Blessed is she

Fourth Sunday of Advent Year C

If you pray the Holy Rosary regularly, you would immediately recognise that the Joyful Mystery of Mary’s Visitation to her cousin Elizabeth comes immediately after the Annunciation and before the Nativity of our Lord, Christmas. It is therefore not surprising to have the gospel for this Sunday focusing on this story of the meeting of these two women. But more importantly, it was the first meeting between the sons they were carrying within their wombs, the cousins Jesus and John the Baptist. And less the audience were to forget them as they nestled not so quietly within their mothers’ wombs, hidden and off-camera, the text throws light on them to ensure that we do not forget that the entire story would be theirs, and less of their mothers.

Elizabeth would take on a prophetic role by announcing what is really taking place behind the scene. The hand of God is at work even as mortals play out the drama of human relations and emotions. Elizabeth inspired by the Holy Spirit declares and pronounces a series of blessings - two addressed to Mary, and one to the child within her womb. This is not the Beatitude of the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew’s gospel nor the set found in the Sermon on the plain in Luke’s. Nevertheless, Elizabeth uses the Greek word which also translates into “happy” which we would find in both sets of beatitudes - makarios. Here it is translated as “blessed.”

“Makarios” was derived from two root words: “mak”, to become large, and “charis”, grace. For, one who is blessed has been enlarged, or magnified, by grace. It was, therefore, a word reserved for the elite, and then only the crème de la crème. During the classical Greek era, makarios described the status of the gods, emphasising their power and wealth. At times, it also described the state of the dead, since through death they had now arrived at the world of the gods. They were beyond the cares and worries common to the living, and now enjoyed the company of the gods. But during our Lord’s era, the word makarios was used to describe those who had everything money could buy – those who lived like the gods. They were enjoying the personal satisfaction of their achievements, the height of socio-economic status, the best political connections, and the wealth of enduring and enriching personal relationships. Makarios was the supreme blessing. It was synonymous with all the joys of the life hereafter. Thus, it was not a descriptive term thrown around lightly.

And now Elizabeth uses this very concept in various ways.

Firstly, in referring to Mary as most blessed among all women. The Old Testament mentions and even sings praises of several of these women and the gospel of St Matthew even intertwines some of their names into the patrilineal genealogy of our Lord. But Mary stands out among all these women. The next part of Elizabeth’s announcement would give the reason for Mary’s supreme blessedness.

Elizabeth now declares the child within Mary’s womb as “blessed” too but not in the way as Mary is blessed. The blessedness of Mary is ascribed to her by God as it is announced by the Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation. In both the Annunciation and here in the Visitation, Mary is declared to be the mother of the Lord, the Most High God. God is not just blessed or the source of blessedness. The only one truly blessed in Himself is God and Jesus is the incarnate makarios, worthy to receive the threefold declaration of the angels, “holy, holy, holy.”

Elizabeth would conclude her prophetic outburst with a final makarios: “blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.” It is by virtue of her faith and her obedience that Mary is hailed as blessed. The faith of Mary is a light for the whole world, and which will not be put out by night. She was and is a woman of incredible faith, who believed the prophets and trusted the angelic messengers, even when the message seemed beyond human credibility. In this, she serves as an example for us. For, she stands under the promise, even when that promise seems definitively thwarted by the forces of evil. It is under this third use of the word of “Makarios” that we can share in Mary’s blessedness. We too are blessed when we believe in the promises of God, and act upon them.

This is how we should prepare ourselves in the next few days leading up to the great feast of Christmas. We have truly been “blessed”, our grace has been enlarged, our hearts have been emboldened, our hope has been renewed, knowing that the Lord is on His way, not just to visit us but to be one with us, united with us in body and soul, sharing with us His divinity as He humbly shared in our humanity. Instead of all the bad news we may be hearing these days, let the greetings of this holy season bring such joy and peace to us so that we too may leap with joy as the Baptist did in his mother’s womb. And just as Mary believed God, and so Jesus Christ took flesh within her, at this Mass, let us not doubt that Jesus Christ is going to take flesh once more in the Blessed Sacrament and enter each one of us as He entered the body of His Blessed Mother. Let’s ask for the faith truly to believe that this is so—that through this Eucharist, Christ’s Body is united to ours. If we believe in the fulfilment of the promise made to us that He is truly really and substantially present, we are indeed blessed!

Don't Worry! Be Happy!

Third Sunday of Advent Year C

Christmas is just over a week away, and for many the air of excitement is just plain electrifying. For most of us, we can’t wait for it to happen! And yet, this season often ushers a troubling sense of melancholy. For many, they know that this should be a season of rejoicing but it doesn’t always feel this way for one reason or another. The children have left for overseas and the home feels like an empty nest. A particular loved one that had always been part of our annual Christmas celebrations is no longer here and it just doesn’t feel the same. Anxiety building up over the future - rising expenses, financial instabilities, a recently diagnosed ailment that could worsen within weeks and months. The call of today’s liturgy to “rejoice” seems to ring hollow. Is the Church calling us to excite ourselves, some form of self- delusional “syiok sendiri” (self-induced elation)?

The readings exhort, in fact, they command us to rejoice by using an entire list of synonymous verbs to express that exuberance: shout for joy, shout aloud, exult with all your heart, sing and shout for joy, give thanks to the Lord and who can forget St Paul’s “be happy!” In fact, Paul’s words in the second reading sound like that famous song by Bobby McFerrin, “Don’t worry! Be Happy!”

The Joy which the liturgy and readings speak of is not something which comes upon suddenly and instantaneously, like a shot of adrenaline or dopamine. This joy isn’t a sudden outburst. It has been building within us, the closer the Good News has drawn. This is the joy of all the ages bursting and singing forth, building up over the centuries, prophesied by the prophets, announced by St John the Baptist, knowing the Good News that is about to be bestowed upon us all. It can hardly be contained. In fact, it can’t be.

In the first reading, the prophet Zephaniah commands Jerusalem to rejoice and gives the reason for it. “The Lord has repealed your sentence; He has driven your enemies away. The Lord, the king of Israel, is in your midst; you have no more evil to fear.” Yes, we should have every reason to rejoice and celebrate because our Lord has forgiven our sins; He has removed the curse of Original Sin that laid like the Sword of Damocles over our heads; He has defeated our enemies - sin, death and the devil. But there is more. Zephaniah adds that God rejoices over us! With gladness! “The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult with joy over you, He will renew you by His love; He will dance with shouts of joy for you as on a day of festival.” God is rejoicing over us and that should be a great reason if any for us to rejoice.

St Paul in the second reading lays down the reason why he wants us to be happy. Let’s start with the flip side of happiness which is unhappiness. What is the main cause of unhappiness? Paul tells us that it is anxiety - worries. We worry because we lack trust in God. And worry leads to unrest and the lack of peace which eventually leads to unhappiness. And that is the reason why St Paul tells us that the path to happiness is praying and placing our trust in the Lord: “There is no need to worry; but if there is anything you need, pray for it, asking God for it with prayer and thanksgiving, and that peace of God, which is so much greater than we can understand, will guard your hearts and your thoughts, in Christ Jesus.” Notice that Paul doesn’t promise that we will get what we prayed for. Our true reward, the answer to our prayer is the “peace of God, which is so much greater than we can understand.”

This is the reason why we can still rejoice when things do not seem to be going our way or according to our plans, when we are facing one crisis or another, when we have suffered loss and are experiencing loneliness and alienation. Because as long as we do not lose faith in God and continue to persevere in pray, the “peace of God, which is so much greater than we can understand, will guard your hearts and your thoughts, in Christ Jesus.” Peace is not the absence of conflict or problems. Peace involves presence rather than absence. It comes with the acknowledgement that God is in our midst, “a victorious warrior. He will exult with joy over you, He will renew you by His love; He will dance with shouts of joy for you as on a day of festival.”

And finally, we come to the gospel and the final herald of joy, St John the Baptist. John doesn’t strike us as a Pollyanna-like optimistic figure. In fact, he strikes us as quite the opposite. Solemn, sombre and rigidly kill-joy. Unlike the other two figures we encountered in the first and the second reading, John does not burst forth in a cheer leader’s rallying cry exhorting us to rejoice. On the contrary, he provides strict moral guidance to his audience to share, to avoid greed and intimidation and then uses apocalyptic language of judgment to speak of the One who is coming, one who is superior to John and who “will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fan is in his hand to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.”

The idea of judgment - separation of the wheat from the chaff and the destruction of the latter - does not naturally inspire joy. And yet St Luke describes this message as “good news”! And it is good news because it expresses the fundamental preparatory work of John - calling his listeners to repentance, to separate themselves from the chaff of sin. And before we think of the image of fire pointing to the eternal hell fire which all damned unrepentant souls must endure for eternity, we must also remember that fire represents the Holy Spirit which we receive in Baptism and a greater outpouring at Confirmation. Fire too represents the purgative element of God’s love, refining us, purifying us, restoring us, beautifying us. The prophet Zephaniah alluded to this in the first reading when he prophesied the Lord’s coming into our midst to “renew” us by His love.

So, as the weeks of Advent draw to a close and the days and nights of December lead us closer to that solemn night where our Lord and Saviour was born in the City of David, let us not choose to wallow in self-pity or crippling worries. We are commanded today to rejoice, and we do so not by finding substitutes to Christ in the form of intoxicants or other means of entertainment. Lasting joy cannot be found in any human pursuits but in God alone. He alone gives us the joy we seek.

Take out the trash

Second Sunday of Advent Year C

In most households, this would be the time of the year to get some major heavy-lifting stuff done. As the adults attempt to clear up their remaining leave for the year and the children get time off from their studies, and everyone’s preparing to put up the Christmas decorations, they would take this opportunity to do some Christmas shopping for gifts and new clothes, bake cookies for the upcoming festivities and do some needed spring cleaning. Although these may seem like secular or practical customs bereft of theological meaning, they may have some basis in scripture and the underlying theme for Advent, especially for this Sunday.

Take for example what the prophet Baruch tells the people of Jerusalem in the first reading: “Jerusalem, take off your dress of sorrow and distress, put on the beauty of the glory of God for ever, wrap the cloak of the integrity of God around you, put the diadem of the glory of the Eternal on your head: since God means to show your splendour to every nation under heaven.” Our custom of buying new clothes and having a cosmetic make-over may seem trivial but may actually be a reflexion of this joyful and hopeful spirit expecting God’s definitive and imminent intervention. These words of the prophet are surprising for two reasons. Baruch, who is often associated with his doomsday prophecies and mournful lamentations, departs from that tone to give us an upbeat forecast of what is to come. Secondly, the people of Jerusalem and Judah are in no mood for celebration. Their country has been invaded, the population decimated, their infrastructures destroyed and the ruling class humiliated and taking off into exile to a foreign land. Yet, the prophet sees beyond this to a future that is bright, to say the least - a future that can only be realised in the gospel.

But Baruch moves beyond the imagery of a new set of attire and accoutrements to that of physical construction work that is required to build a highway. Nothing, no obstacle, no hindrance, absolutely nothing should stand in the way of what God is about to do for His people. The massive terrain engineering work envisaged by Baruch will be taken up by St John the Baptist in his proclamation that the high mountains will be flattened and the valleys filled in to make a smooth road for the Messiah to cross the desert to Jerusalem.

St Paul in the second reading adds to the list of things to be done before the Day of the Lord arrives, the Day of His return. So, in the light of the Lord’s coming Paul prays that, “your love for each other may increase more and more and never stop improving your knowledge and deepening your perception so that you can always recognise what is best. This will help you to become pure and blameless, and prepare you for the Day of Christ, when you will reach the perfect goodness.” Our lives’ project as we look to the day of the Lord’s return is to grow in faith, hope and charity and we should never take our foot off the peddle.

And finally, we come to the gospel where John the Baptist breaks into the scene, here in what we call the holiday season, and he impudently demands that we start cleaning as though our lives depended on it. But more than just our lives, the eternal salvation of our souls depend on it. He comes among us with an inconvenient message, a challenging message, a robustly difficult message - a call to repentance, a call for a thorough, radical house cleaning, but the house is that of our souls.

Probably in all of our spiritual residences, our lives, there are rooms that are dominated by clutter. There are corners where dust, and dirt, and trash have accumulated. There are signs of ill repair, where the paint is peeling, the carpet is frayed, and the drapes have faded. Windows are grimy; they barely let in the light of the sun. Such are the conditions on the inside. The outside is no better, though it is more public. Rubbish strewn in the garden, weeds flourishing where flowers used to grow, the driveway that begs to be repaved, walls that wait for scraping and fresh paint. St John the Baptist comes along and points to all of these defects, drags his fingers through the dust, kicks the dirty soiled clothes strewn on the floor and holds his nose as he beholds the unwashed plates and utensils in the kitchen sink.

John shakes the foundations of our comfort zones by uttering a single word, passing on a message that comes from God: Repent! It’s time to clean house, he tells us. Time to sweep the floors, wash the walls, air the rooms, repair what is broken, replace what is no longer useful. It’s time to paint the house, pull up weeds in the garden and trim the hedge. John demands that we make a lot of changes, expend a great deal of energy, get down on our hands and knees to clean the corners. He insists on all this because somebody is coming. He calls us to repent because heaven’s kingdom is very near. He wants us to sweat and struggle, do thorough spring-cleaning even in December, because he knows the results will be worth it.

You may ask yourself, where do I start? That’s a good question. We start by looking at these three basic questions, which we would usually ask ourselves if we want to get rid of all the clutter in our homes:
What needs to go?
What can I give away?
What needs some love and attention?

In the case of our spiritual lives, making an inventory of what needs to go and what needs to stay is just the first step. This should lead us to make a good examination of conscience and then go for sacramental confession before a priest. Ask yourself: What can you throw away? What needs to go? Put into that waste container of the confessional, then, every odious instance of pride, hypocrisy, and impatience from your life. Put into it every instance when you have exploited others. Put into it unholy anger and sick green envy. Put into it lust for people and for things, dishonesty in everyday relationships, negligence in prayer and worship, every failure to live your faith, every refusal to take a good and holy risk. We don’t need that stuff anyway. It takes up our space. It poisons our lives. Fill the dumpster high and let our Lord Jesus through the ministry of the priest haul it away.

Advent is not a feast and yet many forget this inconvenient fact and turn it into a time of premature merry-making. Advent, rather, is the preparation for the coming Feast. This, however, is what Advent is about. This is the time for spring-cleaning. Before we get to the barn in Bethlehem, all of us have to wake up to how our own spiritual house, our own lives, are worse than any self-respecting barn, and they plead for us to clean them. So, clean the house. Not just your residences, but the house of your soul. Let us remove the clutter of sin to make room for the Lord and let us turn away from everything that separates us from Him.

The Future is uncertain but the End is always near

First Sunday of Advent Year C

What would your response be if I were to tell you that we are at the cusp of the End Times, especially in view of the escalation of conflict between Ukraine and Russia, threatening to drag Europe, the United States and the whole world into a possible nuclear war?

Firstly, many of you would respond with incredulity and scoff at my announcement, thinking that I am either kidding, overreacting or out of my mind, and then proceed to live your lives business-as-usual.

Secondly, some would take advantage of the limited time still available to fulfil your life-time’s bucket list - eat, drink and be merry. Why waste the final hours, days and months of your life in idle living or useless worrying?

Thirdly, some of you would redouble your effort in putting your life and your household in order. Time to put in more effort in prayer, Mass attendance, and seek to make peace with those who have become estranged in past years.

