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One of the world records we Filipinos have always held is the longest celebration of the Christmas season that usually begins every September first (the start of the –ber months) and ends last week of January with our Sto. Nino feast. Recently on Facebook I noticed the many posts declaring “Bes, December na!” as if sounding off the bells for the Christmas rush. In our desire to celebrate Christmas right away by rushing it, we skip Advent that we eventually miss the true spirit of Christmas now portrayed as shopping at the malls or cheesy Christmas love song playing on the airwaves. The most despicable portrayal of Christmas I have seen in the past few years is the claim by some food companies in their ads that Christmas would not be complete without a ham or a quezo de bola! The true spirit of Christmas is only Jesus and would always be Jesus. And we can only have Jesus, December 25 or not, when we heed Advent’s call for conversion.
John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: A voice of one crying out in the desert, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. (Mt. 3:1-5)
Every second and third Sundays of Advent, we always hear from the gospel proclaimed the person and preaching of St. John the Baptist. In some Eastern churches we can find above their main door the images of St. John the Baptist at the left corner and of the Virgin Mary at the right corner with Jesus Christ at the middle. It illustrates how St. John is the ending of the Old Testament while Mary is the start of the New Testament. Both John and Mary are the main characters of the Advent season next to our Lord because they guide us on the true manner of preparing for Christmas. Any preparation for the Lord’s coming is always through repentance of sins and conversion as St. John declared today in the Gospel. This also explains the violet motif of our liturgical vestments in Advent: the need to cleanse our hearts of the impurities of sins and evils that prevent us from experiencing Jesus Christ’s love and mercy. Without repentance of our sins and a desire to be converted or be better persons, we can never sing that tune of “give love on Christmas day” or any day of the year!
One thing I wish to share with you that could help us to be converted to truly receive Jesus Christ according to St. John the Baptist is his simplicity.
“John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.” (Mt. 3:5) We do not have to imitate John’s fashion style which could be very expensive today as I saw a few months ago a leather belt costing about 50,000.00Php! Advent as a time of preparing for Christmas is a season for us to be simple, to go back to the basics in order to see the true value again of things and people we have taken for granted. John’s simple lifestyle invites us to go into our very hearts anew to see that what really matters is what is inside of us. We may be wearing the most beautiful and expensive clothes and apparel but if our hearts are filled with hatred and insecurities, nothing else would make us look good. Simplicity helps us realize the more essential things in life that Exupery’s Little Prince claimed as always invisible and can only be seen through the heart like love and forgiveness, kindness and care for others. It is difficult to repent and be converted when all we see are the outside like the Pharisees and scribes castigated by St. John, calling them “brood of vipers.” At least Jesus was a little kinder than him when he referred to the Pharisees and scribes as hypocrites, perhaps the more precise term when we are so focused with the externals, with what can be seen. It is a complicated life like in Facebook where everything and everyone has to be seen always as trending or viral. In the process, instead of growing together, we grow apart, unfriending or “unfollowing” one another as we make enemies or get suffocated with all the hates and distastes of our careless posts. Or egotisms.
Advent is a call for simple living when we dress ourselves with Christ prophesied by Isaiah in the first reading, “Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.” (Is.11:5) That imagery of justice as a band around waist and faithfulness a belt upon hips, though referring to the coming Christ, is also applicable to us because it means being open to the Holy Spirit Who fills us with its gifts of wisdom and understanding, counsel and strength, knowledge and fear of the Lord (cf. Is.11:2-3). A lot often we complain about the commercialization of Christmas when it is also the product of our own doing of looking more on the outside than the inside of ourselves. When we skip the four weeks of Advent, Christmas then becomes a mere calendar date and we miss it as an event and person of Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us not complicate Christmas and start following the flow of Advent’s joyful, active waiting in the spirit of conversion. Such flowing with Advent is simplicity itself when we do less manipulations, less controls of everything, waiting for Christ to come through prayerful reading and listening to the Sacred Scriptures proclaimed in every Sunday Mass for Jesus comes first in the word, plain and simple as St. Paul reminded us today. “Whatever was written previously was written for our instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Rom.15:4) When our hearts and souls are suffused with the word of God, then we realize our sinfulness as well as blessedness because we are loved and forgiven in Christ Jesus.
This second Sunday of Advent, let us repent and be converted by living simply, by giving up our own agenda and allowing the Holy Spirit to direct our lives, “welcoming one another as Christ welcomed us repentant sinners for the glory of God.” (cf. Rom. 15:7) Maybe then, when we start to lead simple lives with less demands from others and nature, we could experience the true spirit of Christmas foretold by Isaiah in our first reading today: “Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adders lair.” (Is.11:6-9) Have a blessed and joyful week ahead in Christ Jesus!
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista
Gov. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan
