3rd Sunday of Advent – Year C
December 15, 2024
Gospel Lectionary Text
Luke 3:7-18
3:7 John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
3:8 Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
3:9 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."
3:10 And the crowds asked him, "What then should we do?"
3:11 In reply he said to them, "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise."
3:12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, "Teacher, what should we do?"
3:13 He said to them, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you."
3:14 Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what should we do?" He said to them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages."
3:15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah,
3:16 John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
3:17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
3:18 So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.
Context
Welcome to the third week of Advent. We’ve been occupying the difficult but transformational waiting rooms of Christmas. In the first week of Advent, we waited in the apocalypse. In the second week, we waited in the wilderness. This week we are still in the wilderness, but thanks to an important detail recorded in the Gospel of John, we find ourselves waiting outside the promiseland, in “Bethany across the Jordan.” Origen, the third-century church father, called this place the "House of the Crossing," evoking the journey of the Israelites entering their new homeland.
And so, we wait outside the promiseland, alongside countless others yearning to cross over. The text provides the path for the crossing. The only way to cross over the river is to undergo the baptismal journey. This is the invitation of this week’s text. Luke adds his own detail about the baptismal journey: it includes the promise of the baptism of the “Spirit” that bridges every divide and the “fire” of God’s love that burns hot with mercy.
Question
In what ways do you feel cut off and outside of the promiseland, and how are you being invited to renew your baptismal vows?
Reflections
Belonging
By Fred Laceda |
Advent this year coincides with the election season in the Philippines. In my country, elections are often associated with polarization, division, hate, and sometimes even violence. But what is often neglected is that politics can also offer a deep sense of belonging that is similar to what people experience through religion.
The Waiting Rooms of Christmas: The Wilderness II
By Lina Thompson |
Advent gives us an excuse to consider again the nature of a God who comes to be with and in a people. If the Incarnation is anything, it is the God-in-flesh ONE who turns things upside down and inside out, simultaneously scandalizing and comforting us. This is the God we are waiting for and the...
Praying Eucharistically - Weekly Homily by James Alison:
Understanding the Bible anew through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.
Poetry
excerpt from Meditations of the Heart
by Howard Thurman
Saint Francis and the Sow
by Galway Kinnell
stands for all things,
even for those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as Saint Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.
Prayer
As you contemplate the Christ Mystery, Inhale (I) and exhale (E) according to the prompts.
(I) Christ in me; (E) Me in Christ; (I) Christ in all; (E) All is well;
(I) Christ in me; (E) Me in Christ; (I) Christ in all; (E) All is one;
(I) Christ in me; (E) Me in Christ; (I) Christ in all; (E) All is Christ;
(I) All is Christ; (E) All is one; (I) All is well; (E) In Christ.
