once get married would say, “I am not a marriage material and this marriage is so hard to live and once they bring children into the world, would say, “I cannot raise children in this world and then grandchildren are not good and on and on. Then as you go and visit them in the nursing home, all they will say, “I want to go home, and this is not my place”. And thus, life will end in complaining. They are so worried about every day thing and forget the real meaning of life, happiness, joy and encountering Christ our Lord every day. 

There is a beautiful story about a man who was sleeping, had a horrible, horrible nightmare in which he was being chased by a lion. As he was running away from the lion, there comes in front of him a tiger and then he realized that he was being surrounded by so many ferocious animals, what should he do to escape? It’s so easy, since he is sleeping and dreaming, all he has to do is just, get up.  

Friends in Christ, you have to get up from your sleep and say “No” today from so many things that are hindering you from going to Christ and loving Him. As we know that Christ is the only way to the Father, we will be given enough strength to face all our challenges, to face all our difficulties and to face all our pain and suffering knowing that Christ is coming to give us life, life that will never end. So let us keep away and renew ourselves in Christ every day. Amen. 

CHRIST THE KING

Christ the King-feast day 

Good evening/morning everyone, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass.  

As a man was reading a newspaper, his wife came behind him and hit him with a frying pan and he looked at her and said, ‘What is wrong with you and what did I do now?” She said, ‘I found this piece of paper in your pocket written Monica and who is she?” He began to laugh and laugh and said, ‘Honey, Monica is the name of the horse that I was betting on”. Then she apologized and went away. Within three days, she again hit him with a bigger pan and got mad at him. He said why are you hitting me again. She said, “Because this morning your horse called here”. 

Today we celebrate the great feast of Christ the king. Christ the universal king or we may say, the cosmic king. Kings and queens sent people to fight their battle, to suffer their suffering and die for them. But there was only one king Christ our Lord suffered for others, fought for His people and at last died for His people and He is our eternal king. 

We celebrate Christ the king. Christ means Anointed one. For example, the Holy Bible says, in those days, the prophet Samuel went to Bethlehem and found the right person to rule the people of Israel. Yes, He with the oil anointed a shepherd by name David. Christus means anointed one. Christ is the anointed one to be King of the universe. He is our eternal king, and, in His kingdom, there is no end. 

Some years ago, a Canadian soldier on a bus in Sweden told the man sitting next to him, “You know what in Canada, anyone can go to the parliament and freely talk to our prime minister. We live in a wonderful country. The man said, “That's nothing, in Sweden, the King and the ordinary people can travel on the same bus” 

When the man got off the bus, the Canadian soldier was told by other passengers that he had been sitting next to the king Gustav Adolf VI. 

Our King is the king of all kings. He who humbled Himself to be like you and me, He who accept willingly humiliation and suffering and ultimately death on the cross, is our eternal king. He lowered Himself to our level, so that we can get up to His level. 

In today’s gospel, Pilate asks Christ saying, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus says, ‘Do you ask on this own? Or did others tell you about me?” He says, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own people handed over to me and what have you done? 

My kingdom is not from here. If it were from here, my disciples were fighter over to keep me from being handed over to others. So, you are the king. You say so and anyone who belongs to the kingdom will know the truth. 

There is a beautiful story of a king before whom people brought a man accused of murdering people. The king listened to everything and then said, ‘In my kingdom nothing ever happened like this. This is the first time, a man was brought before me accused of murder and before serving my judgment, the accused may talk. But the man stood still and didn’t say anything, anything at all. Then the king looked at the man and all and said, “I order him to be executed...” then the amazing thing happened, the king got up from his throne and took off his outer robe and went down to the people and said, “As your just king, I served you all judgement but now as this man’s father, I will accept his punishment and thus He died on the cross”. 

Yes, friends, this is the story of Christianity. This is the story of salvation and this is the story of you and me. Christ the king came to accept your sin and guilt. As we humble ourselves, we too will enter into the kingdom of truth and peace, the kingdom of serenity and harmony and the kingdom of love and forgiveness. 

Amen.