Saturday of the third week of Advent - 23 December 2023 - St John the Baptist

In our Gospel today in Daily Mass, we hear about the birth of John the Baptist. As an adult, John assumed an important role is paving the way for Jesus’ ministry and his proclamation of God’s kingdom. Thursday, we heard of Mary’s visit to John the Baptist’s mother, Elizabeth, as both women ministered to each other in the midst of their reality.

All of us have a certain reality in life. All of us have unique talents, gifts, and personalities given to us by God. Just as Jesus and John the Baptist had different gifts and talents, just as they each had their own calling and vocation, we use the gifts and talents in the context of the way God calls us on our journey of faith.

During these reflections during Advent, I spoke about the calling each one of us has as disciples of Christ to evangelization and to acts of mercy. We respond to that call in our own unique way, with our own talents, gifts, and personalities, with our own unique reality of life. In the prison ministry, I see the inmates of our Catholic community evangelizing their fellow inmates with our Catholic faith. I see them reaching out to them in acts of mercy and charity. The prison environment is a unique context for evangelization and acts of mercy. We, too, are to respond to our environment in similar acts of mercy and evangelization. I want to encourage all of you to continue to discern where God calling you to evangelize your corner of the world and to reach out to others in acts of mercy and charity.

Luke 1:57-66

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her. When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, “No. He will be called John.” But they answered her, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.” So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called. He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,” and all were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God. Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea. All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.”