Third Sunday of Advent Reflection.

(Lk 3,10-18)

 “When all the people asked him, "What must we do, then?"  he answered, "Anyone who has two tunics must share with the one who has none, and anyone with something to eat must do the same."

There were tax collectors, too, who came for baptism, and these said to him, "Master, what must we do?"  He said to them, "Exact no more than the appointed rate." Some soldiers asked him in their turn, "What about us? What must we do?" He said to them, "No intimidation! No extortion! Be content with your pay!"

A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people, who were beginning to wonder whether John might be the Christ, so John declared before them all, "I baptize you with water, but someone is coming, who is more powerful than me, and I am not fit to undo the strap 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 in a fire that will never go out."

And he proclaimed the good news to the people with many other exhortations too.”

REFLECTIONS.

1. John tells people that God demands justice and reparation for the evil that has been committed. John preaches and people come from all directions searching for pardon. He turns no one away; neither the prostitutes nor the tax collectors.

1. John is a teacher of morals who calls for deeds appropriate to conversion. He asks of all a commitment of solidarity. If the Messiah is to bring salvation to the world, the mountains (‘those who have too many goods’) must fill the valleys (‘those who have nothing’).

1. As long as there are inequalities, a scandalous wealth next to misery and hunger, the Saviour cannot manifest himself. To give up extortion, blackmail, intimidation, and to begin sharing with those in needy is to show the response of faith.

1. John is indeed in the process of "preparing a people ready for the Lord". John baptises those wishing to straighten out their life. Then John introduces Jesus “much greater than himself” who is coming to baptise humankind with the Holy Spirit and fire.

1. John denies that he is the Messiah and insists rather that his role even as a baptiser is subordinate to that of Jesus. John uses the purifying agent of water; Jesus will use the superior purifying and refining agents of the Holy Spirit and fire.

1. Here the Gospel compares John's baptism with Christian Baptism.

1. John baptises with water those who want to straighten out their life. John relies on the human will of people. For them, baptism is a way of expressing publicly their decisions and promises.

2. But such resolutions are very often not fulfilled as any human commitment is, and insufficient for eradicating the root of evil from our heart. John’s Baptism purifies the outside of a person, the visible life of a person. John’s Baptism is a human action.

3. Jesus', on the other hand, requests that his Apostles baptise those who enter the Church. It is then when God gives his Spirit which transforms people from inside. Jesus’ Baptism is a divine action, it is a gift of God where God takes the initiative to change human heart.

4. John did not baptise children or women (they were considered ‘unable’ to take decisions that would have changed their lives), but, as Christian Baptism draws its power, not so much from the human commitment of the recipient, as from the gift of God making us his children, we can baptise children, women, everybody.