2nd Sunday of Advent
December
7, 2014
Mark 1:
1-8
“The beginning of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ…(Mrk 1:1)”.
Do
you know the secret of happiness? One of the secrets of happiness is actually our
ability to listen as well as to share the good news. It seems ordinary and
unlikely since every day we pick up stories and retell them. However, if we try
to pay close attention to the news we receive in various social media or news
outlets like newspaper, TV and internet, they are hardly considered as good
news. Ebola virus kills hundreds in West Africa and spreads the global panic;
the Islamic state in Syria beheads more and more heads, while draws followers
around the world to itself; in the Philippines, around 15 million children live
under the poverty line and cannot have a healthy meal.
Often
we do not have to go from our lives to see how news are far from good. We need
money but we do not have any. We want to be healthy, but we get sick often. We
want to graduate, but we fail to get good grades in the school. Things just do
not work as we want them to be. Thus, we are conditioned to attract bad news
rather than good one. This create a big problem: happiness then remains a
secret.
Our
today’s gospel is from St. Mark and what is unique to him is that only Mark
calls his gospel as ‘gospel’. “The
beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Mrk 1:1)”. The other three
evangelists label their ‘gospel’ as something else: Matthew sees it as ‘book’
(Mat 1:1), Luke named his as ‘narrative’ (Luk 1:1) and John tagged it as
‘testimony’ (John 1:13). From this subtle difference, we can detect the Mark’s
singular intention. Inspired by Holy
Spirit, Mark is revealing to us the secret of happiness: to spot a good news
amidst overwhelming bad news and even to pass it on.
We
are now entering the second Sunday of Advent. This is a session of preparation
for Christ’ coming, and Mark is teaching us how to welcome Him. We are to be
attentive to the simple yet good stories in our lives and the lives of others.
We are now aware that the modern world forms us to stick our eyes on the
negative pictures, and the Advent session is the high time for us to make a
radical shift.
However,
there is a little twist. St. Mark does not simply encourage us about being
optimistic with our life, work and plans, that despite the tough moments we
will get things right. Nope. St. Mark is teaching us of being faithful and
hopeful, and there is a big gap between being positive and hopeful. The Good
News is always centered on Christ and not on us. Thus, we are to find Christ in
our stories, rather to look for ourselves.
It
is a good news when a religious sister holds fast to her vocation despite
difficult community life and demanding ministries. It is a good news when a
student refuses to cheat even if she is struggling with her study. And it is a
good news when we choose to kneel and pray in our challenging times. Like
Mother Teresa of Calcutta tells us, “God
does not call us to be successful, but to be faithful.”
Br.
Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP
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