Don Bosco Philippines South Province

Homily delivered on Wednesday, 1st Week of Advent, 6 December 2023, DBPH Talamban

Mountains are fascinating. Many of us love the experience of mountain climbing especially because the hike to the summit offers us the chance of seeing and appreciating the beautiful panorama of God’s wonderful creation. Aside from that, the breathtaking view from the top gives us a new perspective of the tiny world down below with all its problems, pains and sorrows. Viewed from the top the biggest boulders on the plains suddenly shrink into tiny little pebbles and the tallest skyscrapers in the cities into slender little matchsticks.

We have just begun the season of Advent, and we recall that in the beginning when God created heaven and earth, he saw that everything he created was good. Unfortunately this pristine beauty and goodness quickly faded away. When the first man and woman committed sin, they broke away from God, and hence, brought distortion and disharmony upon all of God’s creation.

The good news however is this. God did not remain forever angry with the havoc humankind has done. Instead, out of his infinite love and compassion he promised to send a Savior; a special someone filled with God’s Spirit who would restore all the beauty and goodness that was destroyed by sin. The prophecy we heard today from Isaiah is at the same time a promise of what the new world would look like when the Savior comes. On God’s holy mountain, people’s tears shall be wiped away, and their reproach removed. Then a lavish feast of choicest food and drink shall be prepared for everyone.

What is most amazing is this. According to St. Matthew, Isaiah’s prophecy had in fact already become a reality when Jesus Christ, our Savior, was born. The Gospel passage we just heard shows us that on the mountain where Jesus was preaching, many sick people were healed including the lame, the blind, the deformed, and the mute; and afterwards all of them were treated with a lavish feast of loaves and fish that miraculously multiplied at the hands of the promised Messiah. If Isaiah’s vision indeed became a reality two-thousand years ago we can look forward with joyful hope to its final completion when our Savior returns at the parousia (end of time). All our boulder-like problems will be crushed like tiny little pebbles, and all our pains and sorrows turned into pure joy, and we shall shine with Him and all the saints like stars in the sky.

May the Advent Mass we celebrate on this holy altar awaken in our hearts the joyful hope and prayerful vigilance we need for the coming of the Lord, who alone can wipe all our tears away and make us gloriously whole again, way beyond our dreams and expectations. When that day comes we shall definitely be like him, holy and pleasing in the eyes of our heavenly Father.

We pray to our Lady, the Holy Virgin of Nazareth conceived without sin, that we who had been stained and marred by sin, may through her intercession have our hearts restored, reformed, renewed and rekindled for the coming birth of the Savior of the world. GiGsss!

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