Advent, moral conversion
WORD ALIVE
Somebody once said, “There are two things we cannot escape in this life — paying taxes and dying.”
The first is certainly not true because we know too well that there are tax evaders. But with death, that’s a hundred-percent certainty. And, most often, we do not know when it happens.
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Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the church’s liturgical calendar. And the call is “be watchful”; “be alert. You do not know when the Lord of the house will come. He may find you sleeping” (Mark 13, 35).
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The message does not mean that we are literally in state of dormition – although some people are perennially in that state! It means rather that we are awake and watchful for the coming of the Lord doing our duties and responsibilities faithfully.
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As we enter the church’s “New Year,” we would do well to pause and ponder where our life is heading to? Am I making any spiritual progress or am I retrogressing? Or, making a change for the better or the worse?
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A story is told about an escaped convict from Devil’s Island, the penal colony off the French Guiana coast. The man was sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with a murder in Marseilles.
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While in prison, he suffered remorse of conscience for his crime and made reparation. Since he was a doctor, he devoted the remaining years of his life to curing the sick in the island.
When he died at 72, several hundred people gathered to pay their last respects to the man who had done so much to heal their physical illnesses.
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From a murderer, he became a healer and a hero. This true story illustrates how we, too, can rise from our sinfulness and live a worthwhile life. And it happened because the man woke up to the call of renewal from within.
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There is no real transformation in society unless there is an inner personal transformation. For whatever is wrong with society is the accumulated result of whatever is wrong with the people who compose it.
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Who fight senseless wars, who kill and steal, who pollute our environment and denude our forests? Society doesn't do it, people do.
Hence, if more and more individuals, especially political leaders, change for the better, then society will likewise change.
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The word Advent comes from the Latin word “Adventum” which means literally “coming.” May Advent not only refer to the coming of Sta. Claus, Christmas bonuses, simple or sumptuous parties and gift-givings but more especially our coming to the Lord through moral conversion.
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Christmas Quips. An ill-prepared college student taking an economics exam just before Christmas vacation wrote on his paper, “Only God knows the answers to these questions!”
The professor got irked and wrote this note: “God gets 100, you get 0. Merry Christmas!”
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I’ve never realized how bad the economy was until I spoke to Sta. Claus on the phone. During our chat, I asked: “How’s Rudolph, the reindeer?”
“Delicious!” Santa replied.
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Seeing a crib outside a mall, someone remarked: “Look, they’re bringing Christ back to Christmas!” (Let’s also put the Christ’s crib in our houses!).
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Give love to our Seminarians. This Christmas, let’s help our seminarians by donating through our “Adopt a Seminarian” scholarship program? Donate any amount or sponsor a seminarian's schooling good for one school year.
For inquiry, e-mail me at: belsvd@gmail.com.