Pastor’s Weekly Letter: December 9, 2018

Pastor’s Weekly Letter: December 9, 2018

7 Dec 2018 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear friends,

The month of December includes many great feasts within the Catholic Liturgical Calendar. The season of Advent begins a whole new Church year. We are invited to once again remember and celebrate all the mysteries of our faith. We celebrate over and over the Christian mysteries and feasts in order to re-experience the significance and deepen our faith in God’s Saving Mysteries. Within Advent, we celebrate the Immaculate Conception of Mary and Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe. These two great feasts of Mary remind us the extent to which God will extend Himself to save us. Advent is a time of waiting. We wait for a holy end to the world and each of our lives. We wait for the coming remembrance of the Incarnation of Jesus at Christmas. The process of waiting, though, is not just one of patient endurance, but also one of preparation. The Advent time of preparation is a spiritual cleansing and renewal of the soul in order to renew our awe in God born in humility. May the Lord help us to experience the gift of renewal from a successful preparation for Christmas.

With the 2^nd Sunday of Advent, the Church reads St. John the Baptist. John is seen as the bridge from the Old to the New Testaments. The Old Testament records the promises of God to visit His people, to save all from sin and death. The prophets of the Old Testament paved the way for the Messiah, the savior to enter the world. The Gospels not only record the life of Jesus, but also the life of John the Baptist that pointed to the Christ. John was called to start a ministry to challenge people to repentance and forgiveness. John lived a simple life in the wilderness. People came to John to listen, to be baptized, and to experience forgiveness. John understood himself to be “the voice” that Isaiah the Prophet predicted would point out the Christ. This is what happened and what the Gospel reveals this Sunday. The day that Jesus approached John for baptism, John resisted out of humility but ultimately baptized Jesus and saw the Spirit descend. John later pointed to Jesus and said, “behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” These same words said at Mass when the Eucharistic is presented to the people, remind us that God is present. One of my favorite passages about John the Baptist comes later when John sits in prison. John spoke against King Herod and was imprisoned. While jailed John reflects on his life.  He sends two of his disciples to Jesus to ask Him, “are you the one to come, or should we look for another?” I think we can sit with John in the prison and pray that we have done what the Lord has asked of us. I personally don’t believe that John doubted Jesus or his own mission to point out Jesus as the Messiah; but, the fear of failure can creep into all of us. Jesus told the disciples of John to go back and tell him in prison that the “blind walk, the lame see, and blessed is the one that takes no offense at me.” These words would have been a comfort to John prior to his own death. As we pray with John the Baptist this week, may we all seek to do our best in the name of the Lord, while always trusting that the Lord can bring good out of any mistake or failure in life.  May the Lord console our hearts, that we might join John in always pointing to the truth in the Lamb of God, Jesus the Christ.

God bless you,

Fr. David