10 The crowds asked [John the Baptist], “What then should we do?”
11 He answered, “Whoever has two shirts must share with the one who has none, and whoever has food must do the same.”
12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized. They said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?”
13 He replied, “Collect no more than you are authorized to collect.”
14 Soldiers asked, “What about us? What should we do?”
He answered, “Don’t cheat or harass anyone, and be satisfied with your pay.”
15 The people were filled with expectation, and everyone wondered whether John might be the Christ. 16 John replied to them all, “I baptize you with water, but the one who is more powerful than me is coming. I’m not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 The shovel he uses to sift the wheat from the husks is in his hands. He will clean out his threshing area and bring the wheat into his barn. But he will burn the husks with a fire that can’t be put out.”
Reflection
John the Baptist sets the standard for the practical dimensions of love at work in the world. As he preaches the arrival of the kin(g)dom, people want to know what to do. His response is very simple: if you have more than you need, give some away. If you are in a position of authority, don’t take advantage. Don’t exploit people for the sake of either money or power.
In Advent, preachers will often encourage people to make room in their hearts for Jesus. We say this sometimes without providing a lot of detail about what we mean. But John is a preacher after my own heart: he doesn’t speak in platitudes – he lets people know what they can actually DO. And if we pay attention to John, it turns out that making room for Jesus often looks like downsizing our wants. If we have our needs met, he says, that’s enough.
It is our desire for more and more that leads us down the path to the abuses we see in the news every day: people and institutions exploited in desperate attempts to satisfy hungers that never seem to be satiated.
It’s this simple, John says: if we can downsize our wants, we’ll have some left over to help meet someone else’s needs. That’s the essence of the practical love John preached.
by Joe Monahan
For Pondering and Prayer
Is there an area of your life where you might consider scaling back your wants, so that you might help meet another’s need?
Prayer: Help those of us with resources to learn the gift of simplicity. Let us downsize our wants so that others may have their needs met. Amen.
