What must we do? Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Advent, Year C.

A group, designated by Luke as “all the people” comes to John the Baptist asking, What must we do? John says simply, “If anyone has two tunics he must share with the person who has none, and the one with something to eat must do the same.” In other words, keep on living the kind of life that you are already living, but you must be generous and compassionate; share what you have with the poor. Now here we have an important point: God does invite some people to follow him by giving up everything. But for most of us, the call to discipleship doesn’t involve such a huge upheaