Somebody’s Coming to Town (2nd Sunday Advent B)

I could still remember my delight when I was chosen among others to be part of the concelebration of the Mass with Pope Francis when he came to Manila in January of 2015.

There was so much preparation in all parts of the country because Pope Francis was coming. All over the nation a prayer was said in every mass in all our Churches that Pope Francis’ visit may bless us and that it may turn us into a people of compassion and mercy especially in our dealing with the poor in our society. In Pampanga a musical entitled “I Love Pope Francis” had been shown to help Catholics know more about the awaited Pope. In Palo, Leyte, Ground Zero of the world’s strongest typhoon ever, the construction of Pope Francis’ Center for the Poor was completed and Pope Francis himself was to bless it for the use of orphans and the elderly.  

A real sense of anticipation and preparation can animate people. It can evoke creativity and commitment. It can challenge the people to embrace the values that represent that which they are waiting for. It can indeed transform a people. The season of Advent is a season of anticipation and preparation. Someone mightier than John the Baptist, and than anyone else, is coming. We await the coming of our Lord, the Messiah. And our readings today instruct us on how we ought to prepare. Let us examine then the message of John the Baptist, a very important Advent figure, and second, the exhortation of Peter in the second reading.

John’s call for Repentance and Acceptance of the Messiah.  As a voice crying out in the desert, John echoes Isaiah’s call for the preparation of the way of the Lord: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” In the gospel reading (Mk 1:1-8), John offers two ways of a meaningful preparation—repentance and acceptance of the Mighty One.

John the Baptist knows what is needed in preparing the way of the Lord. He calls for repentance.  He invites people to change their hearts by submitting themselves to baptism, wherein the symbol of the water effects an interior cleansing.  An integral part of John’s baptism is the acknowledgement of sins. Hence, we read that “the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins” (v. 5).  When one confesses his/her sins, the person names his/her sins thus gaining control over its power while at the same time accepting the responsibility. 

Personal conversion involves our decision to be open to God’s power to cleanse us of our sins through his mercy so that we gain the strength to turn away from the ways of this world.

John’s message though is not just about turning away from sins and from the ways of this world. More important perhaps is where he points us to. John the Baptist, despite his growing fame and the admiration of his followers, never sees himself as greater than Jesus, the One who is to come.  He assumes a posture of a humble servant or even lower than a servant as he claims unworthiness even to untie the Lord’s sandals. He steadfastly fulfils his mission, which is to prepare for the coming of Christ and to point people to Him. So as he baptizes them and exhorts them to turn away from sin, he points them to Jesus that they may turn towards him and accept Jesus as their saviour.

In this Advent season, we ask the grace to be brave enough to turn away from our sinfulness and turn towards Jesus our Saviour. Repentance and loving acceptance of our Lord ought to be our advent aspirations.

Peter’s exhortation towards Holiness and Devotion.  In the second reading (2 Pt 3:8-14), Peter writes about the coming of the Day of the Lord like a thief. As the disciples await the Day of the Lord, Peter exhorts them in these words: “Since everything is to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought (you) to be, conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God...”

Our lives ought to be marked by holiness. For Peter, the Greek word "anastrophe" refers directly to the way we act, our behavior.  Hence holiness is about how we follow the example of the goodness of Christ relating and treating other people with respect and love. It is about how we accept every opportunity to serve and to do what is good to those who are in need around us.

The second quality St. Peter exhorts us to have is devotion. The Greek word is "eusebia” which refers not so much to our actions as to the attitude underlying our actions. It’s the disposition of our hearts like the joyful reverence towards our Lord and our God. As such, devotion is not about saying a lot of prayers. It is more a matter of a consistent personal and intimate relationship with the Lord. To be devoted to the Lord is to joyfully and lovingly offer ourselves in relationship with Jesus whom we await.

Hence, in this season of Advent we aspire to grow in holiness in our dealings with others and to deepen our devotion to the Lord.

Again, real anticipation animates us. Let us be animated by the anticipation of the Lord’s coming in Christmas.  In this season of Advent, let us heed John’s call to turn away from our sins and turn towards the Mighty One, Jesus. Or in the words of Peter, let our lives be characterized by “holiness” in all that we do and marked by “devotion” to our Lord.

