John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way of the Lord,
to make straight the way of the Lord,
and he admitted that he was not the Christ,
that his whole purpose and reason for being and ministering
was to prepare for Jesus, to point him out,
to point the finger at Jesus and say,
this is the Son of God, this is the Messiah,
this is the one you are to follow and listen to.
And John also tells us in the first reading
that we are to remain in him.
John says,
We are called to remain in Jesus,
of course, in this Christmas season,
our focus is on the Christ child.
And, you know, contrast this with the world
where Jesus is receding more and more, disappearing.
You don't hear his name.
We don't, you know, we're getting confused
and forgetting.
We've gotten into different religions
where we are asked to believe that Christianity
is not the major religion anymore in all of this.
And what it leads to is unhappiness and sadness
throughout the world because we don't have Jesus
who is the reason for our being,
the reason for our existence,
the reason for our happiness.
So we have to remain in him first,
remain in him,
and grow in holiness in Jesus,
and then spread his name,
spread the glory of God through the name of Jesus.
We have to bring Christianity back into front and center,
back into the public,
and not be afraid,
but we have to be bold,
bold in preaching Jesus again
because he is the answer to everything.
He is our happiness and joy,
and this is the gospel truth.
We have to speak,
speak and preach the gospel.
If anybody,
if everyone reads the gospel,
they will have a pattern,
a path to live on,
teachings,
the reason to live,
the answers and the explanations for our life
and what our purpose is
and how we are to live our daily life,
how we are to relate to our brothers and sisters,
how we are to live and live our spiritual life
and hope for the future
and for eternal life.
This is it.
Jesus is everything.
We need to preach him and speak of him
and hold up the cross
and hold up Jesus on the cross
and keep proclaiming it to the world
because otherwise the world is going to despair
because without Jesus there isn't any reason to live.
There isn't any answers.
Everything is confusing.
The world and the evil in the world
doesn't make any sense without our Lord.
So we need to bring our Lord to our brothers and sisters
through our own example,
through our preaching
and not be afraid to preach the truth
about Christianity,
Jesus,
the Catholic faith
in the midst of all these other religions
and all this confusion
and still, of course,
we respect others
and respect where they're at
but bring them to the true faith.
Bring them.
Inevitably to the one true faith,
Jesus and Christianity and the Catholic faith.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.