Second Sunday of Advent Cycle C

Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).

Someone Is Preparing You for Jesus’ Return

Life is a series of preparations. When we were in our mother’s womb we were prepared by our parents and by the cells multiplying in our body to be born. After we were born we were prepared to grow up. As we grew up we were prepared to go to school, have a job and found a family. In the last stages of our life we are being prepared to leave this planet earth. Life is indeed a series of preparations.

In the life of Jesus both as God and man he was also involved in preparation. He prepared the whole solar system and this planet earth in order to be inhabited by human beings and animals. He also prepared for this coming to earth as a man. He sent prophets, priests and kings to prepare for his coming. He prepared a virgin to conceive him inside her womb.

In the Gospel for today we read that “the word of God was spoken to John son of Zechariah in the desert” (NAB). As a result of this speaking of the word of God, John began the proximate preparation for the public manifestation of Jesus as a preacher.

It was as if Jesus said to John, Now is the time for you to preach that I am coming soon in public. This is true because Jesus is the word of God, as John the evangelist tells us in the first verse of his gospel.

It was Jesus who worked out that John the Baptist would prepare for his coming. As God he enabled Elizabeth, John’s mother, to conceive him even though Elizabeth was already very old. As word of God it was Jesus who prepared John to prepare for his public appearance.

Another John was commissioned by Jesus to prepare for his return to earth or his second coming. This John wrote, “I, John, your brother” (1:9) in the last book of the Bible. Here he wrote to prepare us for Jesus’ second coming. The word of God told him “It is I, Jesus, who have sent my angel to give you this testimony about the churches”. And the last words of Jesus in this book are “Yes, I am coming soon” (22:20).

It was Jesus who sent John the Baptist to prepare the world for his first coming. It was Jesus who sent another John to us to prepare us for his second coming.

Today he sends us persons to prepare us for his second coming. He sent the Holy Spirit to apply the fruits of his redemption in our lives, saving us, making us just before God, sanctifying us and glorifying us even while we are still on earth since even now we can taste Christ’s heavenly glory as “the first payment” of our reward, as Paul the Apostle says in his second letter to the Corinthians 1:22.

In Revelation 5:6 we read that Jesus sent the seven spirits of God to all parts of the world to prepare for his second coming. These spirits are with us in our churches, represented by the seven churches mentioned in the beginning of this book, preparing us for his return.

Then he sends us angels, his ministers who give his message. The book of Revelation is full of mention of these angels. He sends us shepherds of our souls, priests, preachers, catechists, teachers to prepare us for his second coming.

Jesus has inspired the ones who wrote our liturgy for today to have this Gospel according to Luke, chapter 3, verse 1 to 6, to be our reading in order to prepare us for his return. Again and again Jesus told us that he is coming soon.

Right now Jesus himself is preparing your heart and mine to enable you and me to be spotless and without any wrinkle when he arrives on earth for the second time. He is preparing you so that there will be “nothing profane” in you when you enter the new city of Jerusalem where there will be no sun or moon there because the glory of God shall give it light (Revelation 21:22-27).

Let us bow down our heads and pray.

Jesus, you are preparing us for your second coming which is very soon. By your Spirit you are working in our hearts to make us holy and spotless when you appear. Thank you for this salvation prophesied in the Gospel we read today. With Mama Mary we pray, Thy will be done in our lives.