Cycle C 2nd Sunday or Advent

Bar. 5:1-9; Phil. 1:3-6, 8-11; Lk. 3:1-6

The First Reading (Bar. 5:1-9) is based on a prophetic song. In it, God promised to bring back His people from exile. As biblical history tells us, in 597 B.C., General Nebuzaradan captured Jerusalem and took the Jewish people into exile to Babylon (2 kgs 25:11; Jer. 29:1-2).

The First Reading continues by stating, "Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God." "For God will give you evermore the name, 'Righteous, Peace, Godly Glory." To put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God is to live our faith in Christ by walking in harmony with our new creation. Hence, In the Gospel of Luke 3:1-6, we encounter John the Baptist, the herald of the Messiah, calling people to repentance. His voice echoes through the wilderness, urging hearts to prepare for the coming salvation. This powerful passage not only announces the arrival of Christ but also challenges us to examine our lives, straighten

Cycle C 1st Sunday of Advent

 Jer. 33:14-16; 1 Thess. 3:12-4:2; LK. 21:25-28, 34-36

Dear brothers and sisters today we are entering into the season of Advent.  Advent is the time of preparation to celebrate Christmas and to receive Jesus into our lives.

In the First Reading from the Book of Jeremiah, the Lord God repeated the promises that He had made to Abraham and to His descendants. To Abraham and his offspring, God had promised to bless them, that they would be as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And they shall possess the gate of their enemies and by his offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves. Over and above this, God promised that a righteous Branch would spring up from the descendants of king David who shall practice honesty and integrity in the land.

Honesty and integrity are the two most important requirements to be members in the Kingdom of God. The creation stories tell us that at the beginning of creation Man enjoyed the presence of God. This peaceful harmony prevailed till dishonesty entered

Cycle B Christ the King

 Dan 7:13-14; Rev 1:5-8; Jn 18:3-37

The contemporaries of Jesus grew up hearing the stories of the cruelty of the ancient kings and rulers. Biblical Accounts give vivid descriptions of the cruelty of the Assyrians. In 722 BC Assyrian armies swept through the Near East. They became notorious for their cruelty.  There are caves in Palestine to this day where we can find etched into cave-walls depictions of Assyrian cruelty: men beheaded, children disembowelled, pregnant women ripped open. The Assyrians did it. Up until the Assyrian assault there had been twelve tribes in Israel. The Assyrians slew ten. After 722 BCE there were only two tribes left, Judah and Benjamin. The other ten will never be seen again.

 

The kings of Assyria tormented the miserable world. They flung away the bodies of soldiers like so much clay; they made pyramids of human heads;  they burned cities;  they filled populous lands with death and devastation;  they reddened broad deserts with carnage of warriors;  they scattered whole countries with the corpses of their defenders as with chaff;  they impaled