The central theme of today’s readings
is; repentance. Advent is a
preparation to welcome the Lord in our hearts. There are various ways in which
we can prepare our hearts. One of the best ways of preparing is by removing sins
(cobwebs and dusts) from our hearts. It is not just stop sinning but also
feeling remorse for our sins. For any celebrations – marriage, baptism,
birthday party – We clean our houses, buy new things and put up decorations to welcome
the guest so that they feel respected, special and honored. All these cleansing
and decorations matter a lot in our celebrations. What more should it be if the
celebration is for (to welcome) the Lord? – that too in our hearts! We need to
do thorough cleansing of our hearts, decorate our behaviours with holy virtues and
adorn ourselves with exemplary and holy living.
The birth of Jesus on earth is to bring peace
to humanity. He is the prince of peace. Peace involves two people: giver and
receiver. The receiver of peace feels sorry of the debts for not being able to
pay the due and the giver shows mercy by cancelling the debts so that there ends
the life of commotion and uncertainty and give rise to a new beginning that is
filled with peace. Jesus as giver of peace is all set to give us new life that
is filled with peace. We as receiver of that peace should feel remorse for our
debtedness and repent sincerely. So that we become worthy to receive the peace
that Jesus is offering by His incarnation.
In the first reading (Is 40:1-5, 9-11) God tells the
people of Israel to prepare the way, for He comes to rescue them. John the Baptist
proclaims repentance to welcome the Lord and enter into the kingdom of God in
the Gospel (Mk 1:1-8). We cannot
stop sinning unless we repent for our sins. The repentance teaches us the destructiveness
of sin, the ugly face that sin creates in us and sets us on a track of not falling
back or to repeat the same sinful life. Today also we light the second candle
of advent in the wreath. The second candle symbolizes peace. The Lord wants to
offer peace to everyone. The Lord gives time for all to repent. He is neither slow
nor shows partiality to sinners rather he wants all to repent and become good. At
times, the good people view the forbearance of the Lord toward sinners as
injustice. The wicked may conceive the ill fortunes of the good people as
infidelity of God toward them. But in the second reading (2 Pt 3:8-14) St. Peter clearly tells
that the prime aim of God is to reconcile everyone to Himself. He wants to make
peace with all of us. He is not aiming at punishing the wicked and rewarding
the just. That way of dealing is human. The divine way is to transform the evil
and incorporated the evil into good as just people.
Let this week be a time for one’s own
repentance. Let each one sincerely feel sorry for the sins that one has committed,
both against God and neighbor. To forgive is to divine but to repent is to
human. Let this week be a time for us to be humans by recollecting our sins
that has destroyed our integrity, relationship and holiness. Let our repentance
be so true that we feel awful to repeat those things again in our life. Let this
sincere repentance lead us to holy acceptance and divine peace on the day of
Christmas.
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