What Do We Do?
The people in today’s Gospel are “filled with expectation.” They believe John the Baptist might be the Messiah they’ve been waiting for. Three times we hear their question: “What then should we do?”
The Messiah’s coming requires every man and woman to choose—to “repent” or not. That’s John’s message and it will be Jesus’ too (see Luke 3:3; 5:32; 24:47).
“Repentance” translates a Greek word, metanoia (literally, “change of mind”). In the Scriptures, repentance is presented as a two-fold “turning”—way from sin (see Ezekiel 3:19; 18:30) and toward God (see Sirach 17:20-21; Hosea 6:1).
This “turning” is more than attitude adjustment. It means a radical life-change. It requires “good fruits as evidence of your repentance” (see Luke 3:8). That’s why John tells the crowds, soldiers and tax collectors they must prove their faith through works of charity, honesty and social justice.
In today’s Liturgy, each of us is being called to stand in that crowd and hear the “good news” of John’s call to repentance. We should examine our lives, ask from our hearts as they did: “What should we do?” Our repentance should spring, not from our fear of coming wrath (see Luke 3:7-9), but from a joyful sense of the nearness of our saving God.
This theme resounds through today’s readings: “Rejoice!…The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all,” we hear in today’s Epistle. In today’s Responsorial, we hear again the call to be joyful, unafraid at the Lord’s coming among us.
In today’s First Reading, we hear echoes of the angel’s Annunciation to Mary. The prophet’s words are very close to the angel’s greeting (compare Luke 1:28-31). Mary is the Daughter Zion—the favored one of God, told not to fear but to rejoice that the Lord is with her, “a mighty Savior.”
She is the cause of our joy. For in her draws near the Messiah, as John had promised: “One mightier than I is coming.”
Saint Maximus of Turin
Sermon 88
It was not only in his own time that John was speaking when he proclaimed the Lord to the Pharisees, saying: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths” (Mt 3,3), but he cries out in us today, and the thunder of his voice shakes the desert of our sins. Even now, when he is entombed in a martyr’s sleep, his voice continues to ring out. Even today he says to us: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths”…
John the Baptist, then, commanded the preparation of the way of the Lord. Let us see which road he has prepared for our Savior. He has perfectly marked out and has appointed from start to finish the way for Christ’s coming since in everything he was sober, humble, restrained and chaste.
It was in description of all these virtues of his that the evangelist said: “John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey” (Mt 3,4). What greater sign could there be of a prophet’s humility than his rejection of soft garments to clothe himself in a rough hide? What greater indication of faith than to be always at the ready for all the duties of service, a simple loincloth around his hips? What more stunning sign of his abstinence than his renunciation of the pleasures of this life to feed himself on locusts and wild honey?
In my view, all these different forms of the prophet’s behavior were themselves prophetic. When Christ’s messenger wore a rough garment of camel skin, didn’t this signify simply that Christ, at his coming, would reclothe our human bodies with their heavy covering, roughened by their sins?… The leather belt signifies that our weak flesh which, before the coming of Christ was turned to vice, would be guided by him to virtue.
Pope Benedict XVI
Angelus Address, December 17, 2006
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On this Third Sunday of Advent, the liturgy invites us to the joy of the spirit. It does so with the famous antiphon as part of an exhortation of the Apostle Paul: “Gaudete in Domino”, “Rejoice in the Lord always… the Lord is at hand” (cf. Phil 4: 4, 5).
The first Reading of Mass is also an invitation to joy. The Prophet Zephaniah at the end of the seventh century B.C. spoke to the city of Jerusalem and its people with these words: “Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem…! [T]he Lord your God is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory” (Zep 3: 14, 17).
God himself is portrayed with similar sentiments, as the prophet says: “The Lord… will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love… as on a day of festival” (Zep 3: 17-18). This promise was fully brought about in the mystery of Christmas, which we shall be celebrating in a week and which asks to be renewed in the “today” of our lives and of history.
The joy that the liturgy reawakens in the hearts of Christians is not reserved for us alone: it is a prophetic proclamation destined for all humanity and for the poorest of the poor in particular, in this case, those poorest in joy!
Let us think of our brothers and sisters who, especially in the Middle East, in several regions of Africa and other parts of the world, are experiencing the drama of war: what joy can they live? What will their Christmas be like?
Let us think of all the sick and lonely people who, in addition to being tried in their body, are also sorely tried in their soul because they often feel abandoned: how can we share joy with them without disrespecting their suffering?
