“Prepare your way… Make ready the way of the Lord” – That was the message before Christ the Messiah was born. Now the message is for us a little bit different. We have to prepare ourselves not only for Christmas when we commemorate Christ birth but we have to prepare ourselves for Jesus’ second coming. There is many ways to prepare ourselves for those events.

One way to prepare our lives, our hearts, our souls for the Second coming of Jesus is to celebrate with Him His presence on this Altar. The altar is the fulfillment of different offerings and sacrifices of the patriarchs of the Old Testament. We can see that people from our Judeo-Christian heritage always gathered around an altar to worship, to celebrate, and to prepare. In the same way the first Christians gathered around an altar to worship, to prepare for the second coming of Jesus.

At first they gathered in small groups. And the altar was very small square table where you could put only a chalice and bread. And that small altar was in their midst. Later when the persecution started they started to celebrate the Eucharist in Catacombs. There wasn’t too much space, so the altar was attached to a grave. When the persecutions were over, Mass was celebrated in churches, and the Christians brought the tradition of heaving relics in the Altar.

My brothers and sisters

You can see the priest at the very beginning of our celebration kissing the Altar. It is reverencing the altar. The altar is for us the most important symbol of Christ in the Church. It is more important than the crucifix.

Why? Because God himself, Jesus himself comes upon this Altar, and because of that we must treat the altar with the greatest reverence. It is not ordinary table, it is extraordinary table. It is not a table to put some objects like flowers, or even candles, not to mention any other things. Only bred, wine and the the Missal, the book of prayers for the Holy Mass belong on the Altar.

When we finish the liturgy of the Word we will start to celebrate the Liturgy of the Eucharist. We will prepare the altar, which is already covered with white cloth, symbolizing purity of our hearts. Since the altar of the New Covenant is sacred, symbolizing Jesus Christ, than how sacred should be our souls, how pure to receive Jesus.

Let us go forward to celebrate the Eucharist with our clean and pure hearts and souls, so this way we can prepare ourselves for the second coming of Jesus.

Today we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent. We begin the new liturgical year. During this year we hear the Gospel as told to us by St Mark. But do not think that we hear it the same way as we did three years ago. This is a new year; we are older and hopefully wiser.

We begin our new year with the Season of Advent. It is a season in which we prepare for the celebration of the anniversary of the coming of Christ into our world. It is a season which looks back to that most central of all events; the one which was the effective beginning of our redemption.

But it is also a season which looks forward. It looks forward to the second coming of Christ at the end of time. We already heard last Sunday about the final judgement; in this season of Advent we learn how to prepare ourselves and in the liturgy we express our longing for the Kingdom to come. It is a season in which those words in the Our Father, “Thy kingdom come,” are especially significant

In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.” In the Gospel selected for today Jesus tells us to be on our guard and to be ready for that day because we cannot know when it will come. All we do know is that the Master will certainly come and that we must prepare ourselves to be ready to greet him.

So, during the next four weeks as Catholics we should not only prepare for Christ Birthday, but for our final day here on earth as well. We have to prepare ourselves For God’s Love. Because out of Love, God gave us a wonderful gift – His only Son to save us. God has revealed his face to us in the person of Jesus Christ. He is in our lives constantly guiding and protecting us. He invites us to trust in him and place ourselves in his hands just like clay in the hands of an expert potter.

If we place our trust in him he will surely shape our life and make it a thing of beauty and lasting joy.
How we will respond to Gods Love in our preparation it is up to us. Either we will rush into Christmas and not be prepared for That Big event, or we will change our hearts, and when the time comes we will be ready. We will be ready with our childlike Love, which is so precious because is not faked, or we will want to sleep through Christmas, not wanting to do anything, because our energy was spent on something that was less important than love for our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Prince and The Pauper by Mark Twain is the story of two boys who lived three hundred years ago in England. Not only were they good friends, they looked so much the same that they could be taken for identical twins. One of the boys was EDWARD, the prince of WALES; the other was TOM CANTY, a pauper, a poor boy.

One day, for some fun, they decided to change places. They changed clothes; Edward put on the rags of a poor boy and wandered through the slums of London, rubbing elbows with beggars and the poor. THOMAS was playing the Prince.

