Homily for Today

May the Holy Spirit open your hearts as you hear the message of God on this Second Sunday of Advent. Good morning my brothers and sisters in Christ. And a special welcome to any visitors who may be present. Being of one family in Christ, our door is always opened to those who hunger for spiritual strength through powerful Word of God.

Today's spiritual message that is discerned through the readings that we have just heard consists of informing us that we should continue to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ in our lives.

The First Reading [Bar. 5:1-9] is based on a prophetic song. In it, God promised to bring back His people from exile. As biblical history tells us, in 597 B.C., General Nebuzaradan captured Jerusalem and took the Jewish people into exile to Babylon. [2 kgs 25:11; Jer. 29:1-2]

In a way, this event is a picture of God's creation of man. Through the disobedience of our first parents, Satan became the prince of this world. Through sin, we were all called to experience a spiritual death that would deprive us of the eternal beatific vision of God. But, through the Blood of Christ, we have been freed from our exile. Jesus rightfully regained the earthly Kingdom after having been crowned as the King of kings during His triumphal entry in Jerusalem. [Mt. 21:1-11; Mk. 11:1-11; Lk. 19:28- 40; Jn. 12:12-9] Delivered from the grip of Satan through our faith in Christ and the gifts of a new heart, a new spirit and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament of Baptism, we have become members of the Body of Christ, the new earth on which Jesus has established His spiritual Kingdom.

The First Reading begins by stating, "Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God." What is the garment of our sorrow and afflictions? What does it mean to put on forever the beauty of the glory from God?

The garment of our sorrow and afflictions is death and suffering. For after Adam had disobeyed the God, the Lord said to him, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

Through the sin of Adam, humankind was called to experience spiritual death in the eternal absence of the Divine Presence of God. But now, God manifested a special love for His creations. He no longer wanted to see them suffer. In His infinite Wisdom, He opened a new door to those who would welcome it. That door was opened through faith in Jesus Christ and the Sacrament of Baptism. As Jesus said, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit." [Jn. 3:5]

That door involved receiving a new heart and spirit (becoming a new creation) of the "godly seed" [1 Jn. 5:9] and the indwelling Holy Spirit. "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" [2 Cor. 5:17] By being born again in spirit, one "puts on forever the beauty of the glory of God." [Bar. 5:1]

While our human nature is sinful because we have inherited the original sin, our spiritual nature is holy in nature. Through our spiritual nature, we have become true worshippers that worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. [Jn. 4:23-3]

The First Reading continues by stating, "Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God." "For God will give you evermore the name, 'Righteous, Peace, Godly Glory." To put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God is to live our faith in Christ by walking in harmony with our new creation. Through the Sacrament of Baptism, our souls received the first righteousness, God forgiving the original sin that we have inherited and all the sins that were committed prior to our receiving this Holy Sacrament. To maintain an ongoing righteousness, we are required to make use of the Sacrament of Confession that reinstates our state of grace. The Sacraments of Baptism and Confession are our robe of righteousness that comes from God. Through these precious Sacraments, we are justified before God through Jesus Christ.

The prophecy of Baruch continued by stating that God would bring His people back to Jerusalem. This has been fulfilled through Christ, through His crowning as King in Jerusalem, through His death on the Cross in Jerusalem for the redemption of mankind, through His glorious resurrection in Jerusalem, and through the coming of His Holy Spirit in Jerusalem on Pentecost Day for the institution of the Holy Catholic Church. Indeed, people have come from the East and West, the South and North, from all Nations and races, to join the Holy Church of Christ as the means of salvation through the fullness of the grace of God.

Through Christ, God has manifested His Divine mercy and righteousness to all of mankind. Through Jesus, God incarnated, is seen the light of His glory. "For in Him (Jesus) all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell," [Col. 1:19] the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Truly, christianity went out from you O Jerusalem. Mercy and righteousness went out from you O Jerusalem. The Kingdom of God on earth went out from you O Jerusalem.

Keeping in mind that our root is from Jerusalem, let us constantly pray for each other with joy in every one of our prayers. Through our participation in the sharing of the Gospel as instruments of the Holy Spirit, let us be confident that He will bring the good works of Christ to its completion before the final coming of the Lord at the end of the world.

In the meantime, may our love overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help each other so we may do what is best, so that in the day of Christ, we may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

During today's Gospel Reading, [Lk. 3:1-6] we heard the words of John the Baptist, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth: and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

These words parallel the words of the First Reading from the Book of Baruch and the prophecies from the Books of Isaiah and Jeremiah. These words admonish the people to prepare for the end of their exile for the salvation of God is at hand. As we know today, these prophetic words have been fulfilled through the death, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ.

This week, let us reflect upon our spiritual ancestors, our saintly brothers and sisters, who have gone out from Jerusalem so we may share in the joy of the Gospel of Christ. Let us reflect upon their message which has become our message. Have we prepared ourselves to celebrate the past coming of the Lord that is commemorated on Christmas day? Have we prepared ourselves to appear before the Lord should death suddenly come upon us? And, if the end of the world was to happen today and Jesus was to return at that moment, have we prepared ourselves for that great moment?

Let us, each according to our own spiritual needs, embrace the necessary steps that are necessary to ensure that we have prepared ourselves for whichever may come first in our lives so the glory of God may be manifested through our humble obedience and servitude.