Rejoice in the Lord always… indeed, the Lord is near. Phil 4: 4-5
When we look forward to any special event our thoughts turn toward it with more urgency as its time approaches. Our feelings and reactions are heightened. We spend more time imagining how it will be. The people in today’s gospel were considering whether John the Baptist might be the one that they longed for. They searched him out even more diligently and listened even more closely than usual to his message. They asked, “What should we do?” John told them to attend to ordinary “good works” and then he promised them that someone even greater than he was to come. In the reading to the Philippians, Paul urges us to rejoice in the Lord and let our kindness be known to everyone.
As we go about doing our ordinary “good works” and making our kindness known to everyone, we open ourselves to knowing that God is truly near and in this way we have much cause for rejoicing.
What “good works” can I carry out into my day as I go rejoicing?
[Sister Amy Junk, C.PP.S., was a member of the Toledo Diocese Vocation Directors team and participated in the creation of the Advent Reflections booklet in 2012--this is her reflection from that 2012 series. Sister Amy died November 20, 2016.]
Zephaniah 3: 14-18 Isaiah 12: 2-6 Philippians 4: 4-7 Luke 3: 10-18
