Weekly Reflections for December 5, 2021

This week, we mark the Second Sunday of Advent. The Church continues its preparation for the celebration of Christmas as we faithful wait with hope for Christ’s Second Coming. Today’s Gospel reading (Lk 3:1-6) recounts the travels of Saint John the Baptist as he preached of the Messiah’s coming and man’s need for repentance of sins. Fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah, Saint John called out, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”

In this passage, the forerunner of Christ charged those around him, and we who read his words today, to ready ourselves for Jesus’ arrival. As Our Lord revealed during His public ministry, no one but God the Father knows when Christ will return to the world. And so, we must always be ready for Him.

This Advent season, let’s be sure to keep Jesus at the center of our lives. Despite the anxieties of the world, the distractions of daily life, and the temptations of secular culture, this is the perfect opportunity to turn to Christ with all our being. In this way, we can make ourselves ready to meet Him when He comes again.

And as we wait patiently, let’s also utilize the grace that Christ gives us in our encounters with Him at Mass, in the sacraments, and in prayer. Looking around our community and beyond, we can see many others who do not seem to feel the joy of Christmas. Now is the time to share the love of God, and our Christian joy, with everyone around us. Be the face of Christ to those who do not yet know Him.

The Catechism teaches us that:

524 When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming. By celebrating the precursor’s birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his desire: “He must increase, but I must decrease.

By Chris Brooks