I Am Not Fit To...

"I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals."



December 11 - 3rd . Sunday of Advent


The First Reading will be familiar to us if we know our St. Luke. When the Master had been out "on the missions" in Palestine for some time, St. Luke in Ch 4 tells how he returned to Nazareth, went into the local synagogue and was asked to read from Scripture. Significantly, he unrolled the scroll to find the words in this Reading, i.e. he did not simply continue where the previous reader had left off. Why? Because they described his whole, divine approach to his mission on earth.


The Responsorial Psalm will also be familiar if we know the Magnificat - the song of the young maiden of Nazareth and her superabundant joy as she began to appreciate just what had happened to her. Now we are approaching the realization in Bethlehem of that great moment.


St. Paul in the Second Reading has two messages for the Thessalonians: 1) be on your guard, continue to work hard and don't bother with idle talk others who are working diligently, and b) you have received a wonderful gift and in general you appreciate it so "be happy," rejoice, because the Lord is coming soon! ( St. Paul, of course, and the early Christians generally, got it wrong: the Lord is coming, definitely, but who knows when?) However when he comes it will be a great day for those who have waited patiently for him. And that message is still very true.


In the Gospel we are introduced to John the Baptist, first cousin of the Lord and truly a worthy "advance man" or forerunner, to use the correct word. Sometimes these people forget their brief and surely John might have been tempted to do just that because he both looked and spoke like the Messiah the people were expecting. But this Sunday we read how he was challenged and asked to give an account of himself and give an account he very definitely did! Resisting very open efforts to make him king, he replied clearly to each question and in the end gave a really beautiful self- definition: the voice that cries in the wilderness. At St.Augustine remarks, John was the "voice" but Jesus was the Word. The Word needs a voice to share it but the voice is not the Word and John, to his credit said so clearly. If only people today - politicians especially - would follow this example!


~ December 2011 Concord