Are we prepared?……Ready or not……Here I come

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the Gospel of St Luke a prophetic statement…..Jesus, the savior of the world is coming……But before he comes…..St Luke gives us a quote from the Old Testament from the Book of Isaiah….”A voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God”…As we all know, those were the words of John the Baptist but those words echo throughout history to this day…Advent is a time to prepare…To prepare ourselves for the coming of the Christ Child…..Christmas commemorates each year the brith of Jesus…But one day…A day we do not know when…Jesus will return….Because of that…We must prepare

“Although they go forth weeping, carrying the seed to be sown, They shall come back rejoicing, carrying their sheaves”

All human beings die, this is reality…Each of us however were not born to die…We were born to live……Jesus on the other hand was born to die…That was his purpose…He was born to humble parents, to be raised to manhood only to die and his death changed the world forever….When someone dies, the people who love that person always mourn…..And when Jesus died, even his closet friends did not understand…Jesus told them time and time again that he would rise from the dead in three days…But his friends heard the words but did not understand….The only person I think who did understand was his Mother….In Mel Gibson’s film the Passion of the Christ as Jesus was being murdered, the film shows how his friends were in a state of panic, some were mourning and others were terrified….There was one scene that I thought was rather interesting…..St Veronica, as we all know is the person noted in Scripture who wiped the face of Christ as he carried his cross……In Gibson’s film, Veronica was perfectly at peace almost like she knew the outcome of Jesus rising from the dead before it happened…In fact, she even was courageous in the face of all the madness going on around her…….Mel Gibson in this film gave St Veronica an insight the first disciples did not have….Veronica knew who Jesus really was, that he was God and that death had no power over him….Why bring this up?…Because today we hear the words from St John the Baptist……He tells us to prepare for the coming of Christ…..St Veronica was prepared - Are we prepared?…..Or maybe a better question is…..How do we prepare?….The Season of Advent gives Catholics roughly 30 days to pray, fast and give alms in order to prepare our hearts for the birth of Christ…Advent is also a time to make a good Sacramental Confession….This is how we prepare for the coming of God…St Veronica in the film was at peace as the world around her was crumbling…The only way to acquire peace in such circumstances is if our hearts are “right with God”…..Only grace can give us that kind of “unshakeable peace” when we are living through the “storms of life” and when we face death, our death or the death of a loved one

“Those who sow in tears shall reap rejoicing”

Today in the second reading from Mass…St Paul to reminds us about this theme of preparation….”I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus”……Paul in making this statement to his friends is encouraging them….As my father would always say to me…”Joe - Straight ahead”…..At our Baptism, the seed of faith was implanted into our hearts……It is now for us to nurture that seed and if we do, it will grow…..“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the ‘birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches”…..Like St Veronica in Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ…She understood what was going on around her, even when everyone else was panicking…St Veronica had "vision" - She understood that Jesus was born to die, so that we can one day live forever…….“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way”……Are we prepared?……Ready or not……Here I come