Pastor’s Letter: December 8, 2019

Pastor’s Letter: December 8, 2019

6 Dec 2019 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear friend,

Advent is a time to remember and live the importance of preparing for our eternal encounter with God. The Scriptures offer advice on this form of preparing. No matter the day or hour, we know we will die. Our faith reveals some very simple realities: God exists, God created us equal in His image and likeness, God invites us to live according the moral life, and we will provide an account of this at death. All that being said, the Scriptures are filled with hope for those who prepare for that moment by developing a relationship with God. “There is no greater love than laying down one’s life for a friend,” says Jesus.  God is love and love is selfless sacrifice. We love, then, by doing what is good for the other. The challenge is to take each of these Biblical notions and apply them to each moment of life. If we love God, we do what is good for our relationship with Him. We talk to Him, we pray to Him, we work to change our behavior to coincide with His truth.

With the 2^nd Sunday of Advent, the Church reads about St. John the Baptist. John is seen as the bridge from the Old to the New Testaments. The Old Testament records the promises of God to visit His people, to save all from sin and death. The prophets of the Old Testament paved the way for the Messiah to enter the world. Prior to pointing out Jesus, John’s ministry challenged people to repentance and forgiveness. People came to John to listen, to be baptized, and to experience forgiveness. John understood himself to be “the voice” that Isaiah the Prophet predicted would point out the Christ or Messiah. The day that Jesus approached John for baptism, John resisted out of humility, but ultimately baptized Jesus and saw the Spirit descend. The next day John pointed to Jesus and said, “behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” These same words said at Mass, when the Eucharistic is presented to the people, remind us that God is present. One of my favorite passages about John the Baptist comes later when John is imprisoned. While jailed John reflects on his life.  He sends two of his disciples to Jesus to ask Him, “are you the one to come, or should we look for another?” In one way or another, we all think and pray that we have completed the life task the Lord put before us. The fear of failure that tempts us all got to John as he sat alone in prison. Jesus told the disciples of John to go back and tell him that the “blind walk, the lame see, and blessed is the one that takes no offense at me.” Certainly these words comforted John prior to his death. As we pray with John the Baptist this week, may we all seek to do our best in the name of the Lord, while always trusting that the Lord can bring good out of any mistake or failure in life. May the Lord console our hearts to join John in always pointing to the truth of the Lamb of God, Jesus the Christ.

God bless,

Father David