Is11:1-10,Rom:15:4-9,Mtt3:1-12Dear brothers and sisters,
Today is the second sunday of Advent.
Today we celebrate the silver jubilee of the diocese of kumbo; The twenty years of partnership between the dioceses of Limburg and Kumbo and the forty three years of the priesthood of our parish priiest, Pfarrer Pfaff.We praise and thank God for the providence of this day.Lieber Pfarrer Pfaff, wir, die ganzen leute von Bistum Kumbo,gratulieren dir Zum Jubiläum.
God crated us good and beautiful and healthy, in his image and likeness.He created us to know him, love him, serve him and remain with him for ever in heaven.God created us with a freedom to choose good.He created us because he loved us, because he is love.
When manknd sinned, God did not stop loving;He loved us the more.In the prophecy of Isaiah in our first reading,the prophet forsees and announces God's promise of a remnant; a new shoot which will spring from the family of David with the Full Spirit and the lost dignity of God's children.
The prophecy is fulfilled in the preaching of John the baptist who exhorts us to prepare a way for the Lord..Sin affected our God-given image and destroyed our way and bridge to God..Sin created valleys and mountains between us and God.John invites us to prepare a way for the Lord by repentance.
The birth of Jesus is a renewed partnership between the loving and merciful God and humanity.Jeus is the new Spring, the true image of God's children.He is God's gift of love and mercy to mankind.He is the bridge between heaven and earth.
To prepare a way for the Lord, we need to examine our relationships with our self, with one another , with Christ and with our partners.How close are we to Christ in our way of life?Are the people of the Diocese of KUmbo 25 years closer to Christ or not.Is partnership twenty years deep in Christ or not?We pray and hope that we are twenty years closer to Christ and to each other in Christ.
Christian partners relate with one another as Christ relates with us; in Love and mercy.This is the love that surpasses death; the love unto the cross...Treating each other in the same friendly way as Christ treated us.
Part of the diocese of Kumbo is a area of primary evangelisation.When we bring Christ to others through witnessing and teaching, like John the Baptist, then we are partners for Christ and partners in Christ.We can help in this process of evangelisation by prayer,mutual exchange of talents and by assisting each other in the means that promote evangelisation.
To be like Christ in partnership especially as an Advent people is to try to love everyone,to be the first to love each other, to see Jesus in everyone, and to make ourselves one with each other; this is the meaning of being like Christ to one another.
Through the intercession of Mary Immaculate,May the merciful and loving God make of us a new shoot as Isaiah forsees and also bring us closer to Christ and to one another.
Father Andrew Ngah Solii