Second Sunday of Advent Cycle A

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).


The Man Who Went Through Unquenchable Fire

Advent is about the different ways that Jesus comes to us. There are four ways that Jesus comes to us, corresponding to the four Sundays of Advent. Last Sunday we celebrated Jesus' coming at the end of the world. Today we celebrate the coming of Jesus into our hearts and lives as savior, enabling us to repent or change our mind and attitude and to receive him in our hearts, to live there.

This is the coming that the great Reformer Bishop St. Charles Borromeo wrote about in his pastoral letter which is the second reading of the Office of Readings in the Monday of the first week of Advent. Here is a portion of that letter.

"The Church asks us to understand that Christ, who came once in the flesh, is prepared to come again. When we remove all obstacles to his presence he will come, at any hour and moment, to dwell spiritually in our hearts, bringing with him the riches of his grace."

In the first reading Isaiah describes to us what kind of man is this who is coming into our hearts. He is a descendant of Jesse who was the father of King David, the spirit of the Lord rests upon him. He has a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD. He fills the earth with the knowledge of God as the water covers the sea. He is the man sought after by the non-Jewish people like us and he has a glorious dwelling among us in our hearts. This is Isaiah's picture of the man Jesus who comes to dwell within us.

The second reading tells us what happens when we receive into our heart this man whom Isaiah describes in the first reading. We are given by the God of endurance and encouragement the ability to think in harmony with one another. Then we welcome one another, as Christ welcomed us, for the glory of God. Then we glorify God for his mercy, praising him and singing praises to his name. This happens when Jesus comes into our hearts.

And the Gospel tells us through John the Baptist what to do to welcome the coming of Jesus in our hearts. John says that we repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This kingdom of heaven is the kingship or rule of Jesus in our hearts. The word "repent" in Greek basically means a change of mind, a change of heart, a change of attitude. Jesus cannot come into our heart and rule over it if we do not change our mind, our mentality, our attitude. John gives us a warning. If we do not produce fruits of repentance we will be like trees whose roots will be uprooted and thrown into the fire. John contrasts his baptism with that of Jesus. He baptizes with water to show that a person has changed his mind, has changed his heart. Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire. Jesus gathers the wheat into his barn but the chaff he burns with unquenchable fire.

Notice carefully what John the Baptist announced to the people who were listening to him. He told them that he baptized persons with water but Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. What is surprising, painful and yet wonderful is that the first person Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire is himself.

We recall what is recorded in the tenth chapter of Mark's Gospel. The disciples James and John, sons of Zebedee, asked Jesus that one of them would sit at his right hand and the other would sit at his left hand. Jesus in answer asked them if they could drink of the cup that he would drink and be baptized with the baptism that he, Jesus, would be baptized.

Here Jesus refers to another baptism that he himself would undergo. Previous to this, in the first chapter of Mark's Gospel we read that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist with water. This was Jesus' baptism with water. This was his first baptism. He was immersed by John the Baptist in the river Jordan.

But Jesus, nine chapters later is described as someone who will be baptized again, this time not with water but with the Holy Spirit and with fire. This is the second baptism of Jesus when he would be immersed not in water but in the power of the Holy Spirit and in fire.

It is surprising because it is Jesus who baptizes himself with fire. It is painful because fire is painful. It is wonderful because by this baptism Jesus delivered us from our sins.

In simple terms Jesus went through suffering as though through fire to save us. The Church doctor St. Catherine of Siena has a very enlightening passage in her book DIALOGUE which describes to us this second baptism of Jesus. She says, "So, by his death the wrath of the Father is pacified, having wrought justice on the person of his son; so he has satisfied justice and has satisfied mercy, releasing the human race from the hands of demons."

In other words the second baptism of Jesus is his suffering and death on the cross which saved us from our sins. This was his baptism by fire. Again St. Catherine writes, "He (Jesus) was our justice, for he took on himself all our offenses and injustices, and performed your obedience, Eternal Father, which you imposed on him, when you clothed him with our humanity, our human nature and likeness."

