December 5, 2021 – Second Sunday of Advent

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120521.cfm)

To clean the whole house. A family activity and exercise that should be done regularly but rarely done, because it is demanding & requires a lot of work.

To do general house cleaning is difficult indeed, but if & when we do it occasionally, we can learn a lot of good things & may promise some changes in life. Simply because, we know that general house cleaning is not only about cleaning things in our home.

General house cleaning could be our chance to treasure the treasures-found. As we go through daily lives, eventually we collect a lot of things received, bought, and possessed along the way. As we clean our house then, we got the chance to re-evaluate, i.e. to give value again & anew the treasures what we have owned & collected, to let go the excess & what we do not really need, & share these now to those who are in need. Through this, we may able to recognize, count and share our blessings, and may able to declog & make our lives easier & lighter from unnecessary burdens & concerns.  

General house cleaning may also be our chance to review our life. As we clean our things in the house, it could happen that we remember our past experiences & memories, become in touch once again with the spirit, values & principles-held in life, recognize our present realities & state of life (like, kids are not anymore kids but now teenagers, & teens are becoming adults), & realize the new changes & challenges required to adjust with our current status of life.

General house cleaning may also be our change to rearrange our lives (not only our home). By responding & planning for the challenges of the new changing realities in life, we may update, upgrade, reconfigure or reformat our outdated systems & ways within the house that would best suit to our changing & growing family. In other words, to do the things rightly in order to make things right in life now.

To re-evaluate, review & re-arrange may just be some of the good things & benefits of doing general house cleaning. Demanding it may be, but if & when we do it, it offers us ease & direction in living our lives.

During this 2^nd Sunday of Advent, we are challenged to, through the witness of St. John the Baptism, from the words of Prophet Isaiah: “Prepare for the way of the Lord.” But we may ask: “What is more to prepare? What more we should prepare? Come to think of it, we are already prepared. As early as before October, we already decorated our house. Christmas trees & decors are already placed. Gifts to be given, food for celebrations are being prepared. Some have their parties & reunions already. Some were already tired & impatient waiting for their gifts & bonuses. What else is & should be prepared? 

The preparation we are challenged to by the Sacred Scripture is not our usual preparation of decorations, gifts, food, parties, bonuses & others. The expected preparation required of us is “to make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain & hill shall made low. The winding road shall be made straight & the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of the Lord.” Simply put, To do General House Cleaning – to clean our whole home, to make things right rightly for the Lord. What is asked of us then is – an update, upgrade, reconfiguration & reformatting of lifestyle suited for the Lord, us & others now.

The Lord become one of us & being with us is not just a decoration in life where we only use when needed or where we only maximize when we wanted it. Christmas – the birth of the Lord, God’s incarnation into our lives should be the suited Center, Way, Guide & Direction of our Christian lives. Meaning, what preparation expected of us is not house decoration but general house cleaning.

Now, when was the last time you had your general house cleaning? When is your general house cleaning?

As the year about to end & we are now fast approaching Christmas, why not do your general house cleaning these days? Ask nobody to do it for you, but rather do it yourself, so that, you may have a new perspective, meaning, & purpose in life, and thus, may have carved a new space for God’s word, Jesus Christ into your life. Amen.

NB. Say a little prayer for me as I also celebrate my 25^th year of priesthood today on  this year’s 2^nd Sunday of Advent.