HE CAME AS A WITNESS

III SUNDAY OF ADVENT - John 1:6-8,19-28

This Sunday’s gospel calls on us to have a good look at John the Baptist, who is presented as a witness of Jesus Christ. Being a witness, he speaks the truth as he finds it. He avoids to call attention to himself at all costs. His mission is to be at the service of the Messiah.  Being the subject of an inquiry, he gave clear answers to the questions presented to him: he is not the Christ, he is not Elijah and he is not the prophet. Upon the insistence of the commission sent from Jerusalem, he defined himself as a voice, a voice that cries in the wilderness. As a voice, he has a message to proclaim: “Make a straight way for the Lord.” He is calling on people to abandon their crooked ways and straighten their lives to welcome the Lord. Unsatisfied with John’s answers, the members of the commission made one question more: Why are you baptising? It is difficult to understand the reason for that question since baptism had become quite common mainly for pagans who wanted to obey the Law of Moses. Certainly, they had noticed that John’s baptism was given as a sign of repentance and conversion, indicating the readiness to accept the Messiah. In his answer, John tells them that his baptism is irrelevant. He is baptising with water, meaning that his baptism must give place to something greater, brought about by Christ who is coming after him and whom he must serve. John accepts his smallness before Christ: “I am not fit to undo his sandal-strap.”

John’s gospel introduces the Baptist with these words: 

He came as a witness,

as a witness to speak for the light,

so that everyone might believe through him.

He was not the light,

only a witness to speak for the light.

As we look at John in the desert, we feel the urgency to put our lives straight, as we wait for the coming of Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Saviour.

In the second reading, taken from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, we are given a series of basic attitudes that will lead us to Christ and make us witnesses of Jesus Christ:

• Be happy at all times; 
• pray constantly; 
• and for all things give thanks to God, 
• because this is what God expects you to do in Christ Jesus.
• Never try to suppress the Spirit 
• or treat the gift of prophecy with contempt;
• think before you do anything – 
• hold on to what is good 
• and avoid every form of evil. (1 Tes 5:16-24)