Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The call to rejoice for the Lord is drawing near is the theme of the Third Sunday of Advent. The great feast of the Lord’s Nativity is just days away, and though we are in the midst of preparations both spiritual and practical, we are reminded that these preparations in themselves ought to be a source of joy in this season. With that rejoicing in mind, we might examine with a fresh outlook the baptism of repentance that John the Baptist invites people to undertake in the Gospel today.

People from many places and from many backgrounds come to John to be baptized. His baptism is a visible symbol of repentance, a sign that the person being baptized has rejected their old life of sin and wants to live differently. Hence, in the Gospel today, John gives brass tacks advice to people about how to live justly and devoutly. Nothing that he says is especially challenging: share what you have with people who are in need, be honest in business dealings, be satisfied with what you have and don’t use your position to bully or intimidate. Essentially, he says, “You know that you have sinned. Stop doing that.” The things he tells the people to do are easily attainable. But when we think of “repentance,” we do not often think in joyful terms. Why then, does the Church give us this story of repentance on a day when rejoicing is prescribed?

When I recognize my sins and the effect they have on my soul and on the lives of others, I quite understandably might find myself in some distress. While we are capable of knowing our sin, one effect of sin is that it blinds us to goodness, both God’s goodness and our own potential for being good. And so many of the people coming to John for baptism, knowing they were sinners, had to be convinced that they were capable of being good. When John tells them what to do, he is making the path to goodness accessible and easy, demonstrating that goodness is not a special privilege for just a few, but is something all of us are able to achieve in some measure. John the Baptist is making real for the people what they learned in the book of Deuteronomy: “For what great nation has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him? Or what great nation has statutes and ordinances that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?” (Deut. 4:7-8). The law of God is not meant to control or limit us, rather it is meant to set us free! To know that we can be free, and, indeed, that by coming among us in the flesh, Christ has set us free indeed.

So in this third week of Advent, as we rejoice in this gift of freedom, we can also rejoice in the gift of repentance. When I feel sorrow for my sin, my sorrow is offset by the joy of knowing that the mercy of God is available to me as a healing remedy. One of the best ways to prepare our hearts for the coming of the Lord at Christmas is to celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation. The practice of sacramental confession helps us, like those who flocked to John the Baptist, to recognize our sin and our need for God, to do something concretely to turn away from sin, and to receive the joy of knowing God’s goodness, favor, justice, and closeness. If you have not yet done so this Advent season, I encourage you to avail yourself of this sacrament, so that your joy may be complete!

Peace,

Fr. Sam