In the Gospel reading, we hear John the Baptist’s voice crying out in the wilderness. He called people to repent and offered baptism to all those who wanted to change their lives. When people came to him in the wilderness, they asked him what they should do. John’s advice appears in our quotation for today: we are invited to be generous with what we have. If we have more tunics than we need, we can give them to people who don’t have as much
as us.
John’s preaching was aimed at preparing the way for Jesus – to prepare for his ‘advent’ or arrival. This Advent, we are engaged with preparing our hearts to welcome Jesus and his message at Christmas.
As a way to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus, perhaps the texts for today’s reflection can give us pause to consider the following questions:
How generous are we with what we have?
Do we find ourselves in a position of abundance, while others perhaps find themselves in a situation of need?
