Advent

In today’s Gospel we see John basically doubting who Jesus was. He wasn’t sure and wanted to be convinced. Some suggest that his incarceration was taking its toll. Lack of light, lack of sleep, and lack of food and water soon break even the strongest of men. Also, Jesus was confounding the Jews’ expectation of

Perhaps people of every age have struggled with the stern and somewhat harsh message of John the Baptist. Living and preaching in the wilderness, dressed in rough clothing woven from camel hair, and eating locusts and wild honey was pretty strange and outlandish even then! Most people would run a mile from John the Baptist

Advent is a season of light. It is a time in which the light of Christ shines forth into our lives and onto our world, and we receive a great gift: ‘to us a child is born, to us a Son is given.‘ In John’s Gospel, Christ says of himself: ‘I have come as light

Part of the joy of good news is sharing it! Mary rushes to Elizabeth to relate her news. Her amazement and sheer wonder at being chosen must have consumed her as she journeyed to her cousin’s home. The meeting between the two women is a touching scene. The sense of joy, anticipation and hope between

This Gospel contains the heart of John the Baptist’s preaching. His message of repentance in preparation for the coming of the Lord resonated with the crowds who flocked to see him. Just as it stirred his hearers to long for the coming Messiah, so it moves us to worship. We might think that John had

Luke carefully sets the historical scene at the start of John the Baptist’s ministry. Pontius Pilate, Herod and his sons, and the high priests Annas and Caiaphas all failed to respond to God’s word and its messengers. None of them welcomed Jesus; some were implicated in his death. Yet it was precisely into this unwelcoming

Take heed, watch; for you do not know when the time will come. During Advent we naturally focus on the birth of Jesus – his first coming. The Church, however, asks us to look beyond his birth at Bethlehem and reflect on his coming again at the end of time in order that we might