Sunday 2 December 2012
First Sunday of Advent C
Jer. 33:14-16, Psalm 24:4-5, 8-9, 10.14.Rv.1, 1Thess.3:12-4:2, Luke 21:25-28, 34-36.
I am going to fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
May the Lord confirm your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless.
They will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory
First reading
Jeremiah 33:14-16
See, the days
are coming – it is the Lord who speaks – when I am going to fulfil
the promise I made to the House of Israel and the House of Judah:
‘In those days
and at that time,
I will make a
virtuous Branch grow for David,
who shall
practise honesty and integrity in the land.
In those days
Judah shall be saved
and Israel shall
dwell in confidence.
And this is the
name the city will be called:
The-Lord-our-integrity.’
Psalm 103: “ The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to
anger and abounding in steadfast love… 10He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so
great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;12 as far as the east is from the west, so far he
removes our transgressions from us. 13 As a father has compassion for his children, so
the Lord has compassion for those who fear him. 14For he knows how we were made; he remembers
that we are dust.”
Numbers
23:19 “ God is
not a human being, that he should lie, or a mortal, that he should change his
mind. Has he promised, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not
fulfill it”?
Because the prophet believed this, he could say
that God will keep his promises and in his mercy send a Saviour in the family
of David. Jesus is the fulfilment of this promise. Have you wholeheartedly
received Jesus? Is the man Jesus who is Son of God the model for your life? Do
you follow him in a life of justice, peace and love?
Psalm
Psalm 24:4-5,8-9,10,14
To you, O Lord,
I lift up my soul.
Lord, make me
know your ways.
Lord, teach me
your paths.
Make me walk in
your truth, and teach me:
for you are God
my saviour.
To you, O Lord,
I lift up my soul.
The Lord is good
and upright.
He shows the
path to those who stray,
He guides the
humble in the right path,
He teaches his
way to the poor.
To you, O Lord,
I lift up my soul.
His ways are
faithfulness and love
for those who
keep his covenant and law.
The Lord’s
friendship is for those who revere him;
to them he
reveals his covenant.
To you, O Lord,
I lift up my soul.
Jesus is
the Way, the Truth and the Life. We must always keep our eyes on Jesus in the
Gospel. We are to learn and practice his values. Heis the fulfilment of this
psalm too. To know the ways of the Lord is to know Jesus. To walk in his Truth
is to follow the teaching of Jesus. We will then enjoy the friendship of God
come to us in the form of man. With that we lack nothing.
____________________
Second reading
1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2
May the Lord be
generous in increasing your love and make you love one another and the whole
human race as much as we love you. And may he so confirm your hearts in
holiness that you may be blameless in the sight of our God and Father when our
Lord Jesus Christ comes with all his saints.
Finally, brothers, we urge you and appeal to you in
the Lord Jesus to make more and more progress in the kind of life that you are
meant to live: the life that God wants, as you learnt from us, and as you are
already living it. You have not forgotten the instructions we gave you on the
authority of the Lord Jesus.
God is the God of Love. He gave himself so that we may
live. Our vocation is to love. We are to make love the goal of our life. We
love, starting with those with whom we live and we move outwards to the whole
world.
____________________
Gospel Acclamation
Ps84:8
Alleluia,
alleluia!
Let us see, O
Lord, your mercy
and give us your
saving help.
Alleluia!
____________________
Gospel
Luke 21:25-28,34-36
Jesus said to
his disciples: ‘There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars; on earth
nations in agony, bewildered by the clamour of the ocean and its waves; men
dying of fear as they await what menaces the world, for the powers of heaven
will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with
power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand erect, hold
your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.
‘Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened with
debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life, and that day will be sprung
on you suddenly, like a trap. For it will come down on every living man on the
face of the earth. Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive
all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of
Man.’
Have you seen the real world?
Believe in God or do not believe. Believe in this god or that god,
this religion or that religion. Does it make any difference? The world we live
in looks the same to the believer as to the unbeliever. Of whatever religion or
none we are all part of the cycle of birth, growth, struggle, sickness and
finally death. We all have to make a living, we all meet difficulties and
tragedies. We all have to die. Life is hard for unbeliever and believer alike.
Each generation comes and each generation goes. History describes the misery
caused by the foolishness of the ‘wise men’ of their generation. Is there
anything beyond what we see? Religions say ‘yes’, secular man says, ‘where is
the evidence?’ If we look for a two-plus-two-equals-four type of argument we
will be disappointed.
Is there another way? We can enter the silence of our own heart and
listen to our spirit speaking. If we are to find the truth, we will find it inside
ourselves, not on a mountaintop, or in some shrine or temple. Faced with life,
the first question I must ask myself is, do I really want to know the truth? Is
my great desire to know the truth about life, my destiny, my death? Is it a
passion? Am I happy to keep myself occupied with my job, my family affairs,
social life? Am I satisfied with some rituals in a temple, some prayers in a
church, belonging to this religion or that? Is it enough for me to flit from
this to that, keep myself excited by the merry-go-round of life, till some tragedy strikes me or those I love.
Today on the first Sunday of Advent, we begin a new year of search
for the Truth. The Truth alone will make us free. What is the Truth, said
Pilate? The Truth speaks to us in the silence of our own heart. Leave the
market place and the swirl of life. Enter into the cave of your own heart.
Someone awaits you there. He is the Truth. “To you Lord, I lift up my soul” – I
surrender, I open my ear to listen, make me walk in your truth, teach me your
path. The Lord is good and upright but he only guides the humble and he only
teaches the poor. Drop everything especially your ego. Surrender to Truth.
The price I must pay for liberation from the illusion of this world
is the earnest desire to meet the Truth in the depth of who I am is.
Father, grant that this Advent I may seriously search
in my heart for the Truth you have planted there.
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