ePriest.com: Your Spanish Homily

Readings

Reading I: Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
Psalm: Psalms 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14
Reading II: Second Peter 3:8-14
Gospel: Mark 1:1-8

Preaching Tip

Back to Basics

In the hustle and bustle of life, we can sometimes forget the momentous importance of our vocation as ordained preachers of God's word.  Pope Benedict XV (not XVI) has a few words that can polish up our ideal and rekindle our deeper motivations:

  • "It was the desire of Jesus Christ once He had wrought the Redemption of the human race by His death on the altar of the Cross, to lead men to obey His commands and thus win eternal life. To attain this end He used no other means than the voice of His heralds whose work it was to announce to all mankind what they had to believe and do in order to be saved...
  • "He chose therefore His Apostles, and after infusing into their minds by the power of the Holy Ghost, the gifts in harmony with their high calling, 'Go ye into the world,' He told them, 'and preach the Gospel' (Mk 16:15).
  • "Their preaching renewed the face of the earth. For if the religion of Christ has withdrawn the minds of men from errors of every kind to the truth, and won their hearts from the degradation of vice to the excellence and beauty of every virtue, assuredly it has done so by means of that very preaching.
  • "Wherefore since by God's good pleasure, things are preserved through the same causes by which they were brought into being, it is evident that the preaching of the wisdom taught us by the Christian religion is the means Divinely employed to continue the work of eternal salvation, and that it must with just reason be looked upon as a matter of the greatest and most momentous concern."

Pope Benedict XV, Encyclical Letter Human generis redemptionem, 15 June 1917, #1

 

B Adviento 2                                                                       

PREPARAR LOS CAMINOS DEL SEÑOR

Sabemos que el Señor llegará, pero ¿Cuándo? ¿Cómo? Como los ladrones, dice San Pablo; cuando menos se los espera. Algunos creen que el Señor tarda en cumplir su promesa. Lo que sucede es que no tiene prisa sino que espera con paciencia a que todos nos arrepintamos; quiere hallarnos en paz con Él. La Navidad que se aproxima será el cumplimiento de la profecía de Juan: "Yo os he bautizado con agua; detrás de mí viene otro más poderoso, Él os bautizará con el Espíritu Santo".

Hermanas y hermanos:

1.  Los ermitaños atraen a las turbas. Son profetas que "anuncian el sentido de la realidad humana", pero que también "la interpretan". Es lo que sucedió con Juan Bautista que estaba entre la gente despertando esperanzas mesiánicas. Juan es la voz que grita en el desierto. El contenido de su predicación coincide perfectamente con el de Cristo ¿Qué relación podemos encontrar entre Juan y Cristo? Lo dice bellamente San Agustín: "Es la relación entre la voz y la palabra. Juan es la voz, Cristo es la Palabra; el primero es un sonido, el segundo la articulación, mensaje, plenitud de la verdad".

2.  La voz dominante del primer domingo de Adviento fue: "Vigilad"; la del segundo es "Convertíos". La gente se preguntaba después de escuchar la predicación de Juan: "¿Qué debemos hacer?".  Es la misma pregunta que nos hacemos ahora frente a los desafíos de un mundo enigmático que nos inquieta y que nos exige transformaciones profundas en nuestras costumbres morales. Nuestro mundo está cambiando. No faltan voces proféticas que despiertan las conciencias, pero unos prefieren no oír mientras otros huyen de la reflexión y del respeto del orden moral. Cuando los valores se derrumban, hay todavía quien vuelve a hacerse la pregunta: "¿Qué debemos hacer?".

3.  Una conversión no es un cambio superficial sino una renovación profunda. Muchas veces nos conformamos con constatar que algo está cambiando y pensamos con ello que ya nos hemos reformado. ¡Necesitamos llegar a decisiones radicales! No basta un cambio de situaciones, sino decisiones que sean fruto de un nuevo modo de concebir la vida, un nuevo modo de amar.

El adviento es la maduración de nuestra esperanza. La persuasión de que la venida del Dios que viene a salvarnos es inminente. Vamos a armar el Belén, vamos a iluminar nuestras calles y plazas con luces de colores, vamos a saborear aguinaldos y turrones, pero sólo será Navidad si nuestro corazón vive en gracia y en paz con Dios.

Ha comenzado ya la espiral tentadora de compras y regalos. La sociedad de consumo nos envuelve en su red. Pero ¿es esa la preparación de la Navidad cristiana? ¡Algo tiene que cambiar en el Adviento 2008! ¿Se notará que hemos aceptado a Cristo como criterio de vida, con sus actitudes y su mentalidad? Los cambios de la sociedad comienzan en el compromiso de la familia cristiana y éste en la conversión del corazón de cada creyente. Pidamos a Dios que así sea.

 

English Translation

Second Sunday of Advent, Year B                    

PREPARING THE WAY OF THE LORD

We know that the Lord will come, but when? How? Like a thief, says St. Paul: when least expected. Some believe that the Lord is slow to fulfill his promise. It’s just that he is in no hurry but is patiently waiting for all of us to repent; he wants to find us at peace with Him. This approaching Christmas will be the fulfillment of John's prophecy: "I have baptized you with water; but one more powerful than I is coming, and He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

Sisters and brothers:

1. Hermits attract the crowds. They are prophets who "proclaim the meaning of human reality" but who also "interpret it." This is what happened with John the Baptist, who was among the people, awakening messianic hopes. John is the voice crying out in the wilderness. The content of his preaching coincides perfectly with Christ's.  What is the relationship we find between John and Christ? St. Augustine says it beautifully: "It's the relationship between voice and speech. John is the voice, Christ is the Word; the first is a sound; the second is the speech, the message, the fullness of the truth."

 2.   The dominant voice on the first Sunday of Advent was: "Watch"; that of the second is "Repent." People wondered after hearing John's preaching: "What should we do?"  It's the same question we ask ourselves now, faced with the challenges of an enigmatic world that worries us and requires us to undergo profound changes in our mores. Our world is changing. There is no lack of prophetic voices awakening consciences, but some prefer not to hear while others flee from reflection and from respect for the moral order. When values ​​are crumbling, there are still people ask the question again: "What should we do?"

3.  A conversion is not a superficial change but a profound renewal. Many times we settle for noticing that something is changing and then we think we have already reformed. We need to make radical decisions! A change of situation is not enough. We need decisions that are the result of a new approach to life, a new way of loving.

Advent is the maturation of our hope. It is the conviction that God's salvific coming is imminent. We will assemble the nativity set, light up our streets and squares with colored lights, and enjoy bonuses and candies, but it will only be Christmas if our heart lives in grace and peace with God.

The tempting spiral of shopping and gifts has already begun. Consumer society traps us in its net. But is that the Christian preparation for Christmas? Something has to change in Advent 2008! Will it be noticed that we have accepted Christ as a criterion of life, with his attitudes and mentality? Societal changes start in the commitment of the Christian family, and these changes begin in the conversion of the heart of every believer. May God make it so.