3rd
Sunday of Advent
Cycle B
December 14, 2014 10:30 am and 12 noon
Saint Margaret Parish, Bel Air
My Name
So…today…My
name is John the Baptist.
Last
Sunday, and again today, you heard about me in the gospel. So, I decided to say a few things that I have
really wanted to say here in the year 2014.
1. Make Religion a Priority
First,
you know the names of my parents: Zechariah and Elizabeth.
They
are mentioned in the gospels. Well, my
parents regularly went to synagogue and made sure that I got there too.
From
the time of my childhood, I learned the traditions and teachings of my
religion. This gave me a solid base for
my entire life – a sense of right and wrong and a sense of God.
So, you
who are parents, please make sure you get your children to Mass and faith
formation classes – and I mean every week.
Please don’t make excuses and allow other things to get in the way.
In the
long run, this will really pay off. This
will do a lot for your children now and in the future.
2. It’s Not All about Me
Another thing I want to say is that life is not all about me.
I don’t mean to be boastful, but look at my response to the people in
today’s gospel. They kept asking me: “Are you the Christ?”
“Are you
Elijah?” “Are you the Prophet?”
And I kept saying: “No!
No! I am not!” Finally, I just identified myself as a “voice” – “the voice of one crying in the desert, make straight the way of the
Lord.”
I wasn’t out to call attention to myself.
Quite the opposite, my whole purpose was to call attention to the One
coming after me.
He is the important One – the One who can really make a difference in the
world. Now, sometimes people speak of
today’s generation as the “Me Generation.”
I’m not sure to whom this term really applies. Maybe it applies to everyone.
Maybe there are times when everyone just gets absorbed in their own needs
and plans. Maybe there are times when
everyone just doesn’t look beyond themselves to the well-being of others.
So I just want to say: Please get a grip on this Me stuff. In the long run living for Me is a dead end
and will not make anyone happy.
Look to the One whom I prepared for.
You’ll end up, through Him, looking to the Father and looking out for
others and this will bring joy and peace to your life.
3. Be a Light
I want to say just one more thing.
Today’s gospel describes me accurately.
It says: “He was not the light,
but came to testify to the light.”
This is really important. You know
there always has been and always will be some darkness in our world.
That’s just the way it is. Things
aren’t perfect and we aren’t perfect.
So, I think it’s more important to light a light than to curse the
darkness. Just think about it this way.
If you go into a dark room in your home on one of these December nights,
you don’t curse the darkness and say how awful it is. That would do absolutely no good at all.
Instead, you turn on a lamp. Well,
there’s all this focus on darkness in your society and even in your church
today – on how bad and evil and dark things are.
And connected with that, there’s this expression: “You’ve got to stand up for what you believe.” Sometimes, not always but sometimes this is
used for justifying an in-your-face approach of cursing darkness and putting
down other people.
I’m telling you – this whole approach is misguided and a misuse of
energy. What you need to do is: turn on
the light that is here or be a light, just be it even without saying a word!
Be a light by being respectful of others as persons no matter what, or by
refusing to get into conversation that is bashing others, no matter what. This is the way “to testify to the light” and prepare for the coming of the Lord.