But let us also think of those people, especially the young, who have lost their sense of true joy and seek it in vain where it is impossible to find it: in the exasperated race to self-affirmation and success, in false amusements, in consumerism, in moments of drunkenness, in the artificial paradise of drugs and every form of alienation. We must obviously face the liturgy today and its “Rejoice” with these tragic realities.
As in the times of the Prophet Zephaniah, it is particularly to those being tested and to “life’s wounded and orphans of joy” that God’s Word is being addressed in a special way.
The invitation to rejoice is not an alienating message nor a sterile palliative, but on the contrary, it is a salvific prophecy, an appeal for rescue that starts with inner renewal.
To transform the world, God chose a humble young girl from a village in Galilee, Mary of Nazareth, and challenged her with this greeting: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you”. In these words lies the secret of an authentic Christmas. God repeats them to the Church, to each one of us: Rejoice, the Lord is close! With Mary’s help, let us offer ourselves with humility and courage so that the world may accept Christ, who is the source of true joy.
After the Angelus:
I address a special greeting to the children, the boys and girls of Rome, who have come with their relatives and teachers for the blessing of the figurines of the Baby Jesus that you will put in their cribs at home, at school and in the oratories. I thank the “Centro Oratori Romani” which has organized this important pilgrimage and I warmly bless all the “Baby Jesuses”. Dear children, pray to Jesus before the crib for your father’s intentions too! I thank you and wish you a Merry Christmas!
My thoughts today go to the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees in Syria, forced to leave their Country because of the dramatic situation being lived there. Caritas Syria is already helping them. I am appealing, however, to the generosity of private individuals, international organizations and governments to make a further effort to meet their most urgent needs. I raise my prayer to the Lord to comfort these brothers and sisters and to move the hearts of all to generosity.
Pope Benedict XVI
Angelus Address, December 13, 2009
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We have now reached the Third Sunday of Advent. Today in the liturgy the Apostle Paul’s invitation rings out: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice…. The Lord is at hand!” (Phil 4: 4-5). While Mother Church accompanies us towards Holy Christmas she helps us rediscover the meaning and taste of Christian joy, so different from that of the world. On this Sunday, according to a beautiful tradition, the children of Rome come to have the Pope bless the Baby Jesus figurines that they will put in their cribs. And in fact, I see here in St Peter’s Square a great number of children and young people, together with their parents, teachers and catechists. Dear friends, I greet you all with deep affection and thank you for coming. It gives me great joy to know that the custom of creating a crib scene has been preserved in your families. Yet it is not enough to repeat a traditional gesture, however important it may be. It is necessary to seek to live in the reality of daily life that the crib represents, namely, the love of Christ, his humility, his poverty. This is what St Francis did at Greccio: he recreated a live presentation of the nativity scene in order to contemplate and worship it, but above all to be better able to put into practice the message of the Son of God who for love of us emptied himself completely and made himself a tiny child.
The blessing of the “Bambinelli” [Baby Jesus figurines] as they are called in Rome, reminds us that the crib is a school of life where we can learn the secret of true joy. This does not consist in having many things but in feeling loved by the Lord, in giving oneself as a gift for others and in loving one another. Let us look at the crib. Our Lady and St Joseph do not seem to be a very fortunate family; their first child was born in the midst of great hardship; yet they are full of deep joy, because they love each other, they help each other and, especially, they are certain that God, who made himself present in the little Jesus, is at work in their story. And the shepherds? What did they have to rejoice about? That Newborn Infant was not to change their condition of poverty and marginalization. But faith helped them recognize the “babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger” as a “sign” of the fulfilment of God’s promises for all human beings, “with whom he is pleased” (Lk 2: 12, 14).
This, dear friends, is what true joy consists in: it is feeling that our personal and community existence has been visited and filled by a great mystery, the mystery of God’s love. In order to rejoice we do not need things alone, but love and truth: we need a close God who warms our hearts and responds to our deepest expectations. This God is manifested in Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary. Therefore that “Bambinello” which we place in a stable or a grotto is the centre of all things, the heart of the world. Let us pray that every person, like the Virgin Mary, may accept as the centre of his or her life the God who made himself a Child, the source of true joy.
After the Angelus:
While I thank the Roman Prayer Centres that organized the “Bambinelli” event, I would also like to recall that today in the Diocese of Rome is the “Day for New Churches”. In fact, there are communities in our city that do not have an appropriate place of worship, where the Lord lives with us, or structures for formational activities. Therefore, I renew to all the invitation to contribute so that the necessary pastoral centres may be built soon. Thank you for your generosity!