Before proceeding any further, I would like to assure that I am deadly serious when I say that we are living in the end times. This is no bogey-man created by the Church to scare the unchurched and the nominal Catholics to return to the pews every Sunday. Neither, is this some symbolic event and its content require some form of de-mythologising. The world really will end! As the rock star lead of the Doors, Jim Morrison, assures us: “The future is uncertain but the end is always near.” The “End” did not begin today or in recent times or even in the past century. It began two thousand years ago with the first coming of our Lord. Our Lord’s death and resurrection was the beginning of the end, the sudden unveiling of God’s final purpose for His creation. We have been living in the end times since then.

The problem which many people face is that we tend to lose the momentum and urgency when the climatic conclusion of the end times seems to have been postponed. We start believing that it’s all a hoax, that the Church got it wrong, that Christ didn’t mean this when He spoke of it to His disciples. But the greater problem is that when we lose sight of the end times, we also lose sight of our ultimate purpose and destination in life. A society who has no vision of an eschatology where God would be victorious at the end, where the wicked would be punished and the innocent vindicated, where wrongs would be made right, where present sufferings would be justified, would be a society wrapped in despair and living without hope.

An incorrect eschatology can also lead to incorrect behaviour in the present times. The early Christian community, as evidenced by the writings of St Paul had similar experiences and responses to the end times announcement which they thought to be imminent - something that would take place in their own lifetime. So, some surrendered to an unbridled hedonistic lifestyle filled with “debauchery and drunkenness”, while others pursued an ascetic style of living, abandoning spouses and families whilst quitting their jobs. Both extremes were far from the ideal of Christian living which St Paul desired to instil in them.

St Paul does not suggest that Christians head for the hills, hunker down, adopt a “fortress mentality,” and start stockpiling food and weapons. As Paul sees it, end-time Christians are called to practice holiness and do good to others wherever and whenever they can. They are supposed to work the works of God “while it is day” (John 9:4). And his instructions have not grown obsolete and we would be wise to follow.

Firstly, news of the end times should not coarsen our hearts and lead us to become some stoic loveless persons. Rather, it should motivate us to increase our love for others. “May the Lord be generous in increasing your love and make you love one another and the whole human race as much as we love you.”

Secondly, our contemplation of the end times should also deepen our relationship with God as we strive to grow in holiness. St Paul prays that God may “so confirm your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless in the sight of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus Christ comes with all his saints.”

Thirdly, knowledge of the end times should not lead us to spiritual or intellectual idleness but actually motivate us to make progress in every aspect of our lives. We should always strive to improve ourselves and not settle for mediocrity, “to make more and more progress in the kind of life that you are meant to live: the life that God wants, as you learnt from us, and as you are already living it.”

As for our Lord, He speaks to His disciples about the need for vigilance and prayer as they wait for the coming of the Son of Man in glory. Though our Lord predicts a time of destruction and fear, and He acknowledges that many will be frightened by what they will be witnessing; His disciples are not to fear, but are to stand tall. Note that our Lord does not promise deliverance from anxiety or tribulations. He, however, encourages His disciples to pray for strength.

There are many reasons why it would be easy to feel overcome by the darkness of our present historical moment. At the threshold of global nuclear annihilation, with so many overwhelming unknowns, it is tempting for our waiting to turn to the apathy of despair, which waits because there is nothing else to do, nowhere to go—a kind of resignation that has stopped looking for new possibilities. What should we do and what can we do? Just as the early Christian communities did not find consolation in the promise of a utopia, nor escape through some other-worldly asceticism or hedonistic lifestyle, nor should we. Instead, we find in our Christian faith the means by which we witness to God's unfailing love for us in all circumstances. With His abundant grace, we should keep on loving, keep on living and keep on growing in holiness.

And so, we begin this holy season of Advent on a high note of hope, rather than despair. Our Lord’s predictions about the end times may sound dire, but in His person and in His message, we who hear Him can find strength and consolation. Like the first Christians, we may encounter events and circumstances that could lead us to despair. Through prayer, however, we find strength and consolation in the Lord’s words in today’s gospel: “Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.”

There can be no Christmas without Mary

Fourth Sunday of Advent Year B

When most people are asked, when does the Church commemorate this momentous event in salvation history where the Uncreated Word became flesh, the most common answer would be: “Christmas!” Christmas is the feast of the Incarnation. But I guess most people, especially in this day and age when abortion is widely promoted in many countries, we have forgotten that life does not begin at birth but at the conception of a person. One could choose to deny this on ideological grounds because it is inconvenient and challenges our selfish motives, but this truth is irrefutable when we witness a convergence of biology and theology which affirms this truth.

So, on this last Sunday of Advent, and in fact for this year at least, the last day of Advent, before we transition into the Christmas cycle this evening, the Church’s lectionary provides us with this beautiful gospel passage which narrates the Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. The connexion between these two events - the moment of conception and the moment of birth - could not be made any clearer with the juxtaposition of these two events. The Feast of the Annunciation which the Church celebrates on the 25th of March is as much the Feast of the Incarnation as it could be said of Christmas.

A cursory reading of both the first reading and the gospel will let you see how the prophecy of Nathan to King David in the Old Testament that his house and sovereignty will always stand secure and his throne be established for ever, is being fulfilled in the story of the Annunciation, as explained by the Archangel Gabriel: “The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.”

In Hebrew, there is no specific word for a king’s palace or the Temple of God. The palace of the king is simply described as the King’s house as the temple is God’s house. So, the idea of “house” is deliberately ambiguous when spoken in reference to David as it could refer to both the dynastic line of David or to the palace in which he lives. Furthermore, in the first reading we see an ironic reversal in that God promises to establish a house for David even as David promises to build a house for God, an offer which God declines. David, ashamed that he was now living in an opulent “house,” would not allow God to suffer the humiliation of occupying a nomad’s tent. He thought to honour God by building God a house fitting for His glory and dignity. But God reminds David that since God has provided the latter with all the essentials of accommodation, God Himself is in no need of a human dwelling. No human hands can build a house that is ultimately suitable for God save for one that is built by God Himself. Even King David acknowledges this in Psalm 127: “unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labour in vain.”

Mary is indeed the house of God, not built by human hands but shaped and created by God Himself. Our Eastern brethren pays her the greatest honour by describing her as the one “made more spacious than the heavens” or in Greek, “Playtera ton ouranon.” The Universe we know about is mind-bogglingly big. Yet, we recognise that God is far greater than that. The universe, for all its vastness, remains finite. God, on the other hand, is infinite! But here is the great mystery we celebrate today – God who could not be contained in His created universe chose to be contained in the tiny womb of this human being. Thus, we call Our Lady “more Spacious than the Heavens” because she held in her womb Him who holds the whole universe. She succeeds where the whole universe fails.

The veil which separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple Complex was embroidered with symbols of the cosmos, in a way indicating that the temple was a microcosm of the universe, the house of God. When the veil was torn in two on Good Friday at our Lord’s death, it was symbolically the end of the cosmos as we know it. During the time of our Lord’s birth, the temple was already an empty husk, the ark of the covenant, the throne of God, had already been lost during the Babylonian invasion and the first destruction of the Temple. Furthermore, in the mystical vision of the prophet Ezekiel, the shekinah, or God’s visible glory, had already departed. But here, we see the glory of God, the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High will once again overshadow the “house” of God, not the Temple but Mary - she who is the ark of the new covenant, she who is more spacious than the universe.

So, on the eve of the day we commemorate how the Author and Creator of the Universe entered into our created universe as a child, it is fitting that the Church reminds us of how this happened. It was not by accident, nor is the instrument by which this occurred insignificant. Without Mary’s fiat to the Archangel Gabriel, we would not be celebrating Christmas. There is no Christmas without Mary.

