December 6: Preparing to Celebrate Sunday’s Mass / Preparándonos para Celebrar la Misa Dominical

The Second Sunday of Advent offers us the example of St. John the Baptist, he who prepared the way for the people of his time to understand the good news of their salvation. That is the way God normally works, isn’t it? God sends the message of salvation to us through those around us, through each other. As St. Paul once put it, “How can people know the truth about God if they have never heard it; and how can they hear if nobody is sent to them to share it?”

Jesus found His first disciples among those who were influenced by the life and the preaching of St. John the Baptist. He had shown them the value of self-control and of prayer; he urged them to listen to the inner voice of God, with repentance and a faithful heart. He also helped some of his own followers go with Jesus and become the first Christian disciples. Through him, St. Andrew and his brother St. Peter, and Sts. Philip and Nathanael became Apostles of Jesus.

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Clearly, God wishes us to help other people to know Him and love Him. Parents, for example, have the first opportunity to point their children towards God. But their words will only be effective when backed up by the actual example of their own faith and prayer. But all of us can influence others, for good or ill, and in all sorts of ways. We can influence, by our views and our values, those with whom we talk, walk, and live. How might we lead someone closer to Jesus this week?

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En el Segundo Domingo de Adviento, la Iglesia nos invita a “una vida nueva.” Esa vida nueva nos sitúa en el horizonte de los tiempos mesiánicos anunciados por el profeta Isaías (11, 1-10). La venida del Mesías, de Cristo Jesús, comporta una efusión del Espíritu, no sólo sobre su persona, sino sobre toda la humanidad y toda la creación que vuelve a su estado original en el paraíso. Allí el hombre vivía pacíficamente con los animales y éstos no se hacían daño los unos a los otros. Era un Reino de Justicia en el que se respetaban todas las manifestaciones de la vida. Que la celebración de la Eucaristía el domingo avive nuestro deseo de la venida de Jesús para que vivamos en ese “mundo nuevo” que Él ha inaugurado.