What the scriptures reveal to us is that God's love is an incontestable  fact of history. But unfortunately a fact in history and revelation may not be a believable nor acceptable realization in an individual person's life. For what we believe and accept is colored by our experiences and perceptions.  If a person's understanding of God is experienced through a parent who was harsh and unloving, who was never around when needed, who was unforgiving and judgmental, then this could well become, initially at least, the concept of God for that person. He/she would have a very difficult time falling in love with such a person. Hearing that God is love would not make any sense, because one's perception through the parental relationship is totally opposite. No matter how much God manifests his love, the mental and emotional blocks would prevent this fact to be real with the person.

What was your relationship with your biological father? What is your understanding and relationship with God, the Father? Your biological father, like yourself, was human and made mistakes. God, the Father, is divine and all-loving. Even though you may not understand his love, his love for us is real and unconditional. (To be continued)

Falling in love with Jesus is a response to his love for us. Many, outside of the scriptures, have attempted to reflect on this reality. In the Middle Ages, Meister Eckhart said: "God lies in wait for us with nothing so much as love. For love resembles a fisherman's hook. Once the fish takes the hook, the fisherman is sure of the fish, the fisherman is assured of the catch, twist and turn as it may, this way or that. And so I say of love; the one who is caught by it has the strongest of bonds, and yet a pleasant burden....he can cheerfully forgive whatever evil is done to him. Nothing brings you closer to God or makes God so much your own as the sweet bond of love. the one who has found this way need seek no other. The one who hangs on this hook is caught so fast that foot and hand, mouth and eyes and heart, and all that is the person, belongs to God...watch for this hook so as to be blessedly caught: for the more you are caught, the more you are free."

"That I love thee continuously is My Nature/ For I myself am Love;/That I love thee fervently is My Desire/ For I long to be greatly loved./That I love thee long comes from My eternity,/For I am everlasting and without end." (Mechthild of Magdeburg)

Reflect on your experience of God's eternal, unconditional and unmerited love for you. Write your own story.

Falling in love with Jesus.
The scriptures from beginning to end proclaim God's love for us. From the act of creation to the promises of God in the Old Testament, from the coming of the Son of God into the world to  his death and resurrection and ascension,  from the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost to the second coming of Jesus as Lord and Judge. 

The Old Testament is summed up in the words of Psalm 136: "O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love endures for ever." (136:1) 

The New Testament is more expressive: "Yes, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him may not die but may have eternal life" (Jn 3:16).  "There is no greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends" (Jn 15:13).  "And this hope will not leave us disappointed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit" (Ro 5:5). "God's love was revealed in our midst in this way: he sent his only Son to the world that we might have life through him. Love, then, consists in this: not that we have loved God, but that he has loved us....We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us" (1 Jn 4:9-10, 16). Reflect on God's love for you today.  (To be continued)

Third Sunday of Advent Gospel C

At that time, the crowds asked John the Baptist, “What should we do?”
· Some of them had already repented and were baptized. Now they where asking for the more. This should be our question as well, as we prepare for the continuing and final coming of Jesus. This was the question of the rich young man to Jesus. Unfortunately, asking isn’t enough. We have to act on the answer.
 He said to them in reply, “Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none.  And whoever has food should do likewise.” 
· John called them (and us) to examine our true needs and to share with those who have less.  It is not enough to do the minimum, namely repentance and forgiveness, but we must be willing to follow the call to love through providing for the needs of others whenever possible.  Will not this be the issue at the Last Judgment when God will say: “What you did or did not do to the least you did or did not for me?”

Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He answered them, “Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.” Soldiers also asked him, “And what is it that we should do?” He told them, “Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages.” 
· How fairly and justly do we treat others?  Ask this question within the context of being judged by God one day.
· Again, it is not enough to ask, if we are not determined to act accordingly.

Now the people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” Exhorting them in many other ways, he preached good news to the people.
· John quickly distinguishes himself from the true Messiah who is to come.
· The baptism that the Messiah will proclaim will be greater than the one John preached. The latter was a preparation of the former.
· John considers himself, in comparison, as less than a servant. For a servant would be the one who unties the straps of the master’s sandals.
· The Messiah will come as judge separating the good and the bad.
· How do we apply this text in our lives today?
· Have we been baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire? Are we living out of that context in our daily lives? Are we zealot for the kingdom of God under the lead of the Holy Spirit?
· How attentive are we to our own baptismal life and the grace of Confirmation? To what extent do we witness these graces in our lives to others?

INFORMATION
MEN'S MASS FOR DECEMBER
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8
7:30 PM
BISHOP'S HOUSE
107 ALBANY DR.
INVITE A FRIEND TO JOIN YOU
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Come, Lord Jesus, come!

Second Sunday of Advent: Gospel  C

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.
· Luke sets the ministry of John the Baptist (and of Jesus) in its historical context, in particular, during the Roman Empire.
· This would be around 28-29AD.
· Following the death of Herod the Great, his kingdom was divided into four parts.   Herod Antipas, one of the sons of Herod the Great, ruled Galilee.  We know little about Philip (except that Herodias, whom Herod married, was first married to Philip) and Lysanias. Along with the connection to Tiberius and Pilate, Luke further situates John’s ministry in the political context of his day.
· According to Jewish tradition there could be one high priest at a time and he remained for life. The Romans insisted that there would be some tenure. So even though in fact Caiaphas was the high priest, Annas was still recognized as such by the people.  This is the religious context.
· God has chosen John to be the forerunner of the Christ.
· That the word of God came to John in the wilderness reminds the people of the covenant which was ratified in the desert or wilderness.

John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: A voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
· The purpose of the repentance and the baptism as a sign of their desire for forgiveness was to prepare their hearts to receive the word of the Messiah.
· Luke situates John’s ministry in the prophetic context. He quotes Isaiah 40:3-5.
· It was the custom of the day for the king to send messengers ahead of him to prepare the people for his pending visit. God sends John to be his spokesperson.
· During this Advent season what are we doing to prepare our hearts for a deeper coming of Jesus, so that we too can see his salvation?
· Will that preparation include the Sacrament of Reconciliation? Will it include the forgiveness of others as well as asking their forgiveness?
· Pray: Come, Lord, Jesus, Come.  Come into my heart in a fuller way. Draw me into your presence.

INFORMATION
DECEMBER MASSES
FOR MEN
DECEMBER 8, 2018
7:30 AM
FOR WOMEN
DECEMBER 15, 2018
8:00 AM
BISHOP'S HOUSE
BRING A FRIEND
FELLOWSHIP AFTERWARDS














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The Eucharist is a sacrifice!
In the Eucharist, Christ makes present to us anew the sacrifice offered once
 for all on Golgotha.  “In instituting it, he did not merely say: “This is my body”, “this
 is my blood”, but went on to add: “which is given for you”, “which is poured out for
you” (Lk 22:19-20). Jesus did not simply state that what he was giving them to eat
and drink was his body and his blood; he also expressed its sacrificial meaning and
made sacramentally present his sacrifice which would soon be offered on the Cross
for the salvation of all.”

“The Eucharist thus applies to men and women today the reconciliation won once
for all by Christ for mankind in every age. “The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of
the Eucharist are one single sacrifice”. Saint John Chrysostom put it well: “We always
offer the same Lamb, not one today and another tomorrow, but always the same one.
For this reason the sacrifice is always only one... Even now we offer that victim who
was once offered and who will never be consumed”.

The Mass makes present the sacrifice of the Cross...makes Christ's one, definitive
redemptive sacrifice always present in time. The sacrificial nature of the Eucharistic
mystery cannot therefore be understood as something separate, independent of the Cross
or only indirectly referring to the sacrifice of Calvary.”

The Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is a gift of love and obedience to the Father.
 In and through this sacrifice Christ glorifies the Father by giving his life for our life, by
becoming the expiation of all sin, by reconciling us to the Father through the shedding
of his blood.  For this gift of perfect love, the Father in turn raised Jesus up and exalted
him at his right hand, giving him the name Lord.  In the Eucharist Jesus unites us to his
 sacrificial gift to the Father so that we too can give ourselves in union with him to the Father.