Mary is indeed a cosmos to herself with Christ as its solar centre. Mary is indispensable to the story of salvation and the story of Christmas because without her, Christ’s birth could not have taken place. The pre-existent Word could not have become flesh if not for her fiat. Christ could not have been born without her free consent. The Mother of God, she who is “made more spacious than the heavens,” stands between the heavens and the earth and serves as a bridge between. Let us therefore ascend to the heavenly heights and enter into the Holy of Holies. Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, the Heavenly Jerusalem, for Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the true House of God has already bridged what was previously impassable. Through her co-mediation, she has allowed us to approach what was previously unapproachable and to comprehend what was previously incomprehensible. Let us take her hand as she leads us to the manger and beyond to the cross.

Rejoice! Indeed the Lord is near!

Third Sunday of Advent Year B

As that 60s Christmas song claims, “it’s the most wonderful time of the year.” But is it? It is true that for most people, there are many reasons to revel in the season - the exhilaration of Christmas shopping and carolling, the excitement of receiving gifts, partaking in family reunions, enjoying year-end holidays and taking the necessary break from work and school. But it can also be the season that creates much stress, anxiety and even depression. When more is expected, there can be more reasons to fail. Add to this natural predilection for disappointment and failure would be a global inflation gone out of control, a country with an uncertain and worrying political future, two major conflicts threatening to escalate into another world war.

Against this tide, not just a tide but a tsunami of despair, today’s liturgy shouts out this refrain: “Rejoice! Exult for Joy! Be happy at all times!” Our senses seem to want to shout back: “What’s there to be joyful about?” “Is the Church blind?”

And yet on this Sunday, the Church’s liturgy demands that we rejoice: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice!” These words are a paraphrase of the passage from St Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians which we heard as our second reading. Indeed, the Third Sunday of Advent is called “Gaudete Sunday.” “Gaudete” is the Latin word meaning ‘rejoice.’

What joy can there be in the midst of so much pain, suffering, gloom and darkness? It is certainly not the joy that emerges from some false optimism on our part that things are going to get better – too often, we can attest to this, things in fact get worse. Neither is it the joy that comes from creating an illusory world in our minds where pain and suffering is denied. So, what is this joy which the readings are speaking of? So, why should we be happy, and be happy “at all times,” albeit in good times or bad, in sickness or in health? St Paul tells us that this rejoicing is required of us simply “because this is what God expects you to do in Christ Jesus.” And the Church adds in her liturgy, “Indeed, the Lord is near.” The answer lies in Christ. True lasting joy is found only with God in Christ.

We are called to rejoice, because the Lord is coming – He is coming to save us, to liberate us, and to give us new life. Many of us may be experiencing some form of darkness in our lives. We find ourselves in the midst of problems without any apparent solution. We see ourselves ‘captives’ of our difficult circumstances, there seems to be no way out. Our hearts may be broken because of rejection or we have been hurt by the actions and words of others. We see ourselves poor, hungering and thirsting for friendship, understanding and a sense of belonging. Some of us find ourselves trapped in the darkness of sin.

If we see ourselves in any of these situations, rejoice and be glad, because the readings promise good news. This is the promise of God, as St. Paul tells us in the second reading: “God has called you and He will not fail you.” God is always faithful. God keeps His promise. God will not fail you. And what is this promise? The prophet Isaiah announces that the coming of the Lord’s anointed messenger will mean healing and liberation to all who are poor, broken-hearted, oppressed, and captive. The Good News is that which is announced by John the Baptist in the gospel – the Anointed One has come - Jesus has come – He is the Light of the World – and He is waiting to enter into your hearts and into your lives once again.

Therefore, we Christians anticipate the End Times not with fear and trembling, but with rejoicing. St Paul reminds us in the second reading, “Be happy at all times, pray constantly, and for all things give thanks.” Like the prophet Isaiah in the first reading, the thought of the “end times,” of Christ’s coming, should be met with euphoria, “I exult for joy in the Lord, my soul rejoices in my God!”

Sometimes we have an image of John the Baptist as an austere ascetic. In depicting the Baptist in this fashion, we tend to forget the joy that is associated with his entire life and vocation. It was him who leapt for joy in his mother Elizabeth’s womb when she encountered the Mother of the Word Incarnate. In the fourth Gospel, St John speaks of the source of the Baptist’s supernatural joy - it is the joy of the best man, who rejoices greatly at hearing the bridegroom’s voice. And thus, his humility opened a space within him for true joy, the kind which comes from the real presence of the Lord. So it can be, for each one of us.

Thus, John stands as a sign for us today on Gaudete Sunday. He points out for each one of us the path to lasting joy, not just a forgery or a fading type of joy. We should imitate his lifestyle of self-emptying – a life marked by humility – we prepare for the coming of the Lord by always holding on this basic principle that defined the Baptist’s life and mission, “He must increase and I must decrease.” Despite the difficulties he encountered, the harshness and austerity of his life, his imprisonment and execution at the hands of a local tyrant, John understood that as his own light dimmed and faded, another light was coming, the true light was coming to illuminate the darkened world and cast aside the shadows of sin. The Baptist only caught a glimpse of the first glimmer of light before the sunrise. We, on the other hand, have the privilege of knowing and witnessing that sunrise at Easter. We can, therefore, know no lasting peace and joy, unless we come to know Christ, the true Light of the World, and allow the light of His grace to transform us.

So, this Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, Rejoice Sunday, becomes another opportunity to be joyful, indeed it is a joy that is greater than it was in the days of the prophet Isaiah or in the days of John the Baptist. What they could only envision in a time of prophecy, we now experience in a time of reality. In just a matter of days we will celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord. But we do not just commemorate the past. The Liturgy anticipates the future, the coming of our Saviour, our Liberator, the Christ who will bring to completion the good work He has begun in us. For this reason, Holy Mother Church commands us in the imperative – “Rejoice”! Notice that this is a command, not a suggestion. “Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete: Dominus prope est.” “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Indeed the Lord is near!”

Console my people

Second Sunday of Advent Year B

When you are grieving, feeling lost and confused, you would most likely look to others for comfort and consolation - a word of affirmation, a reassurance of friendship and support, a warm hug or gentle touch to remind us that we are not alone. St Ignatius of Loyola also used the movements of consolation and desolation as the foundational tools for his primary spiritual exercise, which is the discernment of spirits. But Ignatius defines these terms in a very specific way, that is different to their common usage.

You may find it surprising that both consolation and its antonym, desolation, share a common root in Latin - “Sol” which means the Sun. So, consolation is literally with or towards the Sunlight, whereas desolation means away from the Sun - darkness. The latter makes more sense as we often equate our experience of desolation with darkness, the feeling where all light in our lives have been put out. So, consolation is facing or turning to the light and desolation is facing or turning away from the light. This makes so much sense with Ignatius’ definitions of these words.

Looking towards God’s light, the effect on the person’s spirit is ‘warming’, uplifting, positive. Looking away from the light, one is in one’s own shadow, the pitch-black darkness staring back at us when we attempt to look into the depths of our souls. To Ignatius, the task in desolation is not to try and find the way and chart a new course of direction, but to turn towards the light.

This is how we should consider the prophetic words of Isaiah, our Advent prophet, in the first reading. The reading begins with God’s instruction to Isaiah: “console my people, console them.” God is not just asking Isaiah to give His people some cheap form of consolation - a spiritual bear hug, nor is He asking Isaiah to provide them with some empty assurance -“don’t worry. Things will get better.” Many of us have been guilty of doing this when we are faced with people in pain who are hurting.

God, instead, is asking Isaiah to remind the people that their sentence for their sins, which is the 70 years of humiliating exile in Babylon, has come to an end. Their “prison term” is over and they will be released soon because their sins have been atoned and forgiven. This prolonged period of desolation, a period where they have been deprived of the light of God which shone on their land and the Temple, would soon be replaced by a period of consolation. The light is returning, the dark night would soon be over, they will be able to bask in the sunlight of God’s graces and mercy. The Lord is returning as a victorious King and a loving Shepherd who will hold His people tightly to His breast in a loving embrace.

