Preaching And You Were Sleeping

Jesus is inviting us to cast our nets in a way that spreads the values of the kingdom that Jesus came to establish. The net that we put out must offer true, abundant, and eternal life – the life of the kingdom of God. The nets that we put out may only reach a few people but if we can strive unceasingly to inspire them and others with the values of the kingdom, then we haul in an abundant catch, neither for ourselves nor for our Church, but for the Lord.

Mary was called “full of grace” because she became the “vessel” to bring Christ into the world. We too must open ourselves to be the vessel to bring God to the world, to one another – becoming a vessel of God’s grace by allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us, with us and in us. However, in order to be God’s vessel, we need to empty ourselves sin, pride, apathy, unforgiveness, and allow God’s grace to heal our weaknesses so that we too can be “full of grace”. Filled with God’s grace, just as John was the voice in the wilderness pointing people to Jesus, Advent calls us to become a light unto others and lead others through the “darkness” to the light of Christ.

On this 3rd Sunday of Advent, on Gaudete Sunday,  we are reminded that this is a time of joy, not only because we are anticipating the celebration of the birth of Christ but because God is already in our midst (Emmanuel – God with us). More than anything, the presence of the Lord in our midst calls us to rejoice and “shout for joy”. However, the joy that we are being reminded of is not one of merriment but one of expectancy and anticipation of the second coming of the Lord.

Advent calls us to turn to the Lord in the expectant hope of the coming of His kingdom. Until that time Advent calls us to deepen our spirit of prayer, reflect more deeply on who this historical Jesus is, what he said, how he lived, so that we will truly be prepared to celebrate the nativity of the Lord.

The readings on this First Sunday of Advent, anchored on God’s promise, point to the realities of peace and fulfilment that will be accomplished by God. The promises of the coming of the Son of Man in the Old Testament, and the promise of the second coming in the New Testament, are indeed promises full of hope – a hope that is not deceptive because God tells the prophet Jeremiah, “I will fulfil the promise I made”. In the meantime, let our vigilance be filled with love, because God is pure love.

The reason why we have this Gospel is that we are approaching the end of our liturgical year. Next Sunday is the Solemnity of Christ the King and then we enter into Advent. That is why today the readings direct our attention to the end of time. Many of us are not only curious about the end times but perhaps also fear the end of the world, the end of time. Let us not forget that the end is also a time to be gathered to the Lord with all who have gone before us and those who may come after us.

The world that we live in often glorifies power, authority, titles, and even what connections a person has – things that we can easily use and even misuse to gain the approval of people. The Gospel today reminds us that it is better to have God approve than the world applaud: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by Him” (2 Timothy 2:15). The Gospel today is very clear that God’s approval is not in material blessings but rather in the sacrifices that we make for the kingdom of God.

As disciples of Jesus, the “two commandments” that Jesus mentions in the Gospel today cannot be separated. They are a manifestation of the same love and the essence of our Christian discipleship. The key message in the Gospel today is that pious religiosity alone do not make us good Christians. If we love God most, we cannot but will love others best – not easy but not impossible. We cannot be an authentic and #1 disciple of Jesus unless we have both – love God and love neighbour.

Today as Church, we celebrate World Mission Day and the theme comes from Acts 4:20: We cannot but speak about what we have seen and heard. These words offer us a new vision of what being on mission means. We are only called to speak that which we have ‘seen and heard’ in our own lives – not about the lives and experiences of others. The essence of being a missionary is not founded on leaving home, but the freedom to share how God has been gracious to each one of us.

The teaching of Jesus in the Gospel today is diametrically different from what the world considers the word ‘servant’ to mean. In fact, the attitude of being a servant is going to be at the core in the way Jesus presents the path of discipleship. To His disciples, Jesus says, “anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all”.