This week I have received sorrowful news from several African countries about the killing of four missionaries. They were the priests Fr Daniel Cizimya, Fr Louis Blondel and Fr Gerry Roche; and Sr Denise Kahambu. They were faithful witnesses of the Gospel who were able to proclaim it courageously, even at the risk of their own lives. While I express closeness to their relatives and to the communities that are mourning them, I invite everyone to join in my prayers that the Lord will welcome them to his House, comfort the bereaved and with his coming, bring reconciliation and peace.
I welcome all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present for our Angelus prayer. The liturgy of this Third Sunday of Advent, marked by joyful expectation of the Lord’s coming, invites us to rejoice in the hope of our salvation. May these days of preparation for Christmas be a time of genuine conversion and interior renewal for all Christians. Upon you and your families I invoke joy and peace in Jesus our Saviour.
I wish everyone a good Sunday!
Pope Benedict XVI
Angelus Address, December 16, 2012
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Gospel for this Sunday of Advent presents once again the figure of John the Baptist, and it depicts him while he is speaking to the people who come to him at the River Jordan to be baptized. Since John, with incisive words, urges them all to prepare themselves for the Messiah’s coming, some ask him, “What then shall we do?” (Lk 3:10, 12, 14). These exchanges are very interesting and prove to be of great timeliness.
The first answer is addressed to the crowd in general. The Baptist says, “He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise” (v. 11). Here we can see a criterion of justice, motivated by charity. Justice requires that the imbalance between the one who has more than enough and the one who lacks the necessary be overcome; charity prompts us to be attentive to others and to meet their needs, instead of seeking justification to defend one’s own interests. Justice and charity are not in opposition, but are both necessary and complete each other. “Love — caritas — will always prove necessary, even in the most just society”, because “There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbour is indispensable” (Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, n. 28).
Then we see the second answer, which is directed at some “publicans”, that is, tax-collectors on behalf of the Romans. The publicans were already despised for this, and also because they often made the most of their position to steal. The Baptist does not ask them to change their profession, but to exact no more than what has been established (cf. v. 13). The prophet, in the name of God, does not demand exceptional acts, but first and foremost the just fulfilment of one’s duty. The first step towards eternal life is always the observance of the Commandments; in this case, the seventh one: You shall not steal (cf Ex. 20:15).
The third reply concerns the soldiers, another class that enjoyed a certain authority, and was thus tempted to abuse it. John says to the soldiers: “Rob no one by violence, and be content with your wages” (v. 14). Here too the conversation begins with honesty and with respect for others: an instruction that applies to everyone, especially for those with greater responsibility.
On considering this dialogue as a whole, we are struck by the great concreteness of John’s words: since God will judge us according to our works, it is there, in our behaviour, that we must show that we are doing his will. For this very reason, the Baptist’s instructions are ever timely: even in our very complex world, things would go much better if each person observed these rules of conduct. Therefore let us pray to the Lord, through the intercession of Mary Most Holy, that he may help us to prepare ourselves for Christmas, bearing the good fruits of repentance (cf. Lk 3:8).
After the Angelus:
Dear brothers and sisters, the European Meeting organized by the Taizé Community will take place from 26 December to 2 January. I thank the families who, in accordance with the Roman tradition of hospitality, have readily offered to host these young people. Since, thanks be to God, the requests exceed the offers I renew the appeal already made to parishes, so that other families may join with great simplicity this beautiful experience of Christian friendship!
I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at today’s Angelus. I was deeply saddened by Friday’s senseless violence in Newtown, Connecticut. I assure the families of the victims, especially those who lost a child, of my closeness in prayer. May the God of consolation touch their hearts and ease their pain. During this Advent Season, let us dedicate ourselves more fervently to prayer and to acts of peace. Upon those affected by this tragedy, and upon each of you, I invoke God’s abundant blessings!
Today I address a special greeting to the children of Rome! You have come for the traditional blessing of the Baby Jesus figurines. Dear children, while I bless the little images of Jesus that you will put in your nativity scenes, I warmly bless each one of you as well as your families, your teachers and the Centro Oratori Romani.
I greet the group of students from the Istituto De Merode of Rome with several Australians from Adelaide; as well as the representatives of the news agency Zenit. I wish you all a good Sunday and good spiritual journey towards Bethlehem! Have a good Sunday. My best wishes to you!