After a time both of them were tired of their game. So, EDWARD, who looked like beggar, tried to tell the police that he was the prince. He was thrown into jail. Somehow, as TOM was about to be crowned king, EDWARD showed up and both of them convinced the officials that Edward was the true prince. As history teaches, and this might be through Edward’s experience, he became a kind and just ruler.

Something like that is the situation between CHRIST and each one of us. Christ is the prince, the true Son of God. In a way Christ has switched places with us who are poor. He clothed himself in our poor flesh. Then Christ made each one of us a prince by clothing us in the robes of His grace, even sharing His own divine life with us.

As God, Jesus knew the sufferings of human beings. By becoming man He actually suffered what men, women, and children have to endure. Like the prince in our story, Jesus learned to love those who are in need of any kind. No wonder Christ, our King, lays down this test for entering His eternal home. He asks each and every one of us: Did you help the needy or did you not?

Today’s Gospel is one of the most important in the teaching of Christ – Good News for those who help the needy, bad News for those who pay little or no attention to the needs of other human beings.

Jesus tells us: Test yourself today. Have you ever fed a hungry person? Perhaps you never met a really hungry child or grown-up. When was the last time you visited someone who was sick? When did you visit someone in prison? And this does not mean only those behind iron bars. It means people behind the bars of being alone, ignorance, and grief. What have you done for those who are spiritually starving, spiritually sick, spiritually strangers, or spiritually imprisoned?

If you have done little or nothing, then you might hear from Jesus: “Go away.” The Gospel goes even further, what you do for these needy you are doing for Christ himself; because Jesus said “I was hungry, thirsty, sick, a stranger.” Christ makes Himself one with those in need.

My brothers and sisters in Christ. Our King is hungry; our King is thirsty; our King is a stranger; our King is sick; our King is in prison. Yes, we serve and worship Christ our King on this altar, but we must also serve and worship Him in His need. Then He will tell us at the end: “Come to me; inherit the Kingdom prepared for you.”

What a wonderful story Jesus tells us today. Jesus is talking about the kingdom of heaven, spiritual things. But the way he puts it is great, clear, that even enemies of his have to agree with him. Why? Because Jesus tells us today: do your best with what you have and greater chances will be given you. See, Jesus always gives us directions in both our spiritual and secular life.

Small thing are important. Tightening the nuts on the wheel of a car can save a life, collecting garbage is necessary for the health of a community, washing a dish kills germs, etc. As you can see, we already do these hundreds of other tasks of daily life well, not only preventing bad things from happening, but we also create opportunity for the greater things.

This truth is most important in the spiritual life, especially today when the family of God is being asked to get involved in parish life, that is to do whatever you can to help in your parish, so the parish can grow, and that way each and everyone can not only remain well, but grow spiritually too.

My dear parishioners you are investing your talents, time and energy to our parish’s needs. You are helping with the Parish Committee, different activities, taking care for the church; helping as an Altar Server and Lectors. All those ministries are very important. Some of them belong to the liturgy that we celebrate, and some in other, perhaps less visible areas of our parish life. God will certainly count that as good use of the treasures He gave you.

We received many talents, gifts and graces in our lives. Talents which we got from God help us to serve the family, people, and the Church. God Himself is the most precious gift we have received. He entrusted Himself to us. Let us allow Him to increase, to grow in our lives, and the lives of others, so that when He returns expecting our report of what we did with His gifts, He will find in us what is pleasing in His eyes.

Today our society holds little value for prayer, and no value in attending church. Many times it looks like there is no need for God.

Jesus speaks to his disciples and to all of us in a parable. On first hearing this parable we might think that the punishment of the virgins who were excluded from the wedding feast was too big, too severe. However the gospel story is not about forgetting to bring along extra oil for a lamp, but about how we view the invitation, given to all of us, to take our place in the kingdom of God.

If we want to have an eternity of joy, we must to prepare for it with our whole our heart and mind. Jesus teaches this parable as a warning because the day the Lord will return is unknown and could be any minute.

As the year 2000 was coming, there was a lot of speculation about the end of the world. But we truly do not know when the second coming of Jesus will happen.

But let’s say that it will happen today. Are we ready for this event?

There are few things that are certain in our lives. One of them is that each one of us eventually will have to die. To dismiss the thought of death, pushing it to the back of our minds as something to be faced at a later date, is the type of foolishness Jesus condemns in this gospel.

If we live without thought as to where the journey of our spiritual life is taking us, we are not to making the preparations necessary for the coming of the kingdom. Death will catch us unaware, and we will face God. If we are found empty inside, with no oil in our spiritual lamps, the result will be very disappointing.

An essential part of the Christian life is to plant a personal relationship with God which one must posses, work and live, because it cannot be borrowed at the last minute.

The Church gives us directions on how to be prepared for the second Coming of Christ. Christ is always prepared to meet us, so we, for our part, must be prepared to meet him

The Gospel brings home the importance of being ready and prepared while we wait, by loving God – when we come to the Church to praise and worship him, when we study the sacred Scripture, and live God’s teachings with our neighbors and strangers.

By doing so we will be full, our lives and souls will be full like the lamps of the wise virgins. We will be ready for Jesus’ Second coming.

So, let’s take the teachings of God very seriously and put into practice in our daily life, that way we will not be left in the dark as those foolish virgins were. Amen.

On this day we remember all of those who have died and have not been saints. That is the great majority of those who have died. We pray for them because we know that prayer for the dead is important. We do not know how those who have died are purified to be in the presence of the living God, but we recognize that such purification is truly necessary. It could happen in the very act of dying or it could happen in some other way.

How long ago someone died makes no difference, we can still pray for them. This is because prayer goes beyond space and time. Today we can pray in a special way for those who have touched our lives and have died.

We pray for all of our family members who have died and all of our ancestors.

We pray for those who seem to have died with their hearts set against God.

Let us rejoice in our faith which shows us the importance of praying for those who have died. Let us trust in the compassion and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
Blessed are they who mourn,
Blessed are the meek,
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
Blessed are the merciful,
Blessed are the clean of heart,
Blessed are the peacemakers,
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you…

All Saints. Who were those people?

Many times we would say that I am not a saint. I cannot live a life like those saints, meaning spend all day on prayer. But is this the way, to become a saint? To pray all day on our knees?

Centrally not!

We have so many saints who during at least small part of their life were against God. Take for example St. Paul. He persecuted the first Christians. But when he met Jesus he changed his life. Then he and others realized the mistake. Many of us make the same mistake these days.

What is that mistake? Well, it is that I have to live according to our society’s rules, not by God’s rules. But that’s not true.

We do have saints living among us. Yes, although they are overshadowed by those who are against God and His commandments. Everyone who live according to God’s commandments, who is a good mother, good father for their family, a good child, all who try to live according the Christian way, is a good Christian.

Today we honor those Saints, who are no longer with us. But today also, let us pray for one another, that God will give us strength to become like those Saints, strong in faith, and not worried about what others will say about us if we stick to God, God’s commandments, to our Christian Traditions and teachings. Let us remember the teaching of Jesus in today’s Gospel: Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.

How many of us hate ourselves? I never met a person who truly hated himself. More, we can find many people who are selfish, who love only themselves, and they do dislike, or even hate others.

How many of us have ever asked God to help us to love Him? To love God is a gift – a gift from God Himself.

What do we mean when we say: “Love God?” – To love God means to desire to please God. Christ’s command might have read: “Thou shall desire to please God”.

Love of neighbor means the desire to do good to our neighbor. We cannot do good to God, but we can desire to please God. We can and must do well to our neighbor. By the way, one of the best ways to please God is to do good to our neighbor, to love our neighbors and others whom God put on our path of life.

Jesus told us several times that we who love God will keep God’s commandments. Several Sundays ago we saw that God’s commandments are a proof of God’s love for us. Keeping them is a proof of our love for Him. You come to Mass because God is pleased when you worship Him. You receive Holy Communion because God wants to be with you. You pray because God is pleased when you talk to Him. You respect your health and life and the health and life of others because that pleases God. To do these things is to love God. To do them we need God’s help. We know when we receive that help and push it away chances are that we are going against God’s commandments and that is sin.

So let’s love each other as we would love ourselves, than we will live in harmony as children of God, and that way we will be able to please God. Amen.