WORD OF LIVING WATER DAILY INSPIRATION

PREPARE THE WAY FOR THE LORD 

(Isaiah 11:1-10, Psalm 72, Romans 15:4-9, Matthew 3:1-12)

The second Sunday’s readings of Advent lays emphasis on the theme of preparations, which is the general theme for this grace-filled period of preparing for the Nativity (birth) of the Lord. We are invited by the readings to prepare adequately for the Lord by changing from our old ways. In order to have a befitting commemoration of the birth of Christ, we need to do a thorough overhaul of our lives to welcome the Messiah into our hearts. Failure to do this implies our hearts will not be fully ready to receive Christ who will be born as a saviour into our lives in the spiritual sense. And the fact that, we are to be prepared at all times for His second coming. Which can be particular (when our lives come to an end) or general (when the whole world comes to an end). This is what the church refers to as Particular Judgment and General Judgment.

The first reading points to the Messianic age marked by peace and safety. It presents to us the peaceful character of Christ’s kingdom and His subjects. But first of all, we are made to understand that, Christ is a righteous judge. Hence, He will rule His subjects with righteousness. His judgement is fair, because He will judge us according to our deeds. His rule and judgement is different from that of worldly powers. Those who do His will by obeying His commandments would be part of this peaceful kingdom. In heaven, which is our final home, there shall be peace among all of us. We shall put all our differences aside and live together. No one shall fear the other person, because we are united and see ourselves as one people with a common destiny. This is the image that the reading is giving to us. “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox…….” Isaiah 11:6-9. But this kingdom has already begun on this earth. Since He is a Prince of Peace, then we His followers must make sure we promote this peace on earth. We must learn to live together in peace and harmony, because we are one people with a common goal. If this is the case that we are one people and profess a common faith, then where from the hatred, wars, slander, backbiting and so forth? If really, we are preparing for the Lord, then we need to be instrument of peace, which is a great mark of His kingdom. No matter the situation, we must learn to bury our differences and live peacefully on this earth. The life we will enjoy in heaven begins here on earth.

The gospel message presents to us John the Baptist, who preached the baptism of repentance to the people of Israel for the forgiveness of their sins, as a way of preparing them for the coming of Christ. Their preparations for the coming of the Messiah was about turning from their evil ways and living the gospel values. He was the herald of the coming of the Messiah, who was to come and save His people with a mighty hand as prophesied by the prophets. In the context of the gospel, the worst enemy of humanity that the Messiah was to defeat is sin. He was to deliver us from the power of sin which was controlling the lives of His people. In the same vein like the Israelites, the audience of Christ and by extension we Christians are supposed to trust the saving power of Christ. No matter the sin we find ourselves we should believe that Christ is all powerful and ever ready to save us. He only needs our cooperation to save us from this shameful condition which has enslaved humanity. For the Israelites, their slavery was a physical one in the hands of the Babylonians, but in our case as in the gospel, it is a spiritual one which is sin. The people repented and were baptised by John (as indicated in Lk 3:7ff), hence we need to follow their example if we really want to welcome Christ to our hearts and homes this Christmas.

To make His paths straight implies, we need to amend all areas of our lives which looks crooked before God. The obstacles which prevent us from having a graceful encounter with the coming Messiah are compared to hills, valleys, mountains, the crooked and rough ways (Lk 3:5-6). When our lives are in these forms, then we cannot have any meaningful encounter with Jesus. A life full of sin cannot welcome the Lord. Just like the case of the Israelites, whose devastated situation was compared to these elements (Is 40:3-5) and the fact that God was bringing a total change in their lives, we too need to bring a total change in our lives in order to encounter the Lord.

My dear friends in Christ, preparing the way for the Lord implies changing from our evil ways and living authentic Christian life. The manner in which we celebrate Christmas will depend on how prepared we are as in getting closer to God. Christmas will have a meaningful impact on our lives if we prepare our hearts by changing from our evil ways. This preparation is not so much about the physical one but the spiritual. Most of us get so much obsessed with the physical preparations to the neglect of the spiritual, which is the main focus of Christmas. Christmas is all about receiving Christ in our lives and the people of old did receive Him physically. We are privileged to receive Him spiritually. Anything other than this with regards to Christmas, is useless and will have no bearing on our salvation.

As we think of buying our clothing and other things for the X’mas, let us ask ourselves whether we are mending our lives to welcome Christ our saviour. Do not let this year’s X’mas be the same as the previous year’s without any change in your life. There must be a difference in our lives as people of faith and not as the worldly people.

It is in this context that we shall experience peace as the Advent Candle for the Second Sunday portrays. It is by turning away from evil that we remain in Christ and He also remains in us, and He will feed and protect us as the Good Shepherd. We shall enjoy his unconditional love if we do away with sin and come back to Him. May the grace of Advent lead us to renew our lives as we prepare for His coming. AMEN. 

MAKE YOUR PATH STRAIGHT.

HAVE A BLESSED SUNDAY AND A HAPPY WEEK AHEAD 

REV. FR. AKAKPO MATTHEW