MY daily reflection and prayer:
Sunday, Desember 6, 2015
The Second Sunday of Advent
Dear my friends,
Here is the Gospel for us today according to St. Luke 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, in the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness; and he went into all the region about the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.
***
TODAY we are in the second Sunday of Advent. In preparing ourselves to welcome Jesus Christ, we are invited to listen the voice of God which is proclaimed by St. John the Baptist.
Who is St. John the Baptist and what is the significance of the word which he received and delivered to the people of his day for us today? According to St. Luke, St. John the Baptist is the son of Zechariah, a priest who served in the temple at Jerusalem. He bridges the Old and New Testaments, also known as the Old and New Covenants which God has made with his people.
St. John the Baptist is filled and led by the Spirit to proclaim Jesus Christ who has come among us. As the angel has said, “he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:13,15). We read the Gospel of St. Luke, when he received his name shortly after birth, his father prophesied that he would be “called the prophet of the Most High who will go before the Lord to prepare his ways” (Luke 1:76).
So, St. John the Baptist is called to be a prophet, a spokesman for God. His mission is to prepare the way for God’s Anointed King, Jesus Christ, who will come to establish God’s rule above all other kings and authorities. In the Gospel today, St. John the Baptist preaches a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He fullfills what is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet as the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
It means that St. John the Baptist is the courier and great herald of Jesus Christ, the Messiah King, who proclaims to all the peoples that the impending reign of God is now very close at hand. What can we learn from St. John the Baptist?
We must prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus Christ everyday. We prepare Jesus’ coming by conversion and repentance (Luke 3:7). Conversion means receiving God’s word into our heart and mind and allowing his Word to change our attitudes and wrong ways of thinking and acting. Repentance means turning away from sin (wrong-doing) and turning to God to receive his pardon, healing, and strength to do what is good and reject what is wrong.
In the Perpetual Adoration of the Eucharist while worshipping Jesus Christ, we express our corversion and repentance. Let’s be hungry for the Word of God and allow his word to transform the way we think, speak, and live our lives.
Let’s pray: Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Word of God and the Savior of the world. Help us to repe receive your Word with expectant faith, and to live it with confident hope, and to proclaim it joyfully with love and boldness to all we meet now and forever. Amen.
Kredit foto: Ilustrasi (Ist)
