Sunday, December 04, 2016 Second Sunday of Advent 1st Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10 2nd Reading: Rom 15:4-9 Gospel: Mt 3:1–12
In the course of time John the Baptist appeared in the desert of Judea and began to proclaim his message, “Change your ways, the Kingdom of heaven is now at hand!” It was about him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said, A voice is shouting in the desert: prepare a way for the Lord; make his paths straight. John had a leather garment around his waist and wore a cloak of camel’s hair; his food was locusts and wild honey. People came to him from Jerusalem, from all Judea and from the whole Jordan valley, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan as they confessed their sins. When he saw several Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he baptized, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who told you that you could escape the punishment that is to come? Let it be seen that you are serious in your conversion, and do not think: We have Abraham for our father. I tell you that God can raise children for Abraham from these stones! The axe is already laid to the roots of the trees; any tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown in the fire. I baptize you in water for a change of heart, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than me; indeed I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire. He has the winnowing fan in his hand and he will clear out his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn in everlasting fire.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
Advent is not about the end of the world. It is about recalling Jesus’ birth and growing deeper in gratitude for it. But there are compelling reasons to prepare for the end without being alarmists. One is the possibility that the world may really be sick and dying. Another is that our death may just be round the bend. So we still need to prepare even if the world will not end yet.
John the Baptist’s desert cry to prepare the way of the Lord is the key to a meaningful Advent preparation. If this has fallen on deaf ears
it is because of the self-dethronement it implies.
Dethroning the self is hardest to do because it means fighting against oneself. But ascetics have tried it and succeeded. Their winning formula is “agere contra”, which consists of the daily exercise of loving others more. Since man cannot serve two masters, by loving others more he ends up loving himself less. Such dethronement of self assures Jesus of his rightful place in people’s hearts when he comes. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM., MAPM., MMExM., REB., Email: [email protected].
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