What gift will you bring Jesus this Christmas? The gift of your “Weaknesses”…

Brothers and Sisters,
As we celebrate the Birth of John the Baptist through our Liturgy this week I want to focus on a particular gift which you may consider to be a little strange. Last week I spoke about giving Jesus the gift of your “strengths” and this week I have chosen the gift of your “weaknesses”. You are probably asking yourself: how can your
weakness be a gift? How can a negative be a positive?

We all have weaknesses and whether or not we identify them or face them they can prove to be a big burden in our lives or a cross that we carry throughout our lives. These weaknesses can vary greatly. So how do we give Jesus the gift of our weaknesses? We give him this gift by firstly acknowledging that this weakness exists and that God has created us and loves us even with our weakness.

Secondly, we accept that this weakness is part of our identity, a part of who we are.
Thirdly, we need to work on this weakness with every effort so that it does not
allow us to fall into the trap of sin and destroy our relationship with God. We must not let it get the better of us, we must use everything that we have in our power to resist the temptation to be complacent and allow it to take over our lives.

Fourthly, we need to pray for this weakness.

Lastly, we need to place it in the hands of Jesus as an offering or a sacrifice that at times we must live with for the rest of our lives. However when we place our weakness in the hands of the Lord the cross that we are
carrying becomes lighter because we allow him to carry this cross with us. This weakness then turns into
something that we can learn from carrying us to the salvation and holiness that our heart truly desires.
So this Christmas, place in the hands of Jesus the gift of your weaknesses and allow him to help you in carrying your cross.

The preparations for the birth of our Lord are truly in full swing. The stunning nativity in the church with all the Christmas decorations is captivating the hearts of all. A very big thank you to our Seniors and Media committees and youth who have organised these and who have truly been living the spirit of Christmas by helping with all the decorations and events. The count down to the Christmas Novena has begun and we are exactly ten days away from the start. We will be praying the Novena in Arabic after the evening Masses and in English later on in the night (at 8pm except for the night of the Carols). Please keep an eye out for the announcements and flyers so that you don’t miss out.
Fr Tony Sarkis