First reading Baruch 5:1-9
God means to show your splendour to every nation
Jerusalem, take off your dress of sorrow and distress,
put on the beauty of the glory of God for ever,
wrap the cloak of the integrity of God around you,
put the diadem of the glory of the Eternal on your head:
since God means to show your splendour to every nation under heaven,
since the name God gives you for ever will be,
‘Peace through integrity, and honour through devotedness.’
Arise, Jerusalem, stand on the heights
and turn your eyes to the east:
see your sons reassembled from west and east
at the command of the Holy One, jubilant that God has remembered them.
Though they left you on foot,
with enemies for an escort,
now God brings them back to you
like royal princes carried back in glory.
For God has decreed the flattening
of each high mountain, of the everlasting hills,
the filling of the valleys to make the ground level
so that Israel can walk in safety under the glory of God.
And the forests and every fragrant tree will provide shade
for Israel at the command of God;
for God will guide Israel in joy by the light of his glory
with his mercy and integrity for escort.
Responsorial Psalm 125(126)
What marvels the Lord worked for us! Indeed we were glad.
When the Lord delivered Zion from bondage,
it seemed like a dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter,
on our lips there were songs.
What marvels the Lord worked for us! Indeed we were glad.
The heathens themselves said: ‘What marvels
the Lord worked for them!’
What marvels the Lord worked for us!
Indeed we were glad.
What marvels the Lord worked for us! Indeed we were glad.
Deliver us, O Lord, from our bondage
as streams in dry land.
Those who are sowing in tears
will sing when they reap.
What marvels the Lord worked for us! Indeed we were glad.
They go out, they go out, full of tears,
carrying seed for the sowing:
they come back, they come back, full of song,
carrying their sheaves.
What marvels the Lord worked for us! Indeed we were glad.
Second reading Philippians 1:4-6,8-11
May you become pure and blameless in preparation for the day of Christ
Every time I pray for all of you, I pray with joy, remembering how you have helped to spread the Good News from the day you first heard it right up to the present. I am quite certain that the One who began this good work in you will see that it is finished when the Day of Christ Jesus comes; and God knows how much I miss you all, loving you as Christ Jesus loves you. My prayer is that your love for each other may increase more and more and never stop improving your knowledge and deepening your perception so that you can always recognise what is best. This will help you to become pure and blameless, and prepare you for the Day of Christ, when you will reach the perfect goodness which Jesus Christ produces in us for the glory and praise of God.
Gospel Luke 3:1-6
The call of John the Baptist
In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar’s reign, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the lands of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the pontificate of Annas and Caiaphas the word of God came to John son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. He went through the whole Jordan district proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the sayings of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice cries in the wilderness:
Prepare a way for the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley will be filled in,
every mountain and hill be laid low,
winding ways will be straightened
and rough roads made smooth.
And all mankind shall see the salvation of God.
________________________
To be the voice that communicates God’s word
In today’s gospel, St. Luke wrote the historical and political details to set the concrete time when God entered and intervened in human history. At that particular time and place, God called John the Baptist to prepare the hearts of His people for the coming of Jesus, the Incarnated Word of God. He went through Jordan to proclaim a baptism of repentance by calling His listeners to have a change of heart and mind and embrace a whole new way of life that opened them to live a life for God. Some people welcomed his message, while others rejected him.
God continues to intervene in human history and into our own personal history. He invites us today to welcome the word of God that calls us to always to a deeper change of our minds and hearts and live a life of love. At the same time, as Christians, we are the John of Baptists of today. God entrusts us with the task to be the voice that communicates His message of love, hope and peace to those around us.
Question for reflection:
Lord, what do you want me to do today?
Lord, what do you want me to do today?
