Jesus really is the answer to life’s most challenging questions. Jesus answers who we are, why we are, the meaning and purpose of our existence, the fulfilment of our deepest longings and desires. He is the remedy for our woundedness and spiritual sickness. Only Jesus Christ can break the enslaving chains of sin. He alone can speak peace to the human heart, strengthen the weak, and give life to those who are spiritually dead.

This Sunday we are told that the most appropriate Advent response, the most significant way to prepare for the coming of Jesus, is through repentance.

Advent calls us to prepare ourselves spiritually for the coming of Jesus. We called to make a fresh beginning with renewed energy and enthusiasm.

Get your heart and your soul into gear. Get back to basics. Focus on what is essential. Live the way God intends and wants you to live.

Now at the conclusion of the year, we are called to proclaim with our lives that Christ is King.

He waits for us to come home to him. He receives us, his prodigal children, now contrite and humble, with an embrace. In that embrace we start to tell him our story, and he begins that process of healing and preparation needed for us to experience Heaven.

The Lateran Basilica, our physical parish church here, and all places of worship are immensely important because they are sacramental spaces. They are dedicated, set-apart spaces where the Body of Christ gathers. We physically assemble to express the truth that the Church is the assembly of the baptized, the people called out by God.

We become holy by being faithful to God in the very ordinary circumstances of life - our family, our work, our community.

Prayer is becoming aware of who God is, and who I am in the presence of God.

Jesus teaches us the importance of praying always and not losing heart. God loves us and he hears us. God will answer our prayers and make the best of even terrible situations. If we put our trust in God, if we pray to him then he will write straight even with the crooked lines of our lives.

Gratitude and praise give us a new outlook on life; they are expressions of faith that bring out the best in us. Living with gratitude is a key to happiness, and it deepens our relationship with God.

Faith is not truly convincing until it is tested. Authentic faith grows and strengthens through adversity. The just person will live by faith while holding onto God's promises, even if the events and experiences of the present seem contradictory or hard to understand.

The prophet reminds us that the false security of wealth can easily blind us to God’s demands and the suffering of our neighbour. The judgment that falls on the rich man in the Gospel is the same warning Amos delivered: God sees and cares about those whom the wealthy ignore.