Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures and as we come ever closer to the moment of Christmas, which is just exactly a week away from now, each and every one of us are reminded that we all should do our part in ensuring that our preparations and all the things that we do in our upcoming Christmas celebrations and joy, all of them should always be focused and centred on the Lord, our God and our Saviour, Christ, in Whom we all ought to be celebrating about, and the One Who is the true joy and reason for Christmas. Without Christ, there can be no Christmas, and this is what we are being reminded of again today.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah in which the Lord reassured His people that He would send unto them His salvation, through the Heir of the House of David, successor of David, the great King who had once ruled over the whole people of Israel. This was hope and joy given to the people who by that time had been facing lots of struggles, humiliations and hardships. The kingdom of Israel as it was during the glorious days of David and Solomon was no more, and the northern part of the kingdom, also known as Israel had been destroyed and conquered by the Assyrians, and many of them uprooted from their homeland to be exiled to far-off lands.
The kingdom of Judah, where the prophet Jeremiah ministered in, was also not in a good state, having been beset by many troubles, and dominated by powerful neighbours and rulers. Yet amidst all of these, the Lord told all of His people of the hope that was to come, after telling and warning them of the destruction that was about to come to them because of their sins and wickedness, that eventually, the Lord would rescue and save them all, and gather them all once again, and that they would be His people once again, promising and reassuring them all of His love and continued compassion and care. Through all of that, we can see just how much God has loved us all His people, and we really should not have taken any of these for granted. God’s love for us endures even despite our sins and wickedness.
Ultimately, God still loves us, though He despises our sins and evils. He wants us all to turn away from all those sins and embrace His path of righteousness and truth once again, and this is why He has sent unto us His salvation through His Son, which we heard in our Gospel passage today, as the fulfilment of everything that He has spoken, promised and reassured us all from the very beginning of time, and which He has kept on reminding us again and again through His prophets and messengers. We heard of the Lord sending His Son unto us, Incarnate in the flesh and to be born of the Blessed ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God, who became pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the will of the Father, and how He persuaded and revealed the truth to St. Joseph, Mary’s betrothed, that the Child in her is none other than the Saviour of the world.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard of all these we are then reminded of why Christmas is so important to us, and that is because God’s love has been made manifested to us, tangible, real and approachable through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, that God has shown Himself to us, no longer veiled and hidden, and He showed us all just how much He cared for all of us that He reached out to us sinners, even to the worst of sinners amongst us, and making known to all of us His intentions, that is to reconcile us and to bring about forgiveness and liberation for us from the tyranny of sin and evil. Much as how the Lord spoke through the prophet Jeremiah in our first reading today, through Christ, all of us have seen and witnessed the real proof of God’s providence and love.
Today, as we reflect upon these readings from the Sacred Scriptures, let us all spend some time to think about how we may have prepared ourselves for the Christmas celebrations and how we have responded to the way that the world around us have celebrated Christmas, with all the festivities and merrymaking, all the glamour and glitz of the celebrations, but one which often came without Christ in the midst of all those things. This is where all of us as Christians must strive to show the world that Christmas is truly about Christ, about God and the Love which He has very generously shown us all, by sending unto us His Son into our midst, and not about all the food, parties, festivities and gifts that we are all going to get and enjoy during the time of celebration.
Let us all therefore do our best in this time and opportunities provided to us, in this blessed season of Advent so that we may truly prepare ourselves wholeheartedly and completely, in living our lives worthily as Christians and in welcoming the Lord into our midst, focusing our attention once again on Him and not upon the many other distractions and temptations all around us. Let us all put the Lord once again at the very centre of our lives and existence, and do our best so that we may truly indeed be God’s faithful and committed followers and people, and through our proper orientation and focus in life, our emphasis on Christ, the true Joy and Hope of Christmas, we may show Him and His love to more and more people all around us.
May the Lord be with us all, and may He empower each and every one of us with the courage and strength to do His will, and may He bless our Advent commemorations and preparations that we may truly be able to rejoice fully and properly this upcoming glorious and joyous Christmas season. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 