The prophecy of Isaiah would only be partially fulfilled during the time of the return of the people from exile. Instead of a lush and rich land, they would encounter a barren wilderness where all traces of their glorious past civilisation had been erased by their enemies. Instead of the imposing Temple of Jerusalem, God’s seat and foothold on earth, they would only see ruins and rubble, mirroring their own lives which had to be rebuilt from scratch. Many would have wondered how the words of Isaiah’s prophecy, the promises of God, could have applied to them. Would they need to wait longer? How long?

This too is the experience of many of us. When faced with one setback or another, we often pray for and look for a break. Many lose faith when God seems slow in acting and answering their prayer. This is why the words of St Peter in the second reading, provide us with a clue as to the reason why God sometimes appears to delay in acting: “The Lord is not being slow to carry out his promises, as anybody else might be called slow; but he is being patient with you all, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to change his ways.” What seems to be a delay is not caused by God being slow! It is because He is patient with us, waiting for us to repent and change our ways.

Israel had to wait in twilight and darkness for many centuries. And finally, the gospel announces the first hint of dawn, and it comes in the mysterious figure of this wild like character crying out in the wilderness. Just as heralds in ancient times would go before their liege to announce the imminent arrival of the king, St John the Baptist prepares the way of the Lord by announcing a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This is it! The true secret of attaining consolation is found in repentance. Repentance is the door that leads from darkness to light, from despondency to hope, from tragedy to opportunity, from the pit of despair to the heights of joy.

Despite knowing this to be true, many of us continue to wait and this is where Advent is a season for us who experience the darkness of desolation. What must we do? What can we do as we await for the sun to break through the clouds? Once again, we turn to St Paul for guidance. He writes: “So then, my friends, while you are waiting, do your best to live lives without spot or stain so that he will find you at peace.”

Even as God wishes to console us with the message of hope and peace, He continues to permit moments of darkness in our lives. Why would He do this? The truth is that God works deep in our lives to transform our deepest sorrow into an abiding joy. Suffering, sorrow, pain and grieving may seem like an eternity. Those who have lost their loved ones will cringe whenever they are told by well-intentioned friends and family, to “get over it” or “find closure” or just “move on.” But it only takes a moment alone, or a memory, or a memorabilia to trigger a torrent of heart-breaking tears. As much as it is difficult to believe, we are assured that this will only “last a moment.” The flip side is grace, God’s favour. This, however, will not just last a lifetime but for eternity. What are months and years of mourning and grieving in comparison to an incalculable eternity of joy. Juxtaposed, we realise that our moments of anguish and darkness are fleeting in the light of God’s eternal favour and grace.

Sometimes we need to view our lives through a mirror. In our sorrow, we learn to appreciate joy. In our loss, we discover how much we have gained. Death reflects the sacredness and fragility of life. In the night of tears, we come to long for the dawn of joy. C. S. Lewis was right. Joy often comes as a surprise. It invades the most sorrowful spaces. It reminds us that beauty and goodness and life can grow, even in the most unpromising soil. Joy does not mean the absence of pain or sorrow. Rather, joy is often begotten in the purifying fire of the crucible of love, especially the love of God which is boundless and eternal. That my friends, is our true consolation.

Stay awake

First Sunday of Advent Year B

I’m a light sleeper. The slightest disturbance, faintest noise, or tiniest sliver of light would usually awaken me. Perhaps, I am suffering from what doctors call “exploding head syndrome”, imagined loud noises in my head when I am transitioning from consciousness to sleep. Or maybe, I’m just wired to expect the Lord’s unexpected arrival, as He Himself had warned: “So stay awake, because you do not know when the master of the house is coming, evening, midnight, cockcrow, dawn; if he comes unexpectedly, he must not find you asleep.”

But let’s be honest, staying awake for most of us can be exhausting. We need our rest. We need to sleep. We need to regenerate. We have seasons of excitement and whole-hearted devotion, and we have seasons where we fall asleep, even in church. And for many, the homily is as good a time to sleep as any. Perhaps, even the most ideal moment. But today, our Lord issues the warning that we should “Stay awake”, or else suffer the dire consequences of our lack of vigilance. And being caught by the priest is the least of your concerns. Life is short so stay awake for it.

The same requests from the Lord would be made on the night of His betrayal, on the eve of His crucifixion and death. In the garden of Gethsemane, our Lord was deep in prayer, anguished by the “cup” of suffering He was about to drink. He took His inner circle of disciples (Peter, James and John) with Him and told them to “remain here and watch.” Then, while the Lord was in agonising prayer, His closest companions couldn’t stay awake. Three times the Lord returned from praying to find His disciples falling asleep. Three times the Lord orders them to “stay awake.” Three times His disciples fell asleep. It may be some weak consolation in knowing that the Apostles were not immune from dozing off on the job. One could only imagine the frustration and disappointment of the Lord.

Of course, the Lord was talking about more than just avoiding falling asleep while praying. He was giving instruction about our spiritual readiness for His coming. With the repetitive command to stay awake, our Lord spoke to all His disciples throughout the ages, including our generation, about the need to remain alert. I think for us it can become easy to lose our spiritual edge and focus. It is easy to grow complacent, lazy and careless. It doesn’t take much of a lapse in alertness to become desensitised to the spiritual reality upon us by the pseudo-comforting distractions around us. Staying awake spiritually involves looking past the clamour of worldly attractions. It’s about perceiving the presence of the kingdom of heaven growing up quietly and silently after the seeds have been scattered in the garden. It’s about resisting the cultural malady of practical atheism – living as if God did not exist or even if we were to accept that He did, it did not matter in our lives. This is what Advent is meant to accomplish for us - to transform us from spiritual sleepy heads to vigilant stewards, always alert and ready for the master’s return. The question left to consider is how: how can we stay awake?

First, we need to take the words of Christ seriously that He is returning. Many don’t believe in the Parousia, in the return of the Lord. Many believe that this is a bogey man invented by the Church to scare her members into submission. Many leave without giving serious thought that there would be a Day of Judgment, a day where we will be called to account for our actions and decisions. To stay awake means to listen to the Lord and His warning and to take Him seriously at His word.

Second, the Apostle Paul tells us to pray without ceasing. This was the Lord’s exhortation to His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus tells us to “watch and pray.” If we are to stay awake in the midst of a world in a spiritual stupour, then we need to be diligent in prayer. No wonder Paul advises to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). In fact, we should be constantly praying for the Lord’s Second Coming as we do whenever we pray the Lord’s Prayer: “thy kingdom come, thy will be done!” There must be urgency in this prayer as Isaiah expressed with these powerfully vivid words: “tear the heavens open and come down!”

Third, staying awake means faithfulness and commitment to the task that has been placed before us. The second parable in today’s gospel reminds us that readiness is measured by people diligently doing their job. The wisest ones are those who consistently try to seek and serve their Lord at every moment of every day. The familiar Advent message to ‘stay awake’ invites us to live humanly to the best of our ability, continuing to do the necessary mundane things faithfully but always with a genuine care for unexpected surprises. We should be striving and praying, as St Paul did in the second reading, that our Lord will “keep you steady and without blame until the last day.”

The person who stays awake and remains faithful is the one who accepts the invitation to keep watch, that is, not let himself be overpowered by the listlessness of discouragement, by the lack of hope, by disappointment; and at the same time it wards off the allure of the many vanities with which the world is brimming and for which, now and then, time and personal and familial peace is sacrificed. It is the painful experience of the people of Israel, whom the Prophet Isaiah was sent to awaken. We too often find ourselves in this situation of unfaithfulness to the call of the Lord: He shows us the good path, the way of faith, the way of love, but we seek our happiness elsewhere.

Listening, praying and remaining faithful won’t tell us when the Lord is coming again, but they will get us ready to receive Him when He comes. Hopefully none of you out there are asleep yet. Hopefully you’ve managed to stay awake through my homily. But if you are asleep, know that God loves you and has sent Christ into the world to save you all the same. But for those who are asleep, He comes as Judge. And if you are asleep, or falling asleep, or peaceful and secure in your faith life, well, it’s time to wake up and come alive. Because what the Church needs are not people who are sleeping on the job but those who are alive and kicking, ever ready to preach the Gospel of Christ through the testimony of their words and actions. So, stay awake!

God is with us

Fourth Sunday of Advent Year A

If you’ve ever had the opportunity to walk into an Orthodox Church, your senses will be immediately assaulted by a delightful riot of colours - colourful icons lining the walls, and with the largest concentration of them on the iconostasis, the icon laced screen which separates the nave of the church from the sanctuary where the holy mysteries are celebrated. But one icon stands out and provides an easy point of focus to any visitor because it is usually present in the upper part of the altar, the apsidal vault, the focal point of any church. What does this image show, and what is behind its name?


The icon shows the Mother of God from the waist up, facing us, with her hands lifted up to the level of her head, elbows bent. From time immemorial this gesture has signified a prayerful appeal to God, and still are sometimes, called Oranta (Latin for praying). The Christ-child, Emmanuel, is depicted in a circle of light at her bosom. It almost has a fish bowl effect which allows us to peer into the womb of the Blessed Virgin. But instead of a not fully formed foetus, we are presented with a miniature version of an adult Christ (minus the facial hair) with His hands extended in benediction. Although first timers would conclude that this is an icon of the Holy Mother of God, a more reflective scrutiny gives the impression of Mary presenting us with Christ, and our attention is drawn – as always with icons of the Theotokos – to her Son, our Saviour. Mary is merely the frame, Christ her son is the masterpiece.

Though it has several names, the most common name for this icon is the Lady of the Sign. It derives its name from this passage which we just heard in the first reading: ‘The Lord himself, therefore, will give you a sign. It is this: the maiden is with child and will soon give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel, a name which means “God-is-with-us.”’

This sign was a kind of a super bonus which God decided to give to Ahaz, even though the latter chose not to ask for it. For those who know the back story of Ahaz, this sudden refusal to ask God for a sign did not come from a good place, as if Ahaz did it out of humble obedience to God. In fact, Ahaz is considered to be one of the worst kings of Judah, and his own personal faults were compounded by an equally evil wife, Jezebel. Together, they epitomised the couple from hell. So, why would God “reward” this evil king with this promise of a sign?

Ahaz was about to be forced into an alliance, in a vain attempt to oppose the crushing military power of Babylon. For you Black Panther fans out there, think of this as something similar to the proposed alliance between Wakanda and Talokan - a marriage doomed for failure. The prophet Isaiah goes to Ahaz and warns him that the alliance would be fatal: he had better trust in the Lord rather than in human machinations. Isaiah promises a sign, which Ahaz refuses, not because he has a change of heart and does not want to put God to the test. The real reason for the refusal is simple - he does not want to be convinced! He doesn’t want to change his mind. But God will have none of this. Ahaz will get a sign, even if he chooses to reject it, because the sign will have a significance far greater than this political conundrum which Ahaz is facing. It would be a sign which will herald salvation, not just for Ahaz or for this moment but for all generations to come.

What is this sign? The original Hebrew simply reads, ‘A girl is with child and will bear a son’, indicating that within a few months the threat will vanish and Jerusalem will be convinced that God is on their side – hence the boy will be called Emmanuel, “God-is-with-us.”. But the Greek translation of the Hebrew, made some 200 years before the birth of Jesus, translates ‘The virgin (or maiden) is with child’, which the evangelist Matthew sees as a prophecy of the birth of Jesus from the Virgin Mary.

In the gospel, we have another man who is promised a sign but this man is the diametrical moral opposite of Ahaz in the Old Testament. Though he is a descendant of Ahaz and King David, St Joseph is described as a “man of honour,” or in some translations a “righteous man”. Unlike, his notorious ancestor, Joseph puts up no resistance to the angel’s message through the medium of a dream: ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ And St Matthew then adds the additional editorial note that this was to fulfil Isaiah’s prophecy: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel.’

Although the prophecy says that “they will call him Emmanuel,” Mary and Joseph didn’t give their son that name. Instead, they followed the directions given specifically to them to name Him Jesus. As seen in today’s passage, the meaning of Emmanuel is ‘God-is-with-us.’ The promised child was given the name of Jesus, which means ‘God-saves.’ There is no contradiction between the two. God is with us not in some dormant or passive way. He is with us for one singular purpose - to save us.

So, today, even if you are not ready for a sign or feel any need for a sign, even if you have not asked for one, know this, that God will give you a sign; indeed, He has given you one, the only one that truly matters - His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. If you’ve ever asked for a sign from God, especially when you are at the crossroads and at a moment of decision, know this to be true - God has given you the sign: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel.”

Think about it. Isn’t this the sign you’ve always craved? Haven’t your hearts been asking for nothing less than this – that God should know what it’s like to be you, to understand your deepest pain, your hardship, and your daily struggles. To learn what it means to be here, to be in your shoes, to be with us. That was the promise and this is the sign. God would come. And soon, very soon, we will celebrate His virgin birth. He came here to die. He came to free us from this world of sin. He came not just to be with us, but to make it so that we could forever be with Him. With Christians throughout the world and through the centuries, let us cry:

O Come O Come Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Already but Not-Yet

Third Sunday of Advent Year A

We have a set of idioms which often express this truth that you cannot be doing two different things at the same time. For example, “He who chases two rabbits will catch neither.” But of course, some would claim, as President Joe Biden often does, that “you can walk and chew gum at the same time.” Advent has the ability to bring together two ideas which doesn’t seem to coalesce because they can be found at diametrically opposite ends of the time spectrum. One is that “Jesus is coming” and the second is that “Jesus has already come.” So which is it? Has he come or are we still waiting?

This is often described as “already-but-not-yet”. In salvation history, the past, present and the future are not like oil and water; they are organically connected like seed and tree. So, Christ’s first coming at Christmas marks the beginning of the last days. Christ is the fulfilment of the age of perfection and renewal envisioned by the prophets and yet, the complete fulfilment of those prophecies can only be experienced at a future time - when Christ returns in glory. Christ’s second coming will mark the end of the last days. So, we are living now between the beginning and the end of the End Times, between the Lord’s first and second coming.

This expectation of the Lord’s coming is a powerful theme among the prophets. This is what we hear in the first reading. To a people in exile who have lost their home, Chapter 35 of Isaiah is like a brilliant shaft of light breaking through the clouds of despair and all is bathed in splendour again. Arid wastes burst into bloom as the glory of the Lord comes down like refreshing showers, and the whole earth shouts for joy. It’s a vision to steady trembling hands, strengthen weak knees, and lift fearful hearts.

The people addressed here remember the sights of home, but they are far away, and powerless to return. They have been conquered and brutalised, and their anguished hearts cry out for vengeance, retribution, and deliverance. But they have no strength to right the wrongs they have suffered or to bring those responsible to account. They are blind, deaf, lame, and mute; they have no power to help themselves; only God can save them. And the good news of this chapter is that He will do just that. Isaiah cries, ‘Look, your God is coming, vengeance is coming, the retribution of God; he is coming to save you.’ He will raise up a highway for them and bring them home. They will enter Zion with singing…sorrow and sighing will flee away, and they will be overtaken by a joy that will never end.

What an amazing vision and yet it is clear that it reaches beyond the event of the return of the Jews from exile to something else. Even after returning from exile, the Jews continue to suffer. The everlasting joy promised in this chapter will always prove elusive, until it finds its fulfilment in Christ. This too was on the mind of St John the Baptist as he languished in prison awaiting his own execution. Having received word of our Lord Jesus and His ministry, John sends his disciples to clarify his doubts: “Are you the one who is to come, or have we got to wait for someone else?” In other words, is Jesus the fulfilment of the prophecies of Isaiah?

