Second Sunday of Advent - We Hope in Jesus

Image via WikipediaThis is the Second Sunday of Advent and our reading this week are as follows:
[Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11] [2 Peter 3:8-14] [Mark 1:1-8]

In this week’s reading, we are offered the message of hope with the coming of Jesus Christ. We are called to dedicate our life to God and we are all exhorted to be holy.

In this difficult period of time facing many due to the economy recession and financial melt-down, we can place our hope in our Shepherd to carry us through our difficulties and to restore us with His tender love and care.

Just as John the Baptist has preached for repentance from sins to prepare ourselves for a new life to herald the arrival of Jesus, this season of Advent is a good time for us to reflect on our lives. Can we take stock of our short-coming and sins and do something about it to prepare ourselves to receive the coming of Jesus Christ?

Can we do something to “Make a straight highway for our God across the wastelands” (Is40:3) and “Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be levelled, every cliff become a plateau, every escarpment a plain” (Is40:4) – “then the glory of Yahweh will be revealed and all humanity will see it together” (Is40:5)

All the valley are what we lack perhaps in our love, virtues and goodness and we should pray o the Lord to help us have more of that to fill the valley….

And every mountain are like our sins – obstacles to the Kingdom of God and we pray to the Lord to help us over-come our sins such as addictions, bad habits etc.. so that the mountains of sins will be leveled.

Let’s not get discouraged because of what we have done or failed to do but asked God for help so that we too can build this straight highway to God - bit by bit knowing that “The Lord is not being slow in carrying out his promises, as some people think he is; rather is he being patient with you, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to repentance.” (MK1:9)

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• First Sunday of Advent

“Victory of the Cross”

Image by Getty Images via Daylife This week, we celebrate the “Victory of the Cross”.

In Nm 21:4-9, Yahweh brought the Israelites out of Egypt, and along the way sustained them with water and manna. He also protected them from enemy forces. We would think that the Israelites should be grateful, but all the while they were grumbling, so Yahweh sent poisonous snakes.

The Israelites recanted and begged Moses to intercede for them. At Yahweh’s bidding, Moses created a bronze serpent and set it on a standard. Whoever gazed upon the image of the serpent would be cured. Yahweh merely took the serpent, a common symbol of fertility at that time to cure the people.

In Jn 13-17, Yahweh would replace this makeshift salvation symbol of a serpent mounted on a standard with the image of Jesus Christ nailed on the cross. The Israelites who gazed at the serpent received a cure for their physical ailments.

People of all time who gazed upon the face of Jesus on the cross will be comforted and have everlasting life. Sometimes we forget to gaze upon Jesus and instead, think that we are capable of living life without him.