Sunday, December 6, 2009: Baruch 5:1-9; Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11; Luke 3:1-6 (Second Sunday of Advent)

Today is the second Sunday of Advent. We are gradually approaching Christmas, when Jesus Christ, the Immanuel will come among us. Today’s readings assure us that God’s coming is going to change our current situations. These readings are full of consolation and hope for us. We live in a difficult world with many challenges being thrown at us every day. We are so pressed hard by the things that come our way that we sometimes do not know what is of value to us. In these circumstances, we find that God is fighting for a little chance in our lives. He becomes like an afterthought and not the priority of our lives. To his Philippians friends suffering severe persecutions, Paul says a special prayer for them in today’s second reading. He prays that their love may increase ever more and more that they may discern what is of value, so that they may remain pure and blameless for the day of Christ. In moments of trials and tribulations, we need a firm love in God for us to remain faithful. The temptation is always to take the easy way out when we have problems but that is not always good for us as sons and daughters of God. Jesus Christ has called us from a life of sin to a life of holiness. To be the people God has called us to be, we must always make choices that are in faithful obedience to God. To love God is to be faithful to him and to be faithful to him is to live according to his will for our lives.

In today’s first reading, the people of Israel are suffering in Babylon and other parts of the Mediterranean world because they failed to obey God. In Baruch 4: 12-13, the prophet says that the people of Israel are suffering because “they turned from the law of God, and did not acknowledge his statutes; In the ways of God’s commandments they did not walk, nor did they tread the disciplined paths of his justice.” From verse 27-29, the people of Israel are exhorted to call upon the Lord and he will remember them. “As your hearts have been disposed to stray from God, turn now ten times the more to seek him; for he who has brought disaster upon you will, in saving you, bring you back enduring joy.” Today’s words of consolation and a promise of restoration are as a result of the people turning in obedience toward God. Now that the people have returned to God in faithful obedience, they must rejoice because their days of exile are coming to an end. The pains, the sufferings and their mourning in exile is almost over. The children of God must now remove their mourning clothes because they are on their way back to Jerusalem. They must put on their splendid garments now to proceed on their pilgrimage back to Jerusalem. The prophet refers to the people of God as Jerusalem and Jerusalem shall wear the mitre that displays the glory of the eternal name. This was the mitre that God commanded Aaron to wear in Exodus 28:36. The words, “Sacred to the Lord” were to be engraved on this mitre and it was to be always on the forehead of Aaron that the people might find favor in the Lord. God’s promise to Israel is that they would be crowned as a people Sacred to him and will receive favor from him. By this crowning, Jerusalem becomes a priest, successors of Aaron. God is going to permanently name Jerusalem the “peace of justice” and the “glory of God’s worship.” The reason for this is because God is being worshipped and obeyed in Jerusalem.

We are the people new Jerusalem. We are on pilgrimage from our land of exile to the kingdom of our Father. This season of advent is an opportunity for us to prepare ourselves to receive Jesus Christ. Our days of exile are almost over. We need to take off our mourning clothes and wear our splendid garments because we are matching on to meet our savior Jesus Christ. Our preparation is not to go out shopping, it is an inward spiritual preparation. Our lives in exile is a difficult life. The days of suffering are almost over. Jesus Christ our savior is coming to restore us. We have a choice to remain in exile or to prepare ourselves to march forward with him. Some persons have become too comfortable in their exile; they have accepted their situation as how life should be; they are not willing to turn now ten times to seek God; they have chosen to stray from God. As a Christian, I refuse to remain in exile. I refuse to continue in pain and depression. I refuse to be obstinate in my disobedience of God. God has a plan and a purpose for my life. This plan is not to be fulfilled in the spiritual exile that I have tied myself to but it is to be lived in freedom as a child of God.

I want to ask you to invite Jesus Christ in a special into your lives this season of advent. May be you have not consciously done it in the past, try and do it this year. Ask Jesus who lived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary to come and live in you specially. Do not make this year’s Christmas season about the shopping and partying. If you do that, you will miss the purpose of what we celebrate. We are not just celebrating a remembrance day but we believe that the Immanuel truly comes to us at Christmas. We believe that Jesus Christ is truly reborn in our lives. Let us prepare ourselves this advent season through prayer that Jesus Christ may find a fitting home in our lives. For your challenge this week, I want to ask you to spend five minutes daily in prayer inviting Jesus Christ to come and share your life with you.