Although no timeline is given for this to happen, Isaiah’s prophecy provides the “signs” by which this age is to be identified: “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed, then the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongues of the dumb sing for joy.” Our Lord’s answer to the Baptist’s emissary confirms that Isaiah’s prophecy is being fulfilled: “Go back and tell John what you hear and see; the blind see again, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor.” The miracles worked by the Lord demonstrate that the moment of true redemption foreseen indistinctly by the prophets has come to pass.

If our Lord is the fulfilment of what the prophets had anticipated, then why are we still living in expectation? Yes, our Lord has already fulfilled these prophecies through His first coming at the Incarnation but its final results will only be seen when He returns in glory after His ascension to the Father’s right hand. From there He sends out the Holy Spirit on His Church. Now He is present in our midst through faith, through the preaching of the Gospel and in the sacraments. So, although we continue to wait in anticipation for that day when all His enemies will be placed under His feet, we are already now experiencing His victory over sin, the devil and death. His victory is “already-but-not-yet!” This is why the Church exhorts us to rejoice.

The call to rejoice may seem a little hollow. We are facing so many challenges on a personal and public level. There are financial stresses, health problems, deadlines at work, dysfunctional relationships with family members. On a national and global perspective, there is widespread inflation and a shrinking economy, an unstable unity government on the brink of shattering, political and religious apathy especially among the young, and perhaps a world on the brink of a third world war. So, in the midst of this, how do we rejoice? How can we rejoice?

It is good to be reminded that the Lord did not promise us a trouble-free life or world. One cannot find any such articulation in the gospels. The promise is that: ‘your God is coming, vengeance is coming, the retribution of God; He is coming to save you.’ And we see in Christ that this promise is already being fulfilled but not completely yet. We Christians must continue to live in the tension between the “already” and the “not yet”. It is the tension of knowing that God has come in the flesh, but we await His return in glory; that God has wreaked vengeance to and brought retribution to our enemies although we still have to live under their oppressive rule for a limited time; and that although God has saved us and liberated us from the prison of sin and death, we must continue to persevere and faithfully follow the path of sanctification, resisting sin and growing in virtue through the graces.

Though our future is certain because we have been redeemed by our Lord’s death and resurrection (the already), our sanctification (the not yet) can be turbulent. Sanctification is an ongoing battle. Sometimes we win; sometimes we lose. We’re constantly in flux. We have mountaintop experiences before lying defeated in dark valleys. We take three steps forward before quickly taking two steps (or four steps) back. In the midst of this distressing battle, viewing one’s sanctification through the already-not yet lens keeps you from feeling powerless. We of course, would like to have only one of these realities: victory without defeat, success without failure, perfection without sacrifice. But as for now, living in the tension of the “already” and “not yet,” we must learn to patiently endure both realities, knowing that our Lord “is coming, vengeance is coming, the retribution of God, He is coming to save you.” That is why, let us heed the advice of St James: “Be patient, brothers, until the Lord’s coming…do not lose heart, because the Lord’s coming will be soon.”

Repent

Second Sunday of Advent Year A

Every Advent, we are treated to gospel passages stretching across two consecutive Sundays where the spotlight seems to be on the precursor of the Lord, His cousin St John the Baptist. The prominence of St John during this season is understandable. Both he and the Lord preached the same message: “repent, for the kingdom of God is close at hand.” It is thus no accident that John and Jesus suffered the same fate. John is beheaded and Jesus crucified by those who refused to accept their message- they refused to “repent.”

Let’s be honest, repentance isn’t easy because admitting or confessing one’s sins isn’t easy. In fact, many people resent the Catholic faith because they think that Catholicism, and especially the clergy, take great pleasure in making them feel guilty and rotten to the core. Even though you would hardly hear any priest rail against you as St John the Baptist did against the Pharisees and Sadducees in today’s passage, just speaking of sin and repentance is offensive enough. Many believe that the only way to get rid of guilt is to turn your back on the very institution or person that reminds you of your guilt. But this is as ridiculous as killing the doctor who tells you that you have a terminal illness. They fail to recognise that the only real way to get rid of the guilt is through repentance, just as a person after having accepted his diagnosis, would submit himself willingly to the hands of the doctor who is treating him.

In all my years of hearing confessions, the confessions of sin-deniers can be quite amusing as well as saddening. The excuses range from the blatant lie, “Father, I don’t have any sins,” to blaming others, “he made me do it,” and then the penitent (if you could even call him one) starts listing out the faults of others. The irony of it. The so-called penitent goes for confession thinking that he or she has no sin and leaves without being reconciled but instead carries the additional burden of at least four sins: lying, self-righteousness, blaming and complaining.

Someone once said that, “he who excuses himself, accuses himself.” To the Christian, however, the opposite is true. He who accuses himself, excuses himself. When we acknowledge our guilt before God, He removes that guilt forever. He blots out our sins from the record of eternity. The confessional used to be described as a sort of courtroom, but the strangest courtroom ever conceived. For it is the only courtroom in which a guilty plea is always met with complete pardon, and the prisoner set free.

So, what does it mean to be repentant? The Greek word we translate as “repentance” is metanoia (the verb “to repent” is metanoeo), and it means “to change your mind.” Metanoia’s Hebrew counterpart is tshuva, which means “to return.” For example, God told the people of Israel, “Repent and turn away from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations” (Ezek. 14:6). So when Jesus says, “Repent and believe in the gospel,” He is basically saying: change your mind about sin, and return to God by believing the Good News! So, in order to be saved, we must repent. Repentance means not just running back to God, but running away from anything that would keep us from God.

Repentance helps us recognise that we are lost without God. We cannot be good independently of His grace. The Christian faith isn’t a kind of “self-help” programme that makes you feel “good” about yourself. But the problem is that most people would rather look for a feel-good religion than a religion that actually makes you good. And we cannot advance in spiritual progress, becoming good and even better, unless we are willing to repent. The good news of salvation will make little sense if we did not first understand the bad news of sin and how it keeps us from God and being good. Repentance is the sine qua non, the absolutely necessary condition, for salvation.

According to the early Fathers of the Church, all true repentance must begin with humility and humility is merely acknowledging that we are sinners. It is pride which makes us blame others and give excuses for ourselves. But to take our eyes off others’ sins and instead to admit our own — this is only possible through humility. To take our eyes off ourselves and look to God is also an act of humility.

Advent is a season of new beginnings and for this reason it must also be a season of repentance. Likewise, the Christian faith is the religion of beginning again, for it is the religion of repentance and restoration. Even “as the axe is laid to the roots of the trees, so that any tree which fails to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire,” we are promised that “a shoot springs from the stock of Jesse, a scion thrusts from his roots”, once thought to be dead, but now alive once more. The old self must die so that the new self may be reborn. And even when all hope seems lost, when things appear to have come to a dead end, let us place our trust in the One who has baptised us in the Holy Spirit and fire, and who can even raise children for Abraham from stones. So, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.”

Watch

First Sunday of Advent Year A

Advent is here! As the world winds down to the close of another year, we Christians are already ahead in beginning a new one. As people around us get ready for the holidays, make preparations for their annual break, we Christians are renewing our vigilance and recommitting ourselves to the work of mission.

We begin our season of Advent, the start of a new liturgical year, with a reminder that the end times are real - it is not make belief designed to scare Christians into docile submission. We should not treat this news, however, with an alarmist state of panic nor with apathy. We should not ignore our Lord’s warning and be caught off guard, as were the people during the time of the Great Flood or the two contemporary examples He cited. The tragedy of their error is an important lesson for us in this day and age. The necessary response is wakefulness or watchfulness. “So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming.”

Before you grab a strong cup of coffee with a double shot, you need to remember that what our Lord is referring to is a different kind of wakefulness. The wakefulness that the Lord describes is a state—a practice, a way of being—that bears little resemblance to the ways we usually try to keep ourselves (or unwittingly find ourselves) awake, methods that usually leave us less than fully functional.

