December 29th : Feast of the Holy Family - Jesus-Mary-Joseph

 First
Reading       : Isaiah 63:7-9
Psalm                    : Psalm 148
Second
Reading : Hebrews 2:10-18
Gospel                  : Matthew 2:13-23
 
On this Sunday we celebrate the feast of “The Holy Family of
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,” which is very much part of this season and it
enables us to continue to ponder the mystery of Christmas and learn the lessons
that this season has to teach us. Actually, the birthday celebration of
the Christ child naturally leads us to contemplate the Holy Family of Jesus,
Mary and Joseph as model of all Christian families. For a large part of his life Jesus
was part of a family, but his family-life is shrouded in mystery. We always
imagine that the Holy Family must have been an extremely happy family. Yet,
like every other family, it too had from time to time its ups and downs, its
joys and sorrows, its problems and difficulties. In fact, challenges faced them
right from the very beginning. In the Gospel Reading of today from St. Matthew
which is unique to his Gospel, we have the story of 'the Flight into Egypt.' It
shows us that not even the Holy Family was spared the trials and sufferings of
every family. But they are called a “HOLY” family because they sought God’s
purposes in their lives and not their own comforts. This family is holy because God is
present in it and also it is responsive to the demanding word of
God spoken in the very trying circumstances of their daily lives. Let
us ask the Holy Family to bless all our families. 

December 25 : Christmas Day - God had visited us

 First
Reading       : Isaiah 9:2-7  Psalm                    : Psalm 96 Second
Reading : Titus 2:11-14 Gospel                  : Luke 2:1-14,
(15-20)
Today we
celebrate Christmas, the mystery of Incarnation, God becoming man, the
astonishing entrance that God made into our broken world. Again and again the
beauty of this Gospel astonishes us that God makes himself a child so that we
may love him, so that we may dare to love him, and as a child trustingly lets
himself be taken into our arms. It is as if God were saying: I know that my
glory frightens you, and that you are trying to assert yourself in the face of
my grandeur. So now I am coming to you as a child, so that you can accept me
and love me. God is born for us but the question is whether we are ready to
welcome him. The most unfortunate and the saddest sentence is found in the
Gospel of Luke: “There was no place for them in the Inn” (Lk
2:7). Centuries have passed but this stark reality still continues in our
lives. God wants to come in but we keep our doors closed. Why should we not
also be moved by curiosity to see more closely and to know what God has said to
us? At this hour, let us ask him to touch our hearts with the holy curiosity
and the holy joy of the shepherds, and thus let us go over joyfully to
Bethlehem, to the Lord who today once more comes to meet us. Amen

December 22 : Fourth Sunday in Advent: Joseph, the just man

First
Reading       : Isaiah 7:10-16 Psalm                    : Psalm 80:1-7,
17-19 Second
Reading : Romans 1:1-7 Gospel                  : Matthew 1:18-25 Today is the
fourth Sunday in Advent. Christmas will dawn in few days. Matthew’s story of
the birth of Jesus centres on the person of Joseph. The mystery is so great
that Joseph cannot understand what is happening. In his puzzlement, the Lord
calls Joseph to a remarkable act of faith and obedience. Joseph, in wordless
response to the word of God communicated by an angel, rose and ‘took his wife to
his home’. A total and unquestioning acceptance of the word of God is Joseph’s
first action in Matthew’s infancy story. St. Joseph shows us the value of grace
under pressure. He always found himself in emergency situations during the
brief period of his life on earth: having to accept a young wife who is
pregnant before they are married, having to travel to faraway Bethlehem, having
to flee as refugees into Egypt etc. He had to face a lot of pressure, a lot of
crisis and a lot of emergency situations but God’s grace was sufficient for
him. St. Bernard comments that God never gives us a challenge or a call or a
duty without the sufficient grace to accomplish it. Joseph leads the way and
shows us the quality of trust and commitment to the coming of God, which should
mark the lives of each and every one of us this Christmas.

December 15 : Third Sunday of Advent - Rejoice

 
First Reading       :  Isaiah 35:1-10 Psalm                    :  Psalm 146:5-10 Second Reading :  James 5:7-10 Gospel                  :  Matthew 11:2-11
 
The third Sunday of Advent is
called the "Gaudete Sunday" -- Rejoice Sunday, the
Sunday of joy. The Liturgy speaks of Joy in order to give us courage since our
hearts can easily become frightened and weighed down by the hardships we face.
We can lose patience in our sufferings as we await the coming of the Lord.
That’s what happened to John the Baptist as we hear in today’s Gospel. He is in
a dungeon, the victim of a petty tyrant and his vengeful, immoral consort. It
is just possible that, in the dark, vile hole of a prison John is having some
doubts about Jesus as the Messiah. Therefore Jesus gives John the reassurance,
echoing the words of the Prophet Isaiah, that He is truly the awaited messiah. All of us are searching for
happiness, but why are so few truly happy and even those who are happy
are only happy for such a short time? It is because our approach is
wrong. We go up the wrong side and we decide to take the wrong way up.
Revelation says: "God is love," but man has tried to
reverse the phrase so that it says: "Love is God"! Thus,
when we say, "Happiness is God," we divinize our little experiences;
we make happiness into an idol. This explains why he who seeks God always
finds joy while he who seeks joy does not always find God. Therefore let us
pray that we will always ‘seek joy in the Lord’.

Dec 8 : Second Sunday in Advent - A voice crying in the wilderness

 First
Reading       :  Isaiah 11:1-10 Psalm                    :  Psalm 72:1-7,
18-19  Second
Reading :  Romans 15:4-13  Gospel                  :  Matthew 3:1-12
 
The Church’s use of John the Baptist over the
Advent Season invites us to join John’s audience in these days of preparation.
The kingdom of heaven is at hand, and the one who is able to separate the wheat
from the chaff is coming. John never saw a superhighway, but he uses the image
in order to prepare the way for the coming of the world’s most wonderful and
most extraordinary traveller, the Messiah Jesus, into our lives. The highway
John wishes to construct is within our hearts. It hasn't a number, but it does
have a name-conversion. Conversion results when a person realizes
profoundly that the message and the life of Jesus make sense and is infinitely
desirable. Conversion takes place when Jesus and his message cut through the
moments of pain, tears, worry, fear and uneasiness in our lives. Conversion
means meeting Jesus in his word and allowing Him to become directly involved in
our lives. Once this happens, life can never be the same for us.