Prepare to be Bold and Proclaim

The WORD today (see http://usccb.org/bible/readings/121017.cfm) reminds me that my inner preparation for Christmas should also lead me to be bold and proclaim God in and through my life. 

Last week, the first Sunday of Advent, we were reminded to prepare for Christmas. This Sunday, God wants us to take a step further – do so something aside from preparing. We cannot just prepare and prepare. We cannot be stuck in preparation and not actually execute it. This is similar to analysis paralysis. We need to do something concrete.

Our inner preparation should lead into proclamation of God.

Th first reading tells us that we should proclaim God. And it also prophesies about the gospel. What John the Baptist would do and his role in the salvation history. In the gospel, we see John the Baptist proclaiming God’s kingdom. He was in the dessert when the word of God came to him. What was he doing in the dessert? Same as what we are trying to do – to prepare spiritually. John was preparing himself and his spirit to become one with God, to be filled with God. However, he did not end there. When God’s word came to him, his preparation enabled him to have the boldness to proclaim God’s word. He went out and proclaimed the need for repentance in the whole region of Jordan. Same with us, as God asked us to prepare, he is also asking us to proclaim his word. He is asking us to go out to the world and spread his word, his love, and his goodness. 

We should proclaim God through our lives. 

We cannot be preparing forever. Our preparation should make us more intimate with God. And as we become more intimate with God, as we get to know him more, as we feel his love and protection, we should be ready and willing to be bold and go out to the world. As we become one with God, we should be willing to obey him and proclaim him, and share him to others. As we do this, we need not be an expert in faith. We just need to know and have a personal relationship with God. Sometimes, we feel we are inadequate or incomplete. God is faithful, and he will continue to be with us and guide us as we serve Him.

The second reading tells us that God is patient and wants all of us to be saved. But he cannot wait forever. He will not wait forever. This is why we should act fast. We should repent. Prepare. And proclaim him to others, not just because God tells us to, but because we want others to be prepared, repent, and eventually be saved as well. 

May we be ready to go out, be bold, and proclaim God to others.

Father God,

Thank you for today. Thank you for another day to live. Thank you for another Sunday, Thank you for knowing me. Thank you for guiding me. Thank you for the reminder, for telling me how you want me to progress. Sorry for the times I stop at preparation. Sorry for not being willing to be bold and proclaim you to others. Lord, help me do my best in preparing for Christmas. And give me your spirit and enable me to be bold and proclaim you. There are a lot of reasons why I do not do it. Sometimes I feel scared, that I am not worthy or I am not the right person to do it. Sometimes I just feel tired to act. Sometimes, I just don’t know how. Lord, guide me. Show me the ways I can be bold and proclaim you through the way I live and treat others. Magnify my actions and my words so that it may glorify you. Amen. 

Blessed Sunday!

In Christ,

-g-

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December 10, 2017
Second Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 5

Reading 1IS 40:1-5, 9-11

Comfort, give comfort to my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her service is at an end,
her guilt is expiated;
indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD
double for all her sins.

A voice cries out:
In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!
Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill shall be made low;
the rugged land shall be made a plain,
the rough country, a broad valley.
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Go up on to a high mountain,
Zion, herald of glad tidings;
cry out at the top of your voice,
Jerusalem, herald of good news!
Fear not to cry out
and say to the cities of Judah:
Here is your God!
Here comes with power
the Lord GOD,
who rules by his strong arm;
here is his reward with him,
his recompense before him.
Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers the lambs,
carrying them in his bosom,
and leading the ewes with care.

Responsorial PsalmPS 85:9-10-11-12, 13-14

R. (8) Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
I will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD—for he proclaims peace to his people.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
glory dwelling in our land.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
and prepare the way of his steps.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.

Reading 22 PT 3:8-14

Do not ignore this one fact, beloved,
that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years
and a thousand years like one day.
The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard "delay,"
but he is patient with you,
not wishing that any should perish
but that all should come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,
and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar
and the elements will be dissolved by fire,
and the earth and everything done on it will be found out.

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,
because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames
and the elements melted by fire.
But according to his promise
we await new heavens and a new earth
in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, since you await these things,
be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace.

AlleluiaLK 3:4, 6

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
All flesh shall see the salvation of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GospelMK 1:1-8

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;
he will prepare your way.
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
"Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths."
John the Baptist appeared in the desert
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
People of 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.
John was clothed in camel's hair,
with a leather belt around his waist.
He fed on locusts and wild honey.
And this is what he proclaimed:
"One mightier than I is coming after me.
I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water;

he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."