The text of today’s gospel presents us with people who have come to John the Baptist with the desire to be baptized by him (Luke 3:10-18).
We are told that they are asking themselves questions.
“The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts…”
What they were wondering about was something most important – they were asking themselves…
“if John might possibly be the Messiah”…
So, they wanted to prepare themselves, first by being purified through this rite of purification which was the baptism John administered.
But they realized that more was needed to make themselves acceptable to God when his messenger – “the Messiah”, God’s messenger – would come.
Each group of people asks a question which they know is essential.
Tax collectors, soldiers, the crowd as a whole, they are all questioning John.
They ask him: “What must we do?”
Is it not a question that remains with us, a question that even challenges us, in many situations?
How can we please God?
What should we do, how should we behave?
What does he expect from us in our daily life?
John replies to each of them precisely referring to their life-situation.
The answer he gives them is something practical, concrete, adapted to who they are.
His answers focus on generosity, honesty, truth.
Attitudes that are meant to acknowledge the needs of the people they are in contact with from day to day.
This is something interesting to realize: to please God we must treat his people – everyone we meet – with generosity, honesty, truth.
Rituals, bows and prostrations, repeated formulas of worship, are not what God himself asks for.
What he wants – what he demands, indeed – is that we treat people around us as we would… treat him!
This period of Advent gives us this timely reminder!
Note: Another reflection is available on a different theme in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/3e-dimanche-de-lavent-annee-c-2024-2025/
And of them, the text says: