We are preparing for Christmas. Samson's story will help us.

Elijah is the star of the first reading of the mass today. He is famous for his word's power and call to repentance. This latter made the Israelites think that St. John the Baptist was Elijah come again. The first characteristic awed everybody. He commanded a famine to strike at Israel to get them to focus back on what was essential, i.e., God. Do we need a calamity to get us back on track in our relationship with God? The Lord is coming. The time is nigh!

The Church is about to begin the Novena for Christmas. These a special masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary said at early dawn. These are different from the usual Advent Masses for the specific day before the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Mother the Church encourages us in this way to pay attention to Our Lady. There is no better way than to stay with Her to welcome Jesus. Imitating Her is the way.

God is coming! God is with us since He is Emmanuel! Despite how sin rendered us puny and dirty, useless and damned, the Savior will raise us up to glory and unlock our true potential for eternity. We will be able to go beyond this worldly existence of great achievements and do something of eternal value to fulfill our deepest aspirations. Come Lord Jesus! We are eager for you to come to fix me. Hence, we give Him the chance to work on us!

Isaiah writes in the first reading of the mass today about the God of the Heavens, contrasting Him from the gods that littered the Babylonian landscape. He wrote this during the Babylonian Captivity of the Israelites.

Today we celebrate the feast of the Our Lady of Guadalupe. We spoke a bit about her during the memorial of St. Juan Diego a few days ago. The most moving thing that Our Lady said to this Indian convert was about what he thought about her. She asked him rhetorically. The reply to her queries was a resounding yes. She wants us to remember that we are her children and she is our Mother in Heaven.

We are happy to the extent that we have hope. If our hopes are squat and lowly, i.e., limited only the good things of this world, then we have ample reason not to be that happy. Only when we keep our sights on our faith and that we hope in the eternal prize, then we shall be joyful.

This would be the best way to prepare for the coming of the Lord, i.e., for the commemoration of His first coming on Christmas Day and for the second coming of the Lord, when from His seat at the right hand of God He would come to judge the living and the dead.

We need to work on this preparation for the coming of the Savior. We need to want to receive Him as our Savior. Otherwise, God is rendered helpless to help us. He does not force us to do what we do not want to do. This especially applies to being brought to heaven. We simply need to be open to Him, to His action and His Will. He cannot save us unless we want to be saved.

We celebrate today the memorial of St. Ambrose. From him, we should realize our responsibility with the words we use relative to the people around us. We may inspire, discourage or hurt the others depending on the words we use. St. Ambrose was the bishop of Milan in the middle of the fourth century. St. Augustine used to love listening to him. He was instrumental in St. Augustine's conversion.