Jesus was the first one to taste the unquenchable fire that John the Baptist mentions in the ending of our Gospel reading. According to the same doctor St. Catherine this fire is unquenchable because it is not burning a material thing which would be consumed by fire but it is burning with the love of God which cannot be quenched, cannot be put out. She describes God as "Fire above every fire, because you are the only Fire who burn without consuming, and consume all sin and self-love found in the soul, not afflicting her, but fattening her with insatiable love . . .  Supreme and Eternal Fire, Abyss of Charity." God as eternal fire is fire that has no beginning and no end. This is unquenchable fire. This is the fire into which the human Jesus was immersed, was baptized to clean us of our sins.

And he had to do this, go through this unquenchable fire of God's love in suffering because he can not come and live within us if we are sinful. He has to transform us first into just, righteous, holy human beings before he can live within us. This fire, as St. Catherine says, consumes all sin and self-love in us so that Jesus can come and make his dwelling in our hearts. This is too wonderful for us to know.

For our prayer we borrow from yesterday's Antiphon to the Magnificat of Mary in the Church's Evening Prayer.

Let us bow our heads now. "Come to us, Lord, and may your presence be our peace; with hearts made perfect we shall rejoice in your companionship for ever." Amen.

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Note for the readers:

The Mass readings are from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). This is where our Lectionary gets the readings.

NAB stands for New American Bible (before it was revised). This is the translation I use. Unless otherwise stated the text I use is from this translation.

AV stands for Authorized Version of the Bible. It is more commonly referred to as the King James Bible. It is the version most used in English literature, therefore it is the one known more by the English speaking world.

Fourth 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).

The Joy of Every Heart

Léon Bloy was a French writer who lived in the 19^th century. He wrote, “Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.” He was also quoted by Pope Francis in his first homily as Pope. In that quotation he said, ‘He who does not pray to the Lord prays to the devil.’

Leon Bloy tells us that the surest sign that God is present in our lives is that we possess joy, the joy of God himself. If we do not have this joy it means that God is not present in our lives or this presence is not acknowledged by us, not enjoyed by us.

In our Gospel reading today we read Elizabeth telling Mary the mother of Jesus, “The moment your greeting sounded in my ears, the baby leapt in my womb for joy.”

The not-yet born John the Baptist leapt in the womb of his mother Elizabeth for joy. He was joyful because God had come to him and his family in bodily form in the womb of Mary.

Jesus put joy into the heart of John the Baptist even when both of them were still in the wombs of their mothers.

Jesus gives joy to us. He is the source of all our genuine joys. Here are the ways of how Jesus gives joy to us.

First, Jesus gives joy to us as an infant. William and Gloria Gaither once wrote a song entitled, Because He Lives. In that song they sing, “How sweet to hold a newborn baby, And feel the pride and joy he gives;”.

A newborn baby gives joy to its parents. Jesus gives joy to us as a newborn baby. Jesus is God and he came down to earth and was born from our humanity. He was from us. He is as it were our baby and in the spirit through our imagination we can hold him in our arms and feel the joy he gives to us as an infant. Parents have experienced this joy. Older brothers and sisters have experienced the joy of holding their infant brother or sister in their hand. Jesus, especially in this season of Christmas, allows us to feel the joy of holding him as an infant in our arms.

But Jesus gives us more joy than just from holding him as a baby. He gives us joy by redeeming us, saving us from sin. His name literally means, the God Yahweh saves us. He saves us from our sin, from our sins, from our sinfulness and from the effects of sin in our lives.

He saves us from our sin. John the Baptist would later point to Jesus saying, Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This sin is singular. This is the sin by which we all commit all sins. This is the sin of being disobedient to God.

No matter how much we try we will always be disobedient to God because disobedience is in our heart planted there by the first sin of our first parents. It is this disobedience that Jesus took away from us by dying on the cross and rising from the dead. He gives us his new life, a life of obedience to God.

This is what makes us joyful. We were once disobedient to God. Jesus comes to us and makes us obedient to God by giving us a completely new life. This life was given to us in baptism but many of us have not actualized this life. We have not made it actual and real in our life. This is because we fail to follow the instruction of how to make it actual and real in our life. That instruction is in the Word of God, the Bible.

Join me now as I recite the prayer hymn composed by St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Let us bow down our heads to pray.

Jesus, the very thought of You

With sweetness fills the breast;

But sweeter far Your face to see,

And in Your presence rest.

No voice can sing, no heart can frame,

Nor can the memory find

A sweeter sound than Your blest Name,

O Savior of mankind!

