Monday 12 December
Monday of the 3rd week of Advent or Our Lady of Guadalupe Gospel - Matthew 21:23-27 “So their reply to Jesus was, ‘We do not know.’”. We deny the truth for our own convenience. Either we don’t want to accept the truth, or we don’t want to change the truth. Both start with this, “We do not know”. When we say this there is already in our mind, the picture of the fact which we want to create with our denial of the truth. The denial of the truth to create our own “truths”. Jesus completely goes away from this scene. “And he retorted, ‘Nor will I tell you my authority for acting like this.’”. Jesus does not want to share His truth to this situation. When we deny the truth or when we don’t accept the truth, Jesus does not want to share His truth with us. We remain in the darkness. Advent is the time to accept to truth to be in the truth of Jesus.
Sunday 11 December
3rd Sunday of Advent Gospel - Matthew 11:2-11 “John in his prison had heard what Christ was doing and he sent his disciples to ask him”. Hearing about Jesus Christ evokes in him the desire to send disciples to ask him. Hearing and sending. Listening does not stop there. It moves to action. That is the Word of God. John is sending the disciples to Jesus to see the changes, to see the person of Jesus. The disciples of John saw, “the blind see again, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor;”. Jesus said to them, “Go back and tell John what you hear and see”. They went back to John. This is again the Word of God. Hearing and going back. It starts with listening, then going out of oneself to see Jesus and then going back to interiorize what you have seen and heard. Going out and going back make the life complete. Going out hearing the Word of God to search for an experience of God and once you found that experience, you go back to make it part of your life. Advent is the time to go in search of Jesus by listening to the Word of God and then go back to one’s own life to interiorize that meeting with Jesus.
Saturday 10 December
Saturday of the 2nd week of Advent or Our Lady of Loreto Gospel - Matthew 17:10-13 “I tell you that Elijah has come already and they did not recognise him but treated him as they pleased; and the Son of Man will suffer similarly at their hands”. When the prophetic voice is not heard, the Son of Man will have to suffer. What is the prophetic voice? “The disciples understood then that he had been speaking of John the Baptist”. The prophetic voice is the voice to repent and to be humble. “Bear fruit worthy of repentance (Matt.3:8). When the prophetic voice is not recognized by the Church the way of Christ will suffer. When the prophetic voice is not recognized by a community, the truth of Christ will suffer. When the prophetic voice is not recognized by a family, the live of Christ will suffer. When each one of us fail to recognize the prophetic voice, the presence of Christ will suffer. Advent is the time to bear the fruits of repentance: humility.