We celebrated the Holy Day…Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Dec. 8. Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception is the patroness of our nation, our diocese and our Cathedral Church. That feast helps us to take in the mystery of the Incarnation. By allowing Mary to receive the grace of Christ’s redeeming love at the beginning of her life on earth…at her conception…she had no stain of Adam’s sin touch her life. She was immaculately conceived…to prepare her to be a worthy mother of God’s own divine Son.

We began the Season of Advent in preparation of the Feast of Christ’s birth…Christmas. This holy season helps us ready ourselves to welcome Jesus more deeply into our lives and embrace the Gospel He proclaimed in everything we do. However, we realize the season also points to the final and glorious coming of the Kingdom of God in Christ’s second coming. We live each day putting into practice all that Jesus taught us…and we do it with greater intentionality and urgency. Jesus taught His disciples that the time of waiting for the full coming of the Kingdom was to be spent in actively living His teachings and spreading the Gospel.

Jesus taught that His disciples were to be vigilant at all times…and be a prayerful people seeking strength to live as disciples until the final day. Jesus had told a parable about the servant (steward…disciple) who was put in charge of the household until the master would return. That steward/servant thought that the return would never happen…or at least be a long way off. The miscalculation centered on what the steward did in the meantime…he misused his position and abused the other servants. He also gave in to all the temptations of the day…allowing his heart to become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness.

This Sunday’s Gospel is helping us keep our perspective on life…having a hope and a vision all the way to the fulfillment of the coming kingdom. If like in another parable of Jesus, the seed of God’s word falls in among thorns…which represent the cares of daily life and of this world…that word sown in our hearts will be chocked off. This is not the time simply to prepare for a holiday with all the trimmings. This is the time of preparation for the fullness of life… fully embracing the teaching of Jesus and living it each day.

We often find ourselves wanting the context of what someone is talking about…it just makes more sense and is easier to under- stand. Luke presents the opening of this Sun- day’s Gospel with a bit of history…telling us who the ruling emperor is…and the other local political leaders, etc. But it is not that kind of history that Luke is interested in…it is who really is the King…and the one who brings true peace of the Kingdom…Jesus!

Luke tells us of a prophet who was called by God… ‘The word of the God came to John’…right at this historical point of history. The message that John would preach was not only for the small group of religious people in and around Jerusalem. John’s announcement was for the whole world…thus the reference to the political leaders of the time…for the message was a universal one…for all.

John began his ministry by calling for a deeper openness to God and a recognition that the Kingdom of God had come into their midst…with the coming of Jesus. There was a need for men to undergo a real change…and metanoia…a conversion…a turning around. They were to come forward for a simple baptism…a washing or dunking into the waters of the Jordan River. This was to be a deep interior step away from sin… and a determined turn toward God. It was a call to all…prepare the way of the Lord.

Click to read From the Desk of Fr. John December 2, 2018

Click to read From the Desk of Fr. John November 25, 2018

Click to read From the Desk of Fr. John November 18, 2018

Click to read From the Desk of Fr. John November 11, 2018