2nd Sunday
of Advent – December 9, 2012
Epistle, Romans 15:
4-13; Gospel, Matthew. 11: 2-10
“In all
thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin.”
(Ecclesiasticus
(Sirach) 7: 40)
The Holy Ghost is the authority for the written
Word of God, and He assures us through Ecclesiasticus that we shall never sin,
so this truth must be very powerful and good for us – if we take it to heart.
If we think about this, how can we attach ourselves to the things of this world
when we remember that in a short time we will no longer be here? Remember
always that today or tomorrow your soul may be reclaimed by God. If you keep
that in mind, you will always be ready to meet Him.
See how much Jesus Christ loves us,
appearing in the beginning as a poor Child in a crib lying on straw. A crib or
manger is a rack where straw is thrown and where beasts of burden come to eat. That
baby carried a heavy burden, too, the weight of all the sins of mankind. At the
end of His life He appeared as a Criminal, bound and beaten, falling under the weight
of the cross, crucified, dying – all for love of us. If that is not enough to
draw our hearts to him, He then warns us that He will come again in glory to
judge us for the life we have led and to reveal to the world all the good and
bad that we have done in our lives. Is
there anything else then that we need to make us live and die like saints? Our
eternal life is at stake every day of our lives.
How blind we can be concerning our eternal
happiness. We must think sometimes that the saints had a different Gospel to
follow. But, no, it is the same Gospel, the same Bible, the same teaching
authority of the Church that they and we live under. However, they lived for
eternity, while many of us live for today. They lived a life of prayer and penance
while many of us give our hearts to the pleasures and plans of this world.
The saints practiced virtue, the
Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. The traditional listing of the Corporal Works
of Mercy is as follows: - To feed the hungry;
- To give drink to the thirsty;
- To clothe the naked;
- To take in the homeless;
- To visit the sick;
- To ransom captives;
- To bury the dead.
- To instruct the ignorant;
- To counsel the doubtful;
- To admonish sinners;
- To bear wrongs patiently;
- To forgive offences willingly;
- To comfort the afflicted;
- To pray for the living and the dead.
Not everyone does all of
these every day, but we can practice most of these virtues at different times
in our lives. Many revolve around almsgiving and that is how St. Thomas Aquinas
sees it. Almsgiving is required by the Natural Law and is based on the
principle that we should to do to others as we would have them do to us. But
almsgiving is also strictly required by Divine Law, and the penalty for
violating this Law is severe. Matthew 25: 41-46: “Then he shall say to
them also that shall be on his left hand: ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into
everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was
hungry, and you gave me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave me not to
drink. I was a stranger, and you took me not in: naked, and you covered me not:
sick and in prison, and you did not visit me . . . And these shall go into
everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting.’” If we do not
practice the works of mercy we are on the path to hell. But Jesus Christ is
waiting for us with open arms and He has shown us the path to reach Him through
works of mercy.
In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist sent two of
his disciples to ask Jesus if He was the One to come or should they look for
another. But John was a cousin of Jesus. He knew who He was. At the River
Jordan, John told the crowd, “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who taketh
away the sins of the world.” So why did
he ask “art thou he that art to come”? Well, he didn't ask it. John knew he was about to die so he sent his
disciples to ask this question. This was for the benefit of his disciples, so they
would know and believe in Jesus after John was dead. Jesus did not answer by saying, “Yes, I am
he.” If He did, they might have accused Him of giving testimony about himself,
as the Pharisees accused Him of doing at John 8: 13. Instead, Jesus tells
these two men to tell John what they have heard and seen; the blind see, the
crippled walk, the deaf hear, lepers are cured, the dead come back to life and
the poor have the Gospel preached to them.
John knew it was important that
these two disciples he sent learn about Jesus firsthand and come to believe
that He is the Messiah. These two disciples were offended and scandalized by
the things they had previously heard that Jesus was saying and doing. How do we
know that? Because Jesus, knowing their hearts and their thoughts, rebuked them
secretly, and at the same time forgave them, when he said to them, “And blessed
is he that shall not be scandalized in Me.”
There were many who were scandalized when, after seeing Jesus perform so
many miracles, they later saw Him dying on the cross. This was difficult for
many people at that time, and that is why St. Paul wrote at
1 Corinthians: 1: 23: “We preach Christ
crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, and unto the Gentiles foolishness.”
To stand up for Christ in public by
performing the works of mercy we need to overcome our fear of others -- what
they might think or say about us. So we can
understand that our Lord’s words were also addressed to us today: “Blessed is
he that shall not be scandalized in Me.” Let us pray that we will always stand
up for our faith in public and always hold ourselves ready for judgment. +++
We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass
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