4th Sunday of Advent (Cycle B)

2Sam 7:1-5,8-12,14,16                  Rom 16:25-27                  Lk 1:26-38

The legend of the exquisitely beautiful girl Shakuntala and the mighty king Dushyant is a thrilling love story from the epic Mahabharata, which the great ancient poet Kalidasa retold in his immortal play ‘Abhijnanashakuntalam’.

While on a hunting trip, King Dushyant of the Puru dynasty meets the hermit-girl Shakuntala. They fall in love with each other at first sight and, in the absence of her father, Shakuntala weds the king in a ceremony of ‘Ghandharva’ - a form of marriage by mutual consent with mother Nature as the witness. When the time comes for Dushyant to return to his palace, he promises to send an envoy to escort her to his castle. As a fond remembrance he gives her a signet ring. One day when hermit Durvasa stops at her hut for hospitality, Shakuntala, lost in her love thoughts, fails to hear his calls. The angry sage turns back and curses her: “He whose thoughts have engrossed you, would not remember you anymore.” On the plea of her companions, the enraged sage relents and adds a condition to his curse-statement: “He can only recall you upon producing some significant souvenir.” Days roll by and nobody from the palace comes to fetch her. Her father sends her to the royal court for their reunion, as she was pregnant with Dushyant’s child. While travelling, Shakuntala’s signet-ring accidentally drops into the river and gets lost. When Shakuntala presents herself before the king, Dushyant, under the spell of the curse, fails to acknowledge her as his wife. Heart-broken, she pleads to the gods for help. Meanwhile, a fisherman finds the signet ring in the stomach of a fish and hands it over to king Dushyant. On seeing it, the king recollects the past and suffers from an intense feeling of guilt and injustice. Then, Shakuntala forgives Dushyant and they are reunited happily. She gives birth to a male child. He is called Bharat, after whom India gets her name.

This legendary story tells us how a promise was made, forgotten and then, fulfilled. But today’s story from the gospel tells us how a promise was never forgotten, unfailed, unbroken and fulfilled.

Today’s gospel is a passage we have heard on different occasions and feasts, like the feast of the annunciation of the Lord and on various Marian feasts throughout the annual liturgical period. But, in the context of advent season, this conveys to us that God has been faithful, is faithful and will be faithful to the promises He has made. The announcement about the conception of Jesus Christ in the womb of Mary is a sign of God unfailing to keep His promises. God promised a Messiah and a Saviour to the Israelites and the humankind at large, to liberate them eternally from the clutches which manifested in various forms. The long awaited coming of the Messiah was ensured during the moment of annunciation.

This element of God fulfilling His promises and never failing on that is a great lesson for us today, because as humans, we face the challenge of how hard we struggle to fulfill the promises we have made. Quickly our promises are relaxed due to its incompatibility with our struggles of life. Even otherwise, when we face with a profit or benefit to our end, we are prone to give up the promises we make to others. The priority of our promise shifts pushing the self-benefit to the first position. Such an unpromising behaviour is unjust. A promise is always a promise. A vow is always a vow and cannot be revoked. The integrity of a person is revealed through the promise one makes and fulfills it.

We are not without the practice of promises in our human life. Trust is built on a person, when that person shows himself or herself to be promising in character. Our blessed mother, Mary whom we encounter in today’s gospel proved her to be promising throughout her life, without ever going back on her promise. From the human community, she stands as the epitome of a promising character. From the divine side, God projects Himself to be of promising nature. We see an exchange of promise between God and Mary.

There are different areas of life, in which people make their promises. During the sacrament of matrimony, the couples exchange their promise of fidelity and love to each other. In the life of priestly and religious vocation, the concerned candidate gives the vows of obedience, poverty and chastity. In the contract between two parties, they sign the agreement. In receiving loans, we sign the surety paper. Life is filled with promises but only a few are fulfilled.

Broken promises are always a source of mental agony and suffering. We know the pain when one of the spouse betrays the partner in a marital relationship. That is the most agonizing pain a person could encounter in a human life than the pain a chronic physical ailment could offer. That is the effect of a broken promise.

When looked at from the perspective of promises, the salvation history is nothing but another version of God’s unfailed promises interwoven with Israelites’ broken promises. The life of Israelites is a recurring story of broken promises at different times, but still God had sustained to be faithful to His promises. It is ironical to note that a single promise of God continued to be alive amidst an atmosphere of human dead promises. The embodiment of God in the human form of Jesus Christ became the pinnacle of God’s promise actualized. The embodiment of God is celebrated as Christmas.

Even now, if we fail to fulfill the promises we make to God or to others in the name of God, He continues to be faithful to his promises He gave to us. We read in Mt 20:28, the last promise made by Jesus before he ascended into heaven, which is, also the last verse in the Gospel of St Matthew: Look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time. Here, we note that ‘Emmanuel’ which means ‘God is with us’ (Mt 1:23) closed his earth’s journey with a similar note. To consider this promise of Jesus as fulfilling or as failed is a matter of our faith.

The parable of the two sons (Mt 21:28-32) said by Jesus exposes the second son to be failing on his promise. While the first son, who refuses to his father’s instruction, later changes his mind and does what his father wants, the second son, who says, “I go,” makes a promise that he never fulfills—and possibly never intends to fulfill. His word contradicts his performance. To his father, he conceals his determination to disobey. The warning to us is not to be a son who promises to work, then neglects to keep his word. God has called us, and we have accepted that calling, during the renewal of our baptismal commitment on every Easter vigil service, promising we would do what God expects. Now we must perform what we have promised.

