SHARING MY SUNDAY REFLECTION: Today is the first Sunday in
the Season of Advent. Last Sunday we celebrated the Solemnity of Christ the
King to mark the end of the Liturgical Calendar. The Kingship of Christ is
celebrated as the culmination of the liturgical year because it serves as
reminder for all of us that the history of Salvation and the whole of the
cosmos will have its culmination in the reign of God. That is why the very
corner stone of the Christian religion is the belief in the Resurrection of the
dead. That in the end we profess that Christ will come again the second time to
judge the world in righteousness.
THE SUNDAY reading for today was centered on the message of the Second coming
or stated in the Greek word, Parousia. There are many people today who have
unnecessarily burdened themselves with the task of predicting when and where
the Second Coming of Christ will take place. Others are also pre-occupied with
speculation as to what this world would become when Christ comes again. While
others have "spiritualize" the second coming as to obliterate its
intended meaning or has become an indirect way to deny its reality altogether. But one thing for sure, anyone who has read
the New Testament can never deny that Christ has promised that He will come
again indeed. In simple words He uttered his promise. This promise calls for
faith and not a scholarly treatise or explanation. Eternity is like a circle, it has no beginning
and it has no ending. That is why Christ said that he is the Alpha and the
Omega, referring to the Greek alphabet where Alpha is the beginning and Omega
the ending. This he said if only to give
us a glimpse or to cause us to have some insight of His Nature as Divine and
Eternal. The moral lesson here is that
we have to be conscious of death. Because every day is always a potential that
perhaps we may die. And we die; the second coming of Christ becomes a reality.
Instead of preoccupying ourselves with details of how the second coming would
be, we should be more preoccupied with preparations of how we shall fit into
that Kingdom promised by our Lord. For if we are prepared to meet the Lord then
the details will simply be a reality for us when the day comes. Christ our dear
Lord said, that the Second Coming of the Son of Man is like the coming of the
thief in the night unexpected, but surely. Death may come to us unexpectedly
and so we have to be prepared so that when the morning of the resurrection will
come then we are ready to face the Lord. If we live our lives according to
God's Will, we shall be likened to the wise virgins who put extra oil in their
lamps so that when the bridegroom comes they are ready.
AS WE BEGIN the new liturgical year with the celebration of Advent, we are
called upon in expectation to celebrate and live the mystery of salvation in
another cycle of liturgical year, until we are called home and until we see the
parousia and behold Him whom our souls expect to see. Though we are dead He
shall call us back to life. Like Him we shall have glorified bodies free from
corruption. For, as it was said, Christ has triumph over all His enemies. He led a train of bounty back to heaven. The
Last enemy to be defeated is death. O, death where is your sting? O, death
where is your victory? Christ will come and He will set us free. May we be
worthy on that day. Let us put on our white garments (our baptism) and let us
take hold of the palm leaf and say Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is He
who comes in the Name of the Lord. Alleluia! Maranatha!
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