Advent: A joyful parousia

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri. Today is the First day of Advent and it is the day to recognise and accept that love, joy and peace will triumph in this materialistic world. Christ comes to meet us in our usual routine life, such as, our families, work places and church communities. Let us welcome Christ, our eternal guest.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri. First Monday of the Advent is the day to pray for others with joy. As the official at the Capernaum seeks Jesus’ help to heal his servant because he recognised and waited for the eternal physician. Pray for the people who you work with for the joyful healing.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri. Today is the day to work our ego and embrace humility. Christ has revealed Himself to us even though we are unworthy. If Christ, the Son of God, has become a man, why not we too embrace humility and do away with our egoist attitude. Let us ask Lord to give us humility from Christ, who is the epitome of humility.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri. Christ meets us right where we are now. You might be cooking, working, making children ready for school etc. Christ is right there. Where? Just look at the other person who you are with. Christ met St. Andrew at the shore of Sea of Galilee whilst fishing. We pray for that sense of seeing Christ in each other.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri. It is the day to eliminate stupidity and embrace wisdom from the Word of God. There are millions of voices in our world today, many of the lead us astray from the Word of God, and to stupidity. But Word of God will make us wise, hence, we can build our lives on Solid foundation, that is Christ Jesus.

Welcome to Joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri. This is the day to eradicate our blindness and follow Christ, our eternal light. What is that blinds us from seeing God, Vengeance, and hatred, past life, ego, attitudes, injustice and so on. Let us ask Lord to heal our blindness so we can see God clearly in our lives.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri. On the feast of St. Francis Xavier, we are to focus on our own slackness in life. At times, we are lost sheep and we did not listen to the call of our loving shepherd, Christ. Humans have a tendency to depend on themselves, hence, God is not really in the picture. We ask Christ, our Shepherd to call us in louder voice because the voices in the world overshadow Christ’s own voice.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri. Second Sunday in Advent must remind us to not only repent but repentance must yield fruits in our lives. One cannot be merely saying, ‘I forgive you’ or ‘do penance’ for the wrong one did, rather and more importantly, one has to show fruits of forgiveness and penance, such as, caring for the forgiven or doing charitable works of mercy. We ask Christ, the eternal lamb may help us to bear fruits from repentance.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri. Today is the day to think about our own lives and see whether we have victimised or labelled someone or vice versa. Labelling someone as good for nothing, or your worth only so much or how this happen and so on. It hurts and corrupts our relationship with God and the person who is labelled or who is labelling. We ask Christ the healer to help us to take out that label and put on Christ in us.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri. Today has brought us the message that we are always in the hands of God whether we straying or with God. God will come after us when we stray and bring us back with joy. Our God is good shepherd who wants his sheep to flourish in the green pastures. We pray that we may always stay on the green pastures and not stray to the rugged dry pastures.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri. Today we seek to lighten our burdens. We need someone to hold our hands and lead us on especially when we frailty of life strike us; frailty of joblessness, frailty of broken families, frailty of illness, frailty of betrayal, frailty of poverty and so on. Jesus tells us today, come to me all who labour and I will give you rest.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri. Today we ask our God help us in when we are afraid. Mother Mary was afraid when God brought message to her through the angel. But she got her courage back through the Holy Spirit. What is the fear that is keeping you back; fear of future, fear of grades in school, fear of losing someone, fear of violence, fear of crime and so on. It is the time now to hold on to Christ to cast away our fears and put a new spirit in us.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri. Today is the day to evaluate our own life and mission. Whether I have done my part? Or have I given into temptation of discouragement. Jesus and John the Baptist did their part in the mission and many did not follow their teachings but there were not discouraged rather continued with more zeal. We ask our Lord to give us strength when someone is not listening us or not obeying to us.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri. Today is to reflect on truth. Truth brings liberation to most and brings hatred to a few. Either way, we, as Christians are expected to speak truth and stand for truth. Jesus paid on the cross for speaking the truth. Christians must follow our Christ’s example and not allow temptations of indifference. We pray that God may give us strength when we are faced with reality of untruthfulness.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri. On this 3^rd Sunday of Advent, it is time for us to believe and not doubt. John the Baptist wanted to clarify whether it is the Christ? But then Jesus clarifies his doubt. Doubts come in our lives especially when we are faced with harshness of life such as illness, betrayal, poverty, failure etc. Let us seek to clarify from our Lord when we are faced with difficult situations. Let Christ be our doubt clarifier.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri Dias. Today is the feast of our Lady of Guadalupe and it is fitting that we celebrate the role of Mother Mary as God bearer, theotokos. Mary bore Jesus in her with joy. This is the day for us to remember that we are also called to be God bearers in our lives especially in a Godless world, in world of secularism, in a world of consumerism. We ask the grace from the Lord to be God bearers in our lives, in other words let us show God in our lives.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri Dias. This is the day to remember we are fragile just like to earthen vessels but God will uphold us and make us strong. Despite our fragility and sinfulness, we are helped by God to do his will. As the psalm proclaims, this poor man called and the Lord hear him. Let us not condemn the sinner but sin because in the eyes of God every one is sinner and we have no right to judge others, only God is the judge. We ask Lord to help us when we fall because of our mistakes in life and we also seek God’s assistance when we are tempted to condemn others who make mistakes.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri Dias. Today is the day to accept and believe that Christ is the expected One, Lamb of God, and Saviour of the universe. Let us not ask, are you the one or we have wait for someone else? We have experience of Christ in our day today affairs especially in most simple and subtle affairs. If you have an experience of Christ, doubt not but believe in Him. We see Christ in each other because we are made in the image and likeness of God. We ask God to give us faith to see Christ in our daily routine especially if our routine is boring.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri Dias. Christ assures each one of us today that everyone of us is called to be His messengers. By baptism, we are given that duty to be His messengers. Whether we are in fine clothes and luxurious living or rugged and bruised, we are expected to be Christ’s messengers as St. John the Baptist was. By being His messenger, we prepare a way for the Lord, in other words we establish God’s kingdom and not human kingdom. We ask Lord to give us courage and hope when we find ourselves messengers in a society marred by human power, wealth and authority.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri Dias. Jesus invites us today to give testimony to the truth because truth will ultimately prevail. Our human nature supposed to be truthful, and this must be innate to us humans but we have good and bad in us. Hence, we give testimony to truth when it is convenient to us otherwise we try to evade truth and be mediocre in our dealings with each other. Being truthful brings challenges and even death as Christ died on the Cross for speaking truth. We Lord to give us the grace to give testimony to truth at all times even if the temptation to speak against truth.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri Dias. It is the time today to think about our own families especially our elders who have shared their faith and put values in our lives. As we read in our scripture about the genealogy of Jesus, we are reminded that Jesus had a wonderful ancestry and a Holy Family. Today, we see families are broken and division seems to be inevitable in some families. This happens because of various reasons such as pride, hopelessness, poverty, qualifications, profession, misunderstanding and so on. We pray for our own families and we pray for those families which live in hatred, fear and violence.  

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri Dias. Today is the last Sunday in advent and we are reminded about our own commitment to our families especially commitment towards spouses and children. In our scripture today, the Holy Family is in confusion, Joseph wants to divorce his wife Mary, and Mary would have been confused about pregnancy out of a wedlock. But God was ever present to help them by those beautiful words, Don’t be afraid. Do you have the same situation, situation of confusion, situation of regrets after marriage, situation of infidelity and so on, this is the time to ask Lord to give you strength and be not afraid.

Welcome to Joyful Parousia with Fr. Jerri Dias. It is the day to remember that there is nothing impossible to God. It is only we think that something is impossible but for God everything is possible. In the scripture today we hear, Zachariah and Elizabeth, an old couple going to have a child. In the eyes of humans it is impossible but for God it is possible. We pray for those couples who live expecting that God will work a miracle and give them a child. There are couples who might not have children and look forward to God’s intervention in their lives. We pray for those couples that God may grant them the gift of children and double their joy by being co-creators with God.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri Dias. Today is the time to focus on ourselves and how blessed we are in the eyes of God. Mother Mary is given the message that she is highly favoured and blessed among women. It is time for us to be grateful for the person we are rather than what we are not, what we have rather than we have not. It is our human tendency to compare ourselves with other, such as she is beautiful or he has so much riches. This will make us more worried and anxious to be like someone else, we might forget the moon whilst counting stars. We pause and thank God for the what we are and what we have and ask Lord to give us positive outlook about ourselves.

Welcome to Joyful Parousia with Fr. Jerri Dias. Advent is the time to share joy with others, not to keep our joy for ourselves for when we share our joy it is doubled. Mother Mary went as quickly as possible to share in the joy of Elizabeth and in turn Elizabeth proclaims that Mary is blessed among women. This is what happens when we share in joys of others. It is a time to keep our jealousy and pride away and go as quickly as possible to join the happiness of others. We ask Lord to give us that sense of joy and sharing.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri Dias. Today is the day to rejoice in the greatness of God in our lives and in this world. Mary’s magnificat is the reminder to us to be grateful for the Lord has done marvels in our lives. It important that we look back and count our blessings and how many instances where God has come to our refuge and rescue. God’s presence is forever and ever, hence, He will continue to grant the graces to us. But God expects us to rejoice in the graces, be it be small or big. We ask Lord to give us the sense of satisfaction in life and rejoice.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri. Let us focus our attention to our own families especially children and young of our families. People wondered in our scripture today, what will John Baptist turn out to be when he grows up? Some of you may be anxious and worried about your children, what will they grow up to be. You do every effort to make your children grow in good faith and good life. Despite that some children turn out to be bad but be satisfied for you tried your best and did your duty as parents. The only way now is to pray that God may make your child good again. We also ask Lord to take away our anxieties and worries about our family.

Welcome to joyful Parousia with Fr. Jerri Dias. Today through prophecy of Zachariah, we are reminded the Christ will come to fulfil God’s work of building His kingdom. As we celebrate Christmas tonight, we truly rejoice and glory in the Lord for a Christ is born to be the saviour of you and me. Each one of us so special and unique, hence, we live that uniqueness in our lives. We ask Lord to fulfil His prophecy about us especially to do his will.

Welcome to joyful parousia with Fr. Jerri Dias. Merry Christmas to all of you, may infant Jesus bring light in darkness and peace in the world. Today is the time for us to celebrate with joy because Word has become flesh. Word of God becomes man, a mystery of incarnation. Christ is born in our world. He is born to cast out darkness and bring true light. Christ has come to dwell among us. We accept and believe that Christ is truly born to each one of us and offer our darkness and fears to the Lord, let Him bring true light in our lives, in our families and in our world.