May the good Lord grant you the grace to be truly converted to Him and to live a holy life in order to be a good precursor of Jesus Christ after the example of John the Baptist. Happy Sunday! + John I. Okoye
(Isaiah 11,1-10; Romans 15,4-9; Matt 3, 1-12: 2 Sunday of Advent, Year A, 2016)
On this 2nd Sunday of Advent, it is worthwhile to meditate on the great and gigantic figure of John the Baptist. But who is he? The Evangelist Matthew presents him as the person who realised the voice of prophet Isaiah: … a voice cries out in the desert: prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths… In realty, what Isaiah was referring to was the Babylonian exile and the return of the exiles to their fatherland. This was a sign and fruit of the presence of God and his prodigious intervention in favour of the people of Israel. Matthew and the nascent Christian Community regarded John as the one who realised fully those prophetic words of Isaiah. John was the voice that invited people to prepare themselves for the proximate coming of the saviour and to welcome his gift of liberation and redemption. He was the precursor (forerunner) and official messenger of the Messiah. He is also, according to the gospel of Matthew, a man who lived in the desert, in solitude and practised a great austerity of life. He prepared for the coming of the Lord in silence, prayer, mediation on the word of the Lord, attentive reflection on the signs which Providence offered to signal the imminent coming of the Lord. He also did so through the exercise of mortification and very rigorous penance. In this way, he also prepared himself for the fulfilment of his mission as a forerunner.
The advent of Jesus on earth, the appearing of the Son of God in human form was prepared for a very long time within the people of Israel, first by the prophets and then at last by John the Baptist. This was proper, for the coming of the Son of God in the world was the greatest, most extraordinary and most incredible event in the history of the world. But there is another coming of Jesus that is still on and will be ever so in the world: this is the coming of Jesus who would want to enter into mind, heart and life of every one of us and the society. This is the coming he realises through his word of life, his grace and his law of love. This coming of Christ should also be prepared for and he has need of precursors to do so. The precursors, announcers of the coming of Christ in the heart of people and the society of today are all of us and we are consecrated for this mission by our baptism and sacrament of confirmation which gives added strength. For the priests and Consecrated men and women religious, there is a further motivation: their vocation, consecration and ordination impel them to completely, dedicate their lives in service of the Lord. Precursors are people who prepare the way of the Lord, and remove those obstacles which impede the coming and welcoming due him: the Obstacles are ignorance, prejudice, indifference, selfishness, pride, etc.
What are we to do? Noting more than to re-echo in the world the preaching of John the Baptist: Repent because the Kingdom of God is at hand;indeed, as Jesus would say, it is in your midst (it is there live) It is a marvellous duty to give the world the knowledge or rather the certainty of salvation, reaching out to our fellow men and women with this stupendous notice of salvation through the forgiveness of sins and works of the tender mercy of God concretised in the Lord Jesus. We should be telling our contemporaries what John the Baptist said: In your midst there is one whom you do not know, one who is searching for you and One who can make you happy, and really free and the only One who has the word of eternal life and does not delude. But to recognise his presence and welcome him, it is necessary to repent and be converted, change ones mentality, thought pattern and conduct in life; one has also to reckon with his or her propter condition of being a poor sinner, who has need of redemption and the constant desire to get out at all cost.
On this 2nd Sunday of Advent, it is worthwhile to meditate on the great and gigantic figure of John the Baptist. But who is he? The Evangelist Matthew presents him as the person who realised the voice of prophet Isaiah: … a voice cries out in the desert: prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths… In realty, what Isaiah was referring to was the Babylonian exile and the return of the exiles to their fatherland. This was a sign and fruit of the presence of God and his prodigious intervention in favour of the people of Israel. Matthew and the nascent Christian Community regarded John as the one who realised fully those prophetic words of Isaiah. John was the voice that invited people to prepare themselves for the proximate coming of the saviour and to welcome his gift of liberation and redemption. He was the precursor (forerunner) and official messenger of the Messiah. He is also, according to the gospel of Matthew, a man who lived in the desert, in solitude and practised a great austerity of life. He prepared for the coming of the Lord in silence, prayer, mediation on the word of the Lord, attentive reflection on the signs which Providence offered to signal the imminent coming of the Lord. He also did so through the exercise of mortification and very rigorous penance. In this way, he also prepared himself for the fulfilment of his mission as a forerunner.
The advent of Jesus on earth, the appearing of the Son of God in human form was prepared for a very long time within the people of Israel, first by the prophets and then at last by John the Baptist. This was proper, for the coming of the Son of God in the world was the greatest, most extraordinary and most incredible event in the history of the world. But there is another coming of Jesus that is still on and will be ever so in the world: this is the coming of Jesus who would want to enter into mind, heart and life of every one of us and the society. This is the coming he realises through his word of life, his grace and his law of love. This coming of Christ should also be prepared for and he has need of precursors to do so. The precursors, announcers of the coming of Christ in the heart of people and the society of today are all of us and we are consecrated for this mission by our baptism and sacrament of confirmation which gives added strength. For the priests and Consecrated men and women religious, there is a further motivation: their vocation, consecration and ordination impel them to completely, dedicate their lives in service of the Lord. Precursors are people who prepare the way of the Lord, and remove those obstacles which impede the coming and welcoming due him: the Obstacles are ignorance, prejudice, indifference, selfishness, pride, etc.
What are we to do? Noting more than to re-echo in the world the preaching of John the Baptist: Repent because the Kingdom of God is at hand;indeed, as Jesus would say, it is in your midst (it is there live) It is a marvellous duty to give the world the knowledge or rather the certainty of salvation, reaching out to our fellow men and women with this stupendous notice of salvation through the forgiveness of sins and works of the tender mercy of God concretised in the Lord Jesus. We should be telling our contemporaries what John the Baptist said: In your midst there is one whom you do not know, one who is searching for you and One who can make you happy, and really free and the only One who has the word of eternal life and does not delude. But to recognise his presence and welcome him, it is necessary to repent and be converted, change ones mentality, thought pattern and conduct in life; one has also to reckon with his or her propter condition of being a poor sinner, who has need of redemption and the constant desire to get out at all cost.
But before going out to engage ourselves in preaching to other people about conversion and penitence we need to, first of all, confess our sins and get converted to the Lord. Following the example of John the Baptist we need to device a situation of solitude and contemplation, search for silence, meditation, nourish our spirits with the word of God and not with the gossips of the world and praying without ceasing or getting tired. In prayer we find the light that will illumine and make things clear within us, make us understand the will of God, which gives us the strength to carry out his design. The austere life of John the Baptist, especially, sounds like a critic to our mode and style of life, uncontrolled spending on material things and our condescending to all types of base ideas. As long as we worship the goods of the earth, and give in to all our desires, as long as we selfishly love ourselves there is no place in our hearts for the Lord and the less we will be capable of acting as the precursors of Christ’s coming into the world.
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Paul invites us to decidedly exit from our selfishness and have the same sentiments which Jesus had for us for one another: sentiments of love, mercy and forgiveness. We are to accept one another in our limitations and defects as well as with our good qualities, just as Christ welcomed us for the glory of God the Father. We are to make ourselves the servants of our brothers and sisters or our neighbours especially the most needy ones and strangers. Therefore let us pray in this Eucharistic celebration that by following the example of John the Baptist, God the Father will concede us the grace to walk in the path of life which Jesus has taught us by his teaching and example. Happy Sunday! John I. Okoye.
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