Today, we enter in the second week of Advent, another week to prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus Christ. A time to re-visit our history that helps us to be who we are today, a time to  re-discover the beauty of life in the midst of the uncertainties, and a  time to re-create our relationship with one another with compassion and love. Let’s begin the Journey!

Secondary, Advent helps us to re-visit the truth that God has taken the initiative to come and reach out to us (and continues to do the same today) as St. John the Baptist tells in the Gospel “One mightier than I is coming after me.” We do not discover God; it is God who comes and enters our life. The letter to Hebrews says: „in the past God spoke to our ancestors many times and in many ways through the prophets, but in these our days he has spoken” (and continues to speak today), “to us through his Son.”  All we can do is to prepare ourselves and wait for his coming.

“Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way.” Our second Sunday of Advent also calls us to re-discover Gods grace along our journey of faith. God in his kindness and love sends his messenger before us, and guides us to the Promised Land. Through life difficulties and challenges God, never abandons his people, instead He offers himself and becomes the comfort and salvation for us, the weary. Let us then re-discover how to prepare ourselves for His coming, as the book of Isaiah says: “A voice of one crying out in the dessert: “prepare the way of the lord, make straight his path.” We have, then, responsibility to willingly change our old self into a better one before his coming. For that let us re-discover our COMING:

C represent care for our soul,

O is to Offer good deeds to others,

M to maintain our spiritual life, 

I to in trust our life to Him whom we know loves us,

N to neglect those in need, and

G God is our refuge.

This time of pandemic encourages us to embrace the new norm of life, a life that might not be common to us. But a life that opens new opportunity to learn. The Second Sunday of Advent also guides us to re-create our relationship with the Church-God and neighbour. “John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of our sins.”   John the Baptist gives us the sample on how we might anticipate Christ’s coming- is to learn how acknowledge our sins before God, to value repentance, and forgive, and embrace Gods willingness to forgive our sins. This new norm of life re-creates new form of beginning; therefore our relationship must create new bridges of hope, compassion and love based on the way that Jesus Christ called us in this time of Advent season.

May this season of advent re-visit Gods initiative of love, re-discover our faith journey and prepare for his coming and re-creation of a new relationship of bridges of hope, compassion and love based on repentance and forgiveness.