Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 3, 1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,
and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region
of Ituraea and Trachonitis,
and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,
during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,
the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.
John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
Times of change
1. This happened. Yes, all the data that you read at the beginning of the gospel may call your attention. But remember that there are many who doubted the existence of Jesus, that’s why Luke, as a good scientist, includes all the data so that people who doubted could search the archives of those times and could verify the information. Jesus and the work of salvation is embedded in our universal history.
2. He announces. John the Baptist is a missionary, a man of God who goes out to proclaim, who breaks structures and goes forth to look for ordinary men and women. In those times, Jewish religion was a very rigid structure and scared people rather than bringing them closer. But John goes out and bids people to prepare for God’s judgment, to repent their sins and be baptized; and he also announces Jesus; he invites people to change and produce appropriate fruits of repentance. He invites you to fight your life in another way, with Heaven as you goal. He is a close and ordinary man, he draws attention to Jesus, not to himself, and moves the community. How curious! Simplicity attracts attention.
3. Changes. In this time of Advent, the proposal is that you should make some changes in your life. You can’t always be undecided, there are certain moments when you have to take the bull by the horns and make up your mind to change. To solve something, you must first accept that reality. Sooner or later we all have to make changes, because life is dynamic. Don’t allow the rigidness or routine toil of life to grab hold of you, learn to make changes after discernment and prayer. Pray to discern, discern to change and change to know how to live. Take risks in your life! If you win you’ll be happier, if you lose you’ll be wiser.
Never forget that something good is on the way!
God bless you, be with you and protect you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
