Reduced to Clear

A few days ago, while buying my lunch in the nearby convenience store, a shelf in one corner was loaded with various items. Each one was labelled "Reduced to Clear" - their prices were reduced to give way to new products for Christmas.  And if you go through these items, you might be lucky to find something at a lower price.

Last weekend, we started a new liturgical year via the season of Advent.  For the next 4 weeks, we turn our gaze at the Advent wreath, lighting the candles one by one each week, asking the Lord to come.

And yet, asking someone to come to our place or our very lives isn't that easy. You have to make sure that the home is tidy, that provisions such as food, clothing, transportation, toiletries, etc. are available, that you have time to be with this someone. Relationship-wise, you have to be committed to this person.

To ask someone to come means to identify those things or aspects in our lives that need reducing.  Is it our pagpapaimportante? Take for example an appeal for help in our community. We know very well that we can assist, but why can't we? Are we waiting for the band to serenade and fetch us? 

How about our sense of entitlement? We sometimes want people to respect us because perhaps of our age or position, even if we are wrong.

How about our Pharisaical tendencies?  We may be devout, learned or better off and yet look down at others. I remember Msgr Albert Salonga (currently Rector of the Archdiocesan Shrine of Divine Mercy in Mandaluyong City) discouraging people from saying "Hindi ako bababa sa level niya" (I am not going down to his level.).

And our backstabbing moments? In a religious organization's gathering, a priest told his audience "Kapag may putok ang kapatid mo, pagsabihan mo" (If your brother/sister has a body odor, call his attention). Body odor or not, we indulge in telling other people about someone else's defects. Sadly, the person concerned is the last person to know.

Whatever it is that hinders us from welcoming Jesus into our lives this Christmas, Advent is the opportune time for us to reduce these hindrances to nothing so that our lives would become clear for the Lord.  I suggest we read and reflect on St John the Baptist's call for people to prepare the way for the Lord. The coming weeks' Gospel readings would feature him and his crusade.

Furthermore, a renewed devotion to Mary, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, is recommended. She, who was conceived without sin, became the Mother of our Savior.  She who received and nurtured Him will lead us to the Lord.

Let's be expectant hosts this Christmas and not cold strangers to the King who is to come!