CHAPTER 1
For Year A Weekends
FIRST WEEKEND
First Advent Sunday
Waiting for Jesus not speculatively but realistically
... Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. (Matt. 24: 37-44)
This weekend, being the first one in the Year A, let us meditate on the active Presence of Jesus in our midst. Our entire Christian life in this world is built up on the biggest hope, as Isaiah once foretold, on Jesus' coming in our midst. While Jesus was alive physically he made all possible efforts to potentially establishing our dreamed-better world. Gospel writers as well as all the Apostles in their Letters, confirm their belief in the repeated promises of Jesus, before his death and even after, about his second coming. They heard him through his Spirit that the Son of Man will come.
In addition to his promise Jesus also cautioned us that his coming would be at an hour we do not expect. Knowing our human fragility and anxiety he encouraged us to stay always awake and wait with hope. In this precarious time of waiting he told us he will not leave us orphans. He too promised he would stay with us, even after his death, in disguise and in signs and symbols and sharing with us all resources of truth and fullness of life, peace and love, justice and unity. He has said: "The kingdom of God is already in your midst." As he was ready to be lifted up to heaven, he emphasized: And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.
Our Christian life is an active waiting for Christ's continuing coming. The stewards of Christ must always be ready for recognizing the Lord's coming by being faithful to the mission in life given them by Christ. Over the centuries, except here and there, we regret to find his foretelling has been realized but not completely and totally. We don't walk in the light of the Lord. Most of us are still slumbering, sleeping tight in our couches and also brooding over our past or groaning over what we lack in. As Paul depicts, we the humans still lead a life not in daylight but in dark night.
Every human person, young or old, dumb or smart, holds a view of his/her own about human life. There are two categories of people in this: People who go on behaving like small babies and people who live as reasonable adults. In fact everything of the world - our relationships, physical beauty, health, strength, mental and intellectual capacities, worldly possessions, name and fame, power, influence are none other than varieties of colorful balloons, very enchanting and attractive, but unfortunately, one day or the other they have to 'burst' and depart from us.
Even among these so-called reasonable adults there are three ways of approaching this stressful life: One group views it as chronos, which means in Greek, essentially life is unredeemed and cyclic. The second kind of people who use rationality more than anything else see life in chaos. In Greek it means unordered, confused, unfashioned, and essentially nothingness. And the third group's view is called xairos. They mean human life is redeemed by God in Christ Jesus and becomes a trustworthy ladder through which humans can climb up and ascend to their climatic destiny.
The third view is worth adhering to. It helps us to lead an optimistic life. Plus, we are enlightened by risen Jesus, through his Scriptures and the Tradition of his Church, we will be scheduling our daily life making it, not just waiting for him speculatively but actively and realistically performing certain spiritual and charitable deeds on his behalf ritually and socially he comes in various disguises- the needy, the sick, and the sacraments.
SECOND WEEKEND
Second Advent Sunday
Repentance is conversion of attitude and action
In those days John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: A voice of one crying out in the desert, 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his path' ... Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance ... Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." (Matt. 3: 1-12)
As we celebrate the coming of the new Messiah in this season of cold, freezing, snow and sleet, we take for meditation this weekend the preaching of John the baptizer, the forerunner of Jesus. John the Baptizer, the last Prophet of the Old Testament, being considered as the last hope for a desperate people at his time earnestly longing for the arrival of Messiah, started his ministry saying: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Repentance is the translation of Greek word metanoia, meaning "after/behind one's mind": 'to think differently after'. Act of repenting means therefore a change of mind accompanied by regret and change of conduct, "change of mind and heart", or, "change of consciousness". It means simply a 'conversion' of attitude and action. John exhorts us to convert ourselves from the way we deal with our religiosity: to change from old twisted religion to new; from fake to genuine; and from reel to real.
He recommends a conversion from performing all religious duties not just as external rituals but as spiritual, interiorly on fire. He referred his own ritual action of Baptism in water, the relevance of which he didn't deny: but he wanted us to go beyond the mere ritual. He said: "I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
There is also another important dimension contained in the conversion process John proposed. He wants us to be prepared to meet the consequences of such conversion. Quoting Isaiah 'prepare the way of the Lord' he tells us to be prepared and to get ready for an awesome ground-breaking or radical view and conduct of our human life. We will be receiving a Messiah who is filled with and expecting us to be leading a life of justice, peace and love.
As the result of conversion, our human view regarding Messiah would be shattered; he is more humble than powerful: more merciful than judging: more peaceful than violent; more tolerant than intolerant. In simple term as John said of Jesus, "This is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world". This conversion is supposed to be total and wholistic. John was sent to us not simply ringing his tinkling and clattering jingle bell but rather he came with ax, a tool for cutting: "Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." In the light of Christ we...
