On the first Sunday in Advent, the Gospel speaks of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. Since Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas, for celebrating the Nativity of Our Lord, the Church has considered it important to emphasize who is the Child whose birth we are waiting for: it is our Saviour who redeemed us by His suffering, death, and precious blood.

The feeding of the five thousand men with five barley loaves and two fishes took place at the time of the Passover. This is important to know because it helps us understand the meaning and message of this miracle. All of Jesus’ miracles are signs through which He reveals to us the mysteries of God’s grace as well as who He is and why He has come.

In America, the term “Celebration of Life” is increasingly used instead of “funeral”. “Funeral” comes from the Latin word funus for death and corpse, so unfortunately, it is understandable why people try to avoid this word: they don’t want to think about death because they fear it and live as if death doesn’t exist. Often, children do a great injustice to their parents, who would like to talk to them about their imminent death, but to whom the children dismissively reply: “Let’s not talk about it – you’re not going to die yet!”

Whose image and inscription do we carry in ourselves? Scripture says that man is created in the image and likeness of God. Just think, if every person really carried the image of God in himself and was in everything like Him who is perfect and holy – what would our entire nation, our country, the whole world be like?

When Peter asked Jesus how oft he had to forgive his brother who had sinned against him, he himself suggested that seven times should be enough. Peter is quite generous here: for example, from the book of the prophet Amos, we can see that God is ready to forgive wrongdoings three times, but not the fourth time.