Thinking of exile, I look and think back how our gracious God prepared that highway for me and my children. At that time, 25 years ago, when He exiled us from the country of origin, there was no war and no one even imagined that my country in the middle east would have any kind of troubles. God knew, I didn't foresee what might have happened. Not only God exiled us, but also prepared for me to join the Catholic Church in the most mind boggling experience I've ever had. He prepared the parish, the priest who baptized, and everything for me to merge smoothly. It was absolutely a mystic experience that there is no room for me here to speak about, however, everything I can say that it's enough for me to think of it and feel God's power. Yesterday, one of the sisters in the parish asked me how I was doing, and my response was if I prayed in front of this cross day and night it would be much less than I should do. God knew what trouble that may come to us, and saved us even before I knew that troubles were coming. Our gracious God is really the God who saves. I thank Jesus for everything, and for the peace He put in my heart through my Catholic faith.
Watch Have You Wandered Away from God? - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon Here
GOSPEL
Second Sunday of Advent
Luke 3:1-6
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Luke quotes from the prophet Isaiah:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.” (Isa. 40:3)
Advent is a great liturgical season of waiting—but not a passive waiting. We yearn, we search, and we reach out for the God who will come to us in human flesh. In short, we prepare the way of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This preparation has a penitential dimension, because it is the season in which we prepare for the coming of a Savior, and we don’t need a Savior unless we’re deeply convinced there is something to be saved from. When we have become deeply aware of our sin, we know that we can cling to nothing in ourselves, that everything we offer is, to some degree, tainted and impure. We can’t show our cultural, professional, and personal accomplishments to God as though they are enough to save us. But the moment we realize that fact, we move into the Advent spirit, desperately craving a Savior.
In the book of Isaiah (Isa. 64:7), we read:
“Yet, O Lord, you are our father;
we are the clay and you the potter:
we are all the work of your hands.”
Today, let us prepare ourselves for the potter to come.