First Reading: Is. 11:1 - 10 | Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 72: 1 - 2, 7 - 8, 12 - 13, 17
Second Reading: Rom. 15:4 - 9 | Gospel: Matt. 3:1 - 12

“Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low, …., and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” (Is. 40:3 – 5)

John the Baptist proclaims: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” The time is running out. His message is incisive and very brief, “Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees.”

We celebrate his birthday on June 25th and his martyrdom on August 29th, every year (unless they fall on a Sunday). The length of the days decrease from June 25th until Dec. 25th. As he said, “I must decrease and he (Messiah) must increase.” He points to the awesome Presence of Messiah. He calls us “you brood of the vipers,” turn around and prepare your hearts for God, the Almighty (El Shaddai), who can “raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” John is the last of the prophets, a bridge between the Old and the New Testaments. He announces the coming of the Savior and then disappears. The whole purpose of Jesus’ life, Passion, and Resurrection is anticipated in John the Baptist’s call to metanoia, and to be reborn in Christ. Christ’s baptism by the Holy Spirit and fire will purify our hearts, if we allow him to enter in. So St. Peter writes to the Christian community: “in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light,” (1Pt. 2:9) you need to convert and be washed clean of your millennial prejudices against God’s ways. As Isaiah promises, and in Psalm 72, the King will bring righteous judgments (cf. 2 Sam. 15:1 – 6; 1Kgs 3:16 – 28) for poor and needy. Let us be “poor and needy” so that he comes to us.


By: Farzi Najmabadi (SCB Parishioner)

First Reading: Is. 2:1 - 5 | Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 122:1 - 5
Second Reading: Rom. 13:11 - 14 | Gospel: Matt. 24:37 - 44

“Stay awake … your salvation is near at hand.” This translates to spiritual rather than physical wakefulness. Like Noah, we need to be ready before the rains starts. By comparing the events of his Parousia (Second Coming) to the great Flood in the days of Noah, he is evoking purification and transformation of souls. Our Baptism corresponds to these events. Both Flood at the out start of history and the Parousia at the end are like baptismal events, transforming the world to become holier. Christians, as early as John Chrysostom, have stressed the importance of readiness for death as well as for the Second Coming. The problem is not that we should not live our normal lives, but our secular indifference to our spirituality. We must continually prepare for Christ’s Second Coming, because the time of his coming is anytime now.

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and the heaven will pass away in a loud noise, …” (2Pt. 3:10)

St. Paul talks about Jesus’s sudden appearance as a “thief,” in 1 Thess. 5:2 - 8. “So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. (5:6)” “Only the heart that has grown in love for him will be able to perceive his approach.” (Fire of Mercy, Vol. III, p. 750)

St. Thérèse of Lisieux had grown in love for Jesus, and could feel the silent steps of the Good Thief coming to gather her elect and she responded in faith and love and was able to transform

the terrifying final moment of her life into the experience of Jesus appearance to her in glory.

“And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (Jn. 14:3)
 

By: Farzi Najmabadi (SCB Parishioner)

First Reading: 2Sam.5:1 - 3 | Responsorial Ps. 122:1 - 5
Second Reading: Colossians 1:12 - 20

“Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Don’t you wish, just as I do, that Jesus would have told you: “today you will be with me in Paradise”? We all wish to get there without going to Golgotha, and suffering on a cross.

The inscription over his head did not say that he claimed to be a king, but positively that he is “The King of the Jews.” Here we are witnessing a mystery of HIDDEN GLORY, proclamation of the truth of our salvation. This is what St. Paul in his letter to the Colossians is relaying to us.

The position of the two criminals at the right and left hands of Jesus has other parallels like the episode of the sons of Zebedee (Matt. 20:20 – 23), and the parable of the Last Judgment in (Matt. 25:31 - 33ff). The righteous who sit at his right hand will go to heaven and the ones on his left hand will be condemned. However he has given us the freedom of choice to choose the path of righteous. In this episode of Gospel of Luke, the violent attitude of one criminal is compared to the nobility of soul, humility, and contrition of the other, a liberating act of faith. In another word, just the proximity to Jesus and mere suffering per se cannot guarantee one’s salvation, but the interior conversion of the soul.

“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Lk. 23:34) Shall we together with the people at the foot of the Cross, despise and insult the suffering Christ? Or shall we instead fall down and worship him?

To mock or to adore Christ Crucified should be our choice.

By: Farzi Najmabadi (SCB Parishioner)