Another verb could be used to describe the wakefulness which our Lord is asking from us: “watch”! This is what we hear in the First Advent Preface: “Now we watch for the day, hoping that the salvation promised us will be ours, when Christ our Lord will come again in his glory.” Advent can thus be summarised in this simple imperative: “Watch.”

Christ will come again. That Christ will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead is an article of our faith. But He will come unexpectedly and suddenly. The fact that we do not know the time of His return means that we are to live in a state of constant wakefulness or watchfulness. Therefore watching should be our permanent disposition. “Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

What does it mean to be ready and watchful? It means, we look beyond the present to the future coming of Christ and His kingdom. It means, the present should be understood in the light of the coming Kingdom. It means, that all aspects of the Church’s life, our personal life, should be oriented towards the coming of Christ and the coming of His Kingdom. Too often, we are too myopic in our projections and planning. We fuss over short term goals and get distressed when our targets are not met, when our projects yield results which fall below our expectations. When we have closed our vision to the coming of Christ and His Kingdom at the end of this age, it is so easy for us to become disillusioned and give up. But constantly keeping our eye on the ball – which is the Lord’s coming, will fuel our resilience and strengthen our perseverance. It’s not the end until He comes again in glory, victorious and with His enemies under His feet.

We live not only in expectation of the Kingdom, not only in anticipation of the coming of the Messiah, but our whole life at present should be oriented towards the Kingdom of Christ. The second coming is not simply a future event but an event which controls, shapes and directs our life at the present. It is an event which transforms our view of life. To be oriented towards the coming Kingdom means that we live today as if we were already in the Kingdom of God. This is what St Paul tells us in the second reading, reminding us that as people who live in the daytime and not like those who live under the cover of night, we must live virtuous lives, free from vice, because “the time has come,” and that “our salvation is even nearer than it was when we were converted.”

If watchfulness is a permanent attitude and disposition of every Christian as we sojourn this earthly life on our way to the heavenly Kingdom, how can we make it a “way of life”? St Hesychios sets out different levels of watchfulness:

1. We must watch our thoughts. This is a watchfulness that guards against enticing mental images and thoughts, for these are the precursors to temptations and sin.

2. We must watch the desires and movements of the heart. This kind of watchfulness “frees the heart from all thoughts, keeping the heart profoundly silent and still in prayer.”

3. We must acknowledge our neediness and vulnerability. This is a watchfulness that “continually and humbly calls upon the Lord Jesus Christ for help.”

4. We must watch and prepare for death. Death is the universal equaliser which humbles the proud, reminds us of the fragility of our projects and impermanence of our possessions. Therefore, an attitude of watchfulness should always keep the remembrance of death in mind.

5. Lastly, watchfulness should fix our gaze on heaven rather than on the world.

As catechumens today take their first step to become full members of the Church, the liturgy exhorts you to watch your thoughts, watch your desires and the movements of your heart, discern what your heart is really longing for, prepare to die to yourself and finally fix your gaze on heaven rather than on the world.

We never know what each day will bring, just as no one knows when the Lord will return. That is why we are to be faithful at whatever duty that has been entrusted to us and making preparation to meet the Lord must be a lifelong commitment. Whether in our business, personal, or spiritual life, this should be how we think, live, preach and pray. Advent is, therefore, a reminder that there is no room for complacency in the Christian life. Let’s heed the Lord’s wake-up call. “So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming.” “Watch!”

Encounter of Joy

Fourth Sunday of Advent Year C

On this last Sunday of Advent before Christmas, our gospel takes us to the scene of the last recorded appearance of Mary in the gospels before the birth of our Lord - the scene of the Visitation of our Lady to her cousin Elizabeth. The Visitation is one moment from the infancy narratives that can prepare us in a special way for the coming of our Lord this Christmas. It provides us with a snapshot of Mary as a loving servant who is familiar with the Scriptures, bubbling over with joy, and confident in the promises of her God.

The scene also provides us with the prophetic words and action of both Elizabeth and the unborn child within her womb. Even here, John the Baptist, still a foetus, displays his prophetic skills as the precursor of the Messiah. It is here, and not at the river Jordan, where our Lord and the Baptist first meets. But lastly, the real protagonist of this story remains quiet and hidden. Like John, our Lord Jesus also remains nestled in the womb of His mother. No one would have even noticed His presence without the revelation and prompting of the Spirit who alerted John, who in turn alerted his mother with a joyful kick in the womb.

John, the child in Elizabeth’s womb, could not contain his joy and leapt, danced, rejoiced at the approach of Jesus. I think it is fair to say that few of us react with such poignant and uncontainable joy when we come close to our Lord. Christmas has this alluring power over us, both old and young. It is capable of igniting this childlike joy and sense of wonderment in us, as we long to peek into the crèche on Christmas night to catch a glimpse of the new born child.

But there is something of Christmas even now, in fact every day. In every Catholic church, there present is Jesus Christ – in His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Fully, truly, really, and substantially present. This is no mere symbol, nor even some manner of imperfect presence. Far too often we are guilty of falling scandalously short of appropriate reverence for the Eucharist. Let us pray that we will experience the same excitement as did John in his mother’s womb. We should be leaping and dancing with joy as we come into the presence of our Lord.

In fact, we should be exclaiming with Elizabeth and asking ourselves this question: “Why should I be honoured to be given such a great privilege to visit our Lord?” Just like Elizabeth, we cannot remain silent observers here, nor treat this moment as something common and ordinary. We need to listen to Elizabeth if we wish to have a proper perspective of Christmas. She alone, inspired by the Holy Spirit, makes a declaration of faith which becomes an essential component of the “Hail Mary” – “Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus”. Her words become the foundation of our Christian faith regarding the true nature of Christ and what we celebrate at Christmas. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “Called in the Gospels “the mother of Jesus” Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as “the mother of my Lord.” In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father’s eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly “Mother of God” (Theotokos).” (CCC 495)

And finally, we have Mary, “the mother of my Lord.” Mary’s spirit dances in anticipation of the Lord. Having received glad tidings from the angel about the Son she would bear for God, for the salvation of humanity, she travels “quickly” to Elizabeth and upon arriving, bursts into a joyful song of praise. It is unfortunate that we do not get to hear her song of praise, the Magnificat, as this is the climax of this episode of the Visitation. Her ‘bubbling over’, mimics the joy of Heaven. There’s no room for anything but praise and thanksgiving. It overwhelms, overflows, “overshadows” — a word we also hear at the Annunciation.

Mary, our Blessed Mother, is the perfect example of devotion to Jesus, of reverence for His Holy Presence. She leads the Church to keep vigil at the crèche, awaiting the birth of her Son. Consider the words of Saint Teresa of Calcutta: “In the mystery of the Annunciation and the Visitation, Mary is the very model of the life we should lead. First of all, she welcomed Jesus in her existence; then, she shared what she had received. Every time we receive Holy Communion, Jesus the Word becomes flesh in our life – gift of God who is at one and the same time beautiful, kind, unique. Thus, the first Eucharist was such: Mary’s offering of her Son in her, in whom he had set up the first altar. Mary, the only one who could affirm with absolute confidence, “this is my body”, from that first moment offered her own body, her strength, all her being, to form the Body of Christ.”

Amidst the flurry of shopping, visiting, and end-of-year work activities that will surely fill our Advent calendars this season, take a few minutes each day to encounter God, who often chooses to be hidden only to reveal Himself when you willingly spend time with Him in prayer, especially before the Blessed Sacrament. If you longed for the experience to spend time before the manger on that first Christmas night, know that each time you spend time before the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle is no lesser experience. If you struggle with prayer and don’t know what to say, dig deep into Scriptures like Mary, and pray the Magnificat with her. Let your soul proclaim the greatness of the Lord this Advent and beyond, through joy, Scripture, and loving service.