O hope of every contrite heart,

O joy of all the meek,

To those who fall, how kind You are!

How good to those who seek!

But what to those who find? Ah, this

No tongue nor pen can show;

The love of Jesus, what it is,

None but His loved ones know.

Jesus, our only joy be You,

As You our prize will be;

Jesus be You our glory now,

And through eternity.

O Jesus, King most wonderful

You Conqueror renowned,

You sweetness most ineffable

In Whom all joys are found!

When once You visit the heart,

Then truth begins to shine,

Then earthly vanities depart,

Then kindles love divine.

O Jesus, light of all below,

You fount of living fire,

Surpassing all the joys we know,

And all we can desire.

Jesus, may all confess Your Name,

Your wondrous love adore,

And, seeking You, themselves inflame

To seek You more and more.

You, Jesus, may our voices bless,

You may we love alone,

And ever in our lives express

The image of Your own.

O Jesus, You the beauty are

Of angel worlds above;

Your Name is music to the heart,

Inflaming it with love.

Celestial sweetness unalloyed,

Who eat You hunger still;

Who drink of You still feel a void

Which only You can fill.

O most sweet Jesus, hear the sighs

Which unto You we send;

To You our inmost spirit cries;

To You our prayers ascend.

Abide with us, and let Your light

Shine, Lord, on every heart;

Dispel the darkness of our night;

And joy to all impart.

Third 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).

The Fire That Purifies Us

Fire has many uses. I have a list of 18 uses. The most common in this list is cooking. We use fire to cook our food. We use it also to give light, to produce heat or warmth, to purify metal, to join metals, to destroy things, to produce a signal, to propel a mechanism, to protect ourselves from wild animals, to preserve energy by trapping it as in a charcoal, to torture, to kill, to clear areas for construction or rehabilitation, to fertilize, to manage a landscape, to clear a filed for planting, to drive vehicles, to produce electrical power.

There may be other uses not in that list. They all tell us that fire is very useful.

There is another use not in that list which most of us are not aware of. Fire is also used to baptize.

When we use or hear the word "baptism" what comes immediately to our mind is water. Water is poured over somebody or someone is immersed in water. We usually do not associate baptism with fire. \

But the gospel reading today tells us of a baptism by fire. We heard John the Baptist announcing, "He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire" (Luke 3:16).  He was referring to Jesus.  He proclaimed that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, in contrast to his baptism by water.

Jesus baptizes by fire  He himself was baptized with fire when he cried out on the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  Here he was referring to that unquenchable fire mentioned also by John the Baptist in our reading. Jesus entered into that fire, was immersed in that fire for us so that we may no longer need to be put there. Jesus redeemed us from that fire. And in order to redeem us from that fire he had to go into that fire. It is like a fireman going into a house blazing with fire in order to rescue its residents trapped there. This is the baptism he referred to when he said, "I have a baptism to receive. What anguish I feel till it is over" (Luke 12:50).

And Jesus is the he one, according to John the Baptist, who baptizes with fire.

The fire that Jesus uses to baptize us with is the agent that destroys the vestiges of sin in us. He said, "I have come to light a fire on the earth. How I wish the blaze were ignited" (Luke 12:49). Fire produces warmth. The two disciples going to Emmaus felt this warmth as they testified, "Were not our hearts burning inside us as he talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32).

Who produced this warmth inside their hearts?  It was Jesus by the fire that accompanied his words as he explained the Scriptures to them.

Today Jesus still produces that fire which gives warmth to our hearts by his words.  He baptizes us with fire through his words, purifying us from the remains of sin in us.

During this last meal with his disciples before he died he told them, "You are clean already , thanks to the word I have spoken to you" (John 15:3). His words produces the fire that cleans us of the dirt of sin in us. As we listen to Jesus like his disciples going to Emmaus we feel a burning inside our hearts. This fire keeps us close to Jesus, providing us with the strength and perseverance not only to live a truly Christian life but also to be equipped with the proper attitudes to prepare for his first and second coming.

Do you have a sin in your life which you want to get rid of but you have not succeeded despite your trying and trying again? Do you have unseemly tendencies which continue to bother you? a quick temper? a tendency to use profane language? a proclivity to think about sexual enjoyment outside of marriage? An attraction to a person of your sex? These are vestiges of sin in your life waiting for purification by the baptism of fire from Jesus. Turn to him and be baptized by fire.

This purification, as St. John of the Cross taught, will be passive since you have tried your best but have failed. You simply give in to the purification of Jesus . He purifies you by his word. Listen to him. One word from him is enough to cure you of your vexatious malady. As we pray just before communion, "just say the word and I shall be healed." Let us bow down our heads to pray.

Jesus, you came to baptize us with fire. You produce fire in our hearts to warm them so that we be purified of the effects of sin in our lives. Thank you for this baptism of fire. Thank you for going through yourself the baptism of unquenchable fire so that we may escape the fires of hell.  Amen.

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.

First 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).

The Precision of Jesus’ Knowledge of the Future and our Present

When we lie down at night to sleep we are confident that the sun will shine on the morrow. We know this for a certainty. The knowledge of what will happen the next day is sure enough for most of us. At the beginning of the month we know that on the 15^th or end of that month we will receive our salary or wage, for those of us who are working for others. We also know this for a certainty. Some events may intervene which would invalidate this knowledge, like sickness or an accident. Whether for a day or for a month we know things in advance. The farther the time the more uncertain we are of the future. More or less we know that one year from now you and I will still be living. But this is not sure knowledge because we know that we can be dead by then from an accident or sickness, God forbid. And ten years from now we really do not know what will happen. The economy may crash again, the political situation will be in an upheaval, the environment may be devastated. Much more if it is a century or one hundred years from now. For sure we will no longer be here. So we really do not know what will happen then.

But with Jesus he knew precisely what would happen centuries from where he stood.

In his life he knew precisely what would happen days or weeks ahead of time. He knew, as recorded in Matthew 21:1-3, that as he was speaking a man would tie his colt and that his disciples would get that colt and bring it to him. As early as in Matthew 16 Jesus knew that he would suffer and he knew precisely how he would suffer. He did not just say that he would meet a violent death. In Matthew 20 he told us that it was the scribes and chief priests who would find fault with him, then he would be handed to the Romans, he would be made sport of, flogged and crucified. He knew the details.   

But Jesus’ precise knowledge of the future did not apply only to his personal life. He knew also what would happen years after his resurrection and ascension to heaven. In fact he knew what would happen centuries later.

The Gospel for today’s Sunday tells us the details of Jesus’ knowledge of the future. He told us, “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.

People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man

coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”

He used the future tense in the indicative mood. He did not say, Maybe this or that will happen because of this or that. He went straight to the future facts: the sun, moon and stars will behave abnormally, nations will be in dismay, the seas will roar with waves that are gigantic. Then he will come in a cloud with great power and glory.

But this knowledge of Jesus was not only about the big events in this world. He knew precisely what would happen to us. In fact because he now is Lord of this world he knows what is happening to each one of us. And he knows what will happen to us. That is why he counselled us in the Gospel reading “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.”

He knows that we will be anxious about our daily life and that this anxiety will take away attention from him. That is why he tells us in Matthew 6:26-34 to stop worrying about our today or our tomorrow.

He knows what is happening to each of us now. For those of you who have actualized the grace given you in baptism you know that Jesus lives in you. There inside you he knows what is happening to you. As the Psalmist says in Psalm 139, “Truly you have formed my inmost being, ... My soul also you knew full well, ... your eyes have seen my actions”.

For those of you who have not undergone the conversion which enables you to be fully conscious of being truly a child of God, Jesus is waiting that you surrender your life to him so that he can take over your affairs. Unless you do this, you will be trapped by the cares of this life. Now is the time to surrender to him, as the Little Flower St. Therese of the Child Jesus advices us. For her this is the new and shortcut road to perfection, love and unconditional surrender to Jesus as Lord of our personal life.

Jesus knows what is happening to us because he knew this centuries ago. He takes care of us, if we let him do it.

Let us bow down our heads and pray.

Jesus, you prophesied your second coming centuries ago. You knew then what would happen to us. You know what is happening to us now. Because you have resurrected and ascended to heaven and you have sent your Spirit to us we know that you are present among us and in each of us. Make us follow your advice not to worry about our daily life because you care for us. Amen.