What do the candles mean again?

It is the second Sunday of Advent and today we here about a simple man with a simple message, 'prepare the way of the Lord". The country of Israel is a political mess, look who's in charge, Herod, a tyrant if ever there was one, Caesar, well...we won't go there, Pilate a Governor, who knew his hands were tied as far as his political power of being in 'charge' was concerned. The people were starving for some SPIRITUAL direction. Can we relate? In many ways we can.

Our secular government has thrown God to the wayside and our Church is fighting tooth and nail to protect all human beings' rights from birth to the disabled to natural death. Our Church is in the business of saving souls, it's not about the feeling good of this world that will pass away. When will we get this through our heads? Only God knows and He is doing His best through the prophets He has given us of this day. I suppose that is what we use this Advent season for, to listen to the prophets of our time to remind us of the preparation we need to get ourselves ready.

I read that this second Sunday of Advent is a week of Faith. We need to have the faith of Mary and Joseph. They were visited by an angel to tell them something absolutely incredible. Mary would have a child of God, Himself no less, and was to accept this. Joseph was to go with the flow and accept this child as his and love Mary, no matter what. Now that is faith, could we do as well? Talk about your reality show and fodder for gossip. But what incredible news they had and yes they accepted this with such faith. We could be so blessed. As a matter of fact we are blessed. We are given the opportunity to receive Jesus in the Sacrament of the Eucharist everyday. It is our faith that opens this opportunity up for us. We believe that Jesus is truly present to us in the Sacrament. We prepare by going to confession, giving of ourselves to others, and carrying on Jesus' mission of loving others.

This Advent as we wait in joyful hope let us remember that it is our faith that gives us hope for a better life in Christ, to not give up on our secular society, to continue to pray for the conversion of those that have lost all hope, and to continue to prepare for the coming of the Lord. Get ready!