“Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.” (Isaiah 11:5)
The major theme for this 2nd Sunday of advent focuses on our continuing preparation in faith for the upcoming birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to our world and lives. Today we light two advent candles to signify that the birthday of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is fast approaching. God invites us to meditate, analyze or ponder how or what areas of our lives are still in need of improvement or changes in preparation for Christ’s birthday, the coming of our Lord and Savior.
Advent season is truly a time for repentance, conversion, introspection, mission, and resolve to change our lives for the better. It is an incremental process of preparation, a deepening of our personal and communal faith in Jesus Christ, greater faith development in our spiritual life and more intimate faithful relationship with the Lord and Savior for the wonderful and jubilating celebration of Christmas soon to come.
Faith from the Latin word “fides” is a gift from God. Subjectively, in the Old Testament, faith means essentially “steadfastness,” whether of God towards man (Deuteronomy 32:4) or of man towards God (Psalm 118:30).
In the New Testament, as signifying man's attitude towards God, faith means “belief, fiducia, trust.” Objectively, “faith” stands for the sum of truths revealed by God in Scripture and tradition and which the Church presents to us as her creeds.
God does not want us holding a relationship of Transaction but Transformation. Therefore, Dynamic Christian disciples are those who (1) BELIEVE, (2) GROW, (3) SERVE, (4) LOVE and (5) LEAD others to Jesus. Today’s topic invites us to prepare for the upcoming of our Lord Jesus Christ with greater faith, to repent our sins, to exercise our Christian stewardship, to use our time, treasure and talents to love God above all and to love our neighbors as ourselves, participating in the works of mercy, to accomplish God’s will in our lives to glorify God.
How can we help each other prepare for the upcoming arrival of the Lord by increasing our faith in Jesus Christ, repenting our sins and renewing our lives, so that Christ can be reborn in our hearts daily?