Gospel – Matthew 3:1-12     Change is coming

John the Baptist was someone who lived on the edge of society but who carried a message for all.  He lived simply, wearing ‘camel’s hair … and his food was locusts and wild honey’.  At some point in his life, John decided to break with the traditional religious system of his time and go wild!  John goes into the desert, where he must ultimately deal with himself and with God who dwells within.  He had an inner freedom that enabled him to live out this call to be a prophet, and when the religious leaders arrive at the River Jordan, John is not afraid to speak truth to power.  He questioned the fruits they have produced.  While this ‘brood of vipers’ might have come to see what John is up to, the text says that they too came to be baptized by John.  Perhaps they also longed for change.  Considering the crowd that had arrived and the conflict that ensues with the authorities, we get a picture of a spiritual crisis in the community.

It is not by chance that we meet John the Baptist and his challenging message during Advent.  His call to repent might not excite us, as we’re in more of a celebratory mood these weeks, but ‘to repent’ literally means ‘to turn around’ or to return’ (metanoia).  It does not mean we riddle ourselves with guilt, rather it is an invitation to transformation, to turn away from what is not life-giving for us and I that which helps us to live a full, more balanced life.  In this way, we create space to welcome Chris’s grace and love at Christmas, and we become aware once more of his loving presence in our hearts and in the world around us.  This is liberating and enables us to commit to love and the birthing of God in our hearts.  How we prepare in these weeks is important and can lead to many blessings.  Today John invites the people who have gathered, and us, to a change of heart.

© Triona Doherty & Jane Mellet, 2022.  A Journey with the Sunday Gospels in the Year of Matthew.  (Dublin: Messenger Publications 2022.

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“Christian life is a commitment to love, to give birth to God I one’s own life and to become midwives of divinity in this evolving cosmos.  We are to be wholemakers of love in a world of change.                           – Ilia Delio