Faithfulness to God, Faithfulness to the Family (Santo Niño)

At the vigil mass of the Solemnity of Christmas, a bishop, the presider, was amazed at how the people had decorated the cathedral with so much lights that glow with festivity and joy. But as he was about to intone the Gloria, he approached the Belen to get the image of the baby Jesus to be raised for veneration. Only then he discovered that the baby Jesus had a broken arm. In his homily, he mentioned something like this: “We have exerted so much effort to make the cathedral look like a five-star hotel on Christmas day that we’ve lost our grip of the very reason we celebrate.”

Amidst the hurly-burly of Christmas festivity, it was not really difficult to lose our focus on Jesus. Great was the possibility of us being consumed by the external preparations it demanded, the fund-raising schemes that went with it, the collection and distribution of gifts here, there and everywhere, etc.

Today’s celebration is another chance to fix our eyes on Jesus and open our hearts to the message and the challenges the child Jesus has to offer us. The feast of the Santo Niño is particularly significant to us Filipinos because it was the image of the child Jesus that was first instrumental to the introduction of Christian faith to us. When we dance the sinulog step, we recall the joy of Hara Amihan, wife of Rajah Humabon, the ruler of Cebu in 1521, as she danced upon receiving the image of the Santo Niño as baptismal gift from Magellan.

The disarming charm of a child could have made the introduction of faith a lot easier perhaps. But the child Jesus that we Filipinos have venerated and loved for centuries now is the same Jesus who emptied himself on the cross and who demanded that his disciples carry their crosses too. Hence, the devotion to the child Jesus has to move beyond and deeper than merely recognizing the Santo Niño’s charm.

Popular piety has tended to flock to the image of the Santo Niño for its supposed ‘lucky charm,’ or ‘miraculous powers.’ While it’s a function of faith to trust in God’s providence to answer our human needs, it is bordering onto fanaticism to assign the divine power to the image of a divinity. This aspect of the popular piety surely needs purification. This is also true, so I think, to the unchecked popular devotion to the Black Nazarene. Authentic devotion draws people closer to God. Fanaticism misleads people and brings them to falsely trust in images—whether black, green, red, or what have you! Misled people flocked to an image oblivious of the fact that they have been trampling one another to death.

Today’s gospel reading (Lk 2:41-52) can guide us to an authentic and meaningful devotion to the child Jesus. The incident portrayed in the reading is the losing and finding of the child Jesus in the temple. This is the only story about Jesus’ childhood that shows the beginning of his consciousness about who he is in relation to God, the Father, and to his human family. Here, the child Jesus begins to recognize his calling. “I have to be in my Father’s house” (v. 49). Or “I have to be about my Father’s business.” The child Jesus does not mean to demean the value of his relationship to Joseph and Mary. He is just beginning to understand and assert that his relationship to God, the Father, is of utmost importance to his life and mission. To show perhaps that he does not mean to disrespect or disregard his human family, he obediently follows Joseph and Mary back to Nazareth, grows in wisdom and age with them waiting for his adulthood before beginning his ministry.

The Santo Niño then shows us the way to faithfulness: Faithfulness to God and faithfulness to the family. This, I submit, can bring real substance to our devotion to the child Jesus. A true devotee is asked to be faithful to God and to be faithful to the family.

Faithfulness to God. This means prayer, obedience, and commitment. A true devotee, like the child Jesus, gives time to be in the house of God. To be immersed in the presence of God. To be silent so that God can speak and let his will be known and be heard. A true devotee who prays accepts and obeys the will of God. He/she is therefore obedient. Many a times, this calls for real sacrifice--to let go of one’s own will and desires and embrace God’s. A true devotee, like the child Jesus, is committed to carry out what God has sent him to do and accomplish. He/she has to be about the Father’s business. A true devotee who is faithful to God is a person of prayer, of obedience, and of commitment to his/her vocation and mission.

Faithfulness to the Family. The child Jesus submitted himself to the formation offered by the family. He “advanced in wisdom and age” with Joseph and Mary. Pope John Paul II once said that the family is the fundamental structure for human ecology where “a person receives his first formative ideas about truth and goodness, and learns what it means to love and be loved, and thus what it actually means to be a person” (Centesimus Annus, 39). Our devotion to the child Jesus then ought to promote our faithfulness to the family. A true devotee of Santo Niño will always commit to the strengthening of our families and will untiringly work to defend our families from forces that undermine their unity and formative function.

Filipinos lavishly love the Santo Niño. May this devotion lead us and our country closer to God and translate itself into an active commitment to arrest the disintegrating trend so much felt today by Filipino families.

Señor Santo Niño, as you have introduced faith into our land, may you abide with us and help us grow in that faithfulness to the Father and build a strong society faithful to the values of Filipino families. Amen.