December 15, 2024
Third Sunday of Advent
Luke 3: 10-18
Gaudete! Réjouir! Blij Zijn! Alegrarse! Alegrar! 喜ぶ! Furahini! Rejoice!
Today both Zephaniah and St. Paul call us to rejoice while Isaiah urges: “Cry out with joy and gladness; for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel. Expectations are high. Then John the Baptist appears.
John has been traveling “through the whole Jordan district proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” and challenging those who come for his baptism to “produce the appropriate fruits” if they are repentant. In today’s gospel, he is answering the crowds who ask “What should we do?”
The crowds, the ordinary folks, the tax collectors, the soldiers all ask him: what should we do? The world they lived in was rife with injustice, poverty, selfishness, oppression from Rome. John called the people to do what they could in the circumstances of their lives to resist those evils. He calls them to compassion, share what you have; justice, be honest and fair in your work; peace, contribute to peace by not abusing the power you have.
We do not hear rejoicing in the crowds, but there is expectation. Could this man be the Christ? John directs them to another who will baptize them, not with water, but with the Holy Spirit and with fire. “Exhorting them in many other ways, he preached good news to the people.”
We need good news today, something that will lead to rejoicing. Perhaps this poem by Denise Levertov will remind us of the Good News we already enjoy.
“The Mystery of the Incarnation.”
It’s when we face for a moment
the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know
the taint in our own selves, that awe
cracks the mind’s shell and enters the heart:
not to a flower, not to a dolphin,
to no innocent form
but to this creature vainly sure
it and no other is god-like, God
(out of compassion for our ugly
failure to evolve) entrusts,
as guest, as brother,
the Word.
John called the people to do what they could in the circumstances of their lives to resist the evils to their times. To what do our times call us – as people of faith, as individuals?
Gaudete! Réjouir! Blij Zijn! Alegrarse! Alegrar! 喜ぶ! Furahini! Rejoice!
Luke 3: 10-18
The crowds asked John the Baptist, “What should we do?” He said to them in reply, “Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He answered them, “Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.” Soldiers also asked him, “And what is it that we should do?” He told them, “Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages.”
Now the people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” Exhorting them in many other ways, he preached good news to the people.
Meet Sister Edithann Kane, SNDdeN
