Second Sunday of Advent, December 8, 2024

Reflection on the WORD

“Preparing for the Messiah” – Faith: In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist was proclaiming the Baptism of Repentance. Ponder on, “Are we repentant of our sins? Are we preparing ourselves well, for the ‘Coming of the Messiah at Christmas’? Pray to the Holy Spirit to enlighten you with the zeal to love Jesus more personally.”

Luke 3:1-6

In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar's reign, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the lands of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the pontificate of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. 

He went through the whole Jordan district proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the sayings of the prophet Isaiah. 

A voice cries in the wilderness: Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight! Every valley will be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low, winding ways will be straightened and rough roads made smooth, and all mankind will see the salvation of God. 

Today's Pointers on God's Word

As you read the passage what words, phases or meanings caught your attention?

  • John believed that Jesus’ Good News would be revolutionary and beyond the call to repentance of sins that he was preaching. 
  • As followers of Jesus, we are called to go beyond trying not to sin, but loving God concretely through the way we relate to people and reach out to the needy in our family and in society. 
  • Do our lifestyle and daily preoccupations mirror Jesus’ Good News of salvation and eternal life or are we as secular and materialistic in our attitudes as any other persons? How are we witnessing to Jesus’ Good News daily?