The world's voices are strong and loud and are to be found all around us. They shout at us from all sides and, at times, are very hard to resist. They may even sound harmless as they invite us to join the party and have a good time.  But there is also a voice crying in our wilderness, which proclaims that love and forgiveness can be ours. These are the priceless gifts that Jesus continually offers to us.

God wants to comfort us, to console us. "Console my people, console them...speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call to her that her time of service is ended, that her sin is atoned for..." The good news is that our past sins do not have to hold us in prison. When Jesus offers us forgiveness, he is offering us an escape route from a negative past. He offers us freedom from living with our past sins. No matter what we might have done, our Lord can free us. What greater consolation could we wish for? God's forgiveness breaks all chains, which keep us anchored in our past deeds. When we accept that life-giving forgiveness we are immediately

 released from the negative past which we may have created. We no longer have to go through life looking over our shoulder, filled with regrets for the things we have done, or filled with self-accusation for the things we didn't do, but should have done.

God's forgiveness gives us back our present life and draws us into a future filled with possibilities for love and goodness. That is the Good News, which Jesus came to proclaim. The coming feast of Christmas is the concrete promise that everything can be different.

This last stanza of a poem gives us a good word of advice: So keep putting one foot in front of the other/ and taking your life day by day. /There's a brighter
tomorrow that's just down the road. /Don't look back, you're not going that way! (Author unknown).

           Peace, Fr. John