Only a person, promising in small things would be entrusted with great things. Lord Jesus said: “Anyone who is trustworthy in little things is trustworthy in great” (Lk 16:10). Let us introspect, whether we are promising in little things. If yes, there are greater responsibilities awaiting us!

2nd Sunday of Advent (Cycle B)

Isa 40:1-5, 9-11                  2Pet 3:8-14                  Mk 1:1-8

A woodsman was once asked, “What would you do if you were given eight hours to chop down a tree?” He answered, “I would spend the first six hours sharpening my axe.”

Rigorous preparation is the key to success for many endeavors. There will be no effect without a cause. No effect will happen without a cause. Similarly, no organized event would become an actuality without being preceded by a preparatory stage. Whether it be a marriage event, a birthday celebration, a farewell function, all have its own preparations prior to it. So also, our forthcoming celebration of Christmas. In view of that, today’s liturgy provides meditative points for us to reflect in order that we may worthily prepare ourselves to approach the historical event of Christ birth.

Our Church provides the icon of St John the Baptist, to instruct us towards a need for change both within and without. Straightening the herky-jerky, unsteady, uneven, coarse, rugged paths of the Messiah was the mission entrusted to St John the Baptist. The path that would be travelled by the saviour is the path of the human soul. The human soul is at a loss of peace within due to its herky-jerky, unsteady, uneven, coarse, rugged nature. Its path needs straightening. We go to parlours to straighten our hair to appear good. As humans, we give good importance to the externals than the internals. This tendency is because of our fragile nature. Therefore, this gives a priority call to straighten the path of our soul.

We always complain about the uneven roads because it makes our journey tiresome and annoying. Even if it is cost effective, we like to take the toll roads to have smoother journey and also to reach faster to the destiny. Similarly, our journey towards the celebration of Christ birth needs a smoother travelling experience. As a matter of preparation, our mind and attitude need to be shaped, evened, flattened, straightened before we encounter the celebraton of Christ birth.

Anything that does not allow change, has to face the state of stagnancy. Anything that stagnates, is prone to vanish and become extinct quickly. Hence, change is inevitable for any being in this universe. All the more, it becomes vital for a human being to change towards betterment. Without change, nothing would encounter growth or betterment. Change should not be towards the worst, rather, its movement should be towards the best. We do not like monotony. We become bored of a song, when we listen to it again and again, however we have liked it in the beginning. This applies to anything that we are attracted towards in the beginning. Therefore, we look for change in our surroundings to keep ourselves happy. But the secret of happiness lies in our positive change within. A refreshed mind each day is the secret to happiness.

When we go to a shop to buy some product, it is our usual experience that if the shop keeper hands a product in which its outer cover appears unclean or little damaged we ask him to give another one. In such cases, we do not even check the actual product inside a box cover rather we are very particular about the outer cover. The important thing is to check the actual product that resides inside the box whether it is working in good condition. Most often, we check the actual product after returning home and make a complain about our carelessness of not checking it at the right spot. What does this tell us? We have a tendency to be quick in worrying about the peripheries and the superficials rather than the foundations and internal matters.

This awareness is expected of us in the light of today’s gospel to march towards real repentance and transformation. Our growth consists in becoming nobler and nobler each day. There should be change in us for something better. That is why there is difference between a primitive man and a modern man. A modern man is not similar to a primitive man. There is a lot of progress in a modern man in comparison to a primitive man. But we cannot speak about the difference between a primitive lion and modern lion, a primitive buffalo and modern buffalo. Human beings alone possess the capacity to become better every day.

Robin Sharma makes a powerful statement in his spiritual novel, The Monk who sold his Ferrari: There is nothing noble about being superior to some other person. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.

It is true that every day we need to become superior to our former self by refining our own self, our inner thoughts, our soul. Every time we need to ask these questions:
- Am I better in my attitudes at present compared to my past?
- Am I better in my thoughts today compared to yesterday?
- Am I better in my motives now compared to the earlier moment?
If we ask these questions and positively act according to it, PEACE IS NEVER AT A DISTANCE. We need strenuous effort on our part to become better in our attitudes, thoughts and motives.

In such efforts, we also become tired sometimes saying to ourselves: However, I try my best to become better, my surroundings remain the same and people around me are no better. Therefore, we ask the question: To what end this change is helpful? What is the point in me alone or one person changing oneself, when the whole world is acting contrary to what I desire, the desire for peace and love? Is it just for my personal spiritual advancement alone without leaving any effect in my surroundings? Let us not forget what natural law states: Any change will not stop with a single entity rather it creates ripples of changes in the other entities and the surroundings, like the single stone thrown in the lake creates continuous ripples in the layer of the water. No social change will occur in mass level without being initiated in a single person.

Let me conclude by sharing with you the story that was told by Noble Laureate Kailash Satyarti from India in his Nobel Lecture while he received Nobel Prize for Peace for the year 2014, along with Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani young girl: A terrible fire had broken out in the forest. All the animals were running away, including the lion, king of the forest. Suddenly, the lion saw a tiny bird rushing towards the fire. The lion asked the bird, “what are you doing?” To the lion's surprise, the bird replied “I am on my way to extinguish the fire.” The lion laughed and said, “how can you kill the fire with just one drop of water, in your beak?” The bird was adamant, and said, "But I am doing my bit.”

Let each one of us do our bit!