2nd Sunday of Advent Year A

There were two monks clearing the weeds out of a field. One monk was going at it non stop, he did not take a break, he just kept going and going. There were times when he felt weary, but he just kept at it. The other monk stopped every hour for fifteen minutes. At the end of the day, the monk who did not take a break, was so tired and weak. He could not believe his eyes, when he saw how much the other monk accomplished. He was very upset, so he asked the monk. "I have been going at it all day, I did not take a break, I'm exhausted. You took a fifteen minute break every hour, and you got more accomplished, and you are not as tired, how could that be?" The monk replied, "Every time you saw me take a break, I stopped to sharpen my blade."

This is what the Gospel reminds us today; to sharpen our blade so as to clear the weeds of sin out of our heart. In so doing, we need to stop for a moment from all our worldly activities especially during this season of advent and prepare ourselves, our soul for the Lord.

Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew 3:1-12“A voice of one crying out in the desert prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”

On this second Sunday of Advent, we are called to “prepare for the Lord.” In some sense it means, we prepare ourselves for Christmas. Some prepare gifts for their kids, others prepare food. Still others prepare themselves for the Christmas party, for Christmas sale, for Christmas bonus and all others about Christmas. These are worthy of our preparations yet these are just external preparations. Hopefully we do not miss the interior preparation which is more important than the external i.e., to prepare ourselves for the Lord. Just like what John the Baptist desired for the people according to our Gospel: we have to repent, we have to renew our baptismal promises and confess our sins. We have to produce good fruits as evidence of our preparation for the Lord this Christmas. These are the ways we prepare the way for the Lord so that on Christmas day, our clean heart, our clean soul is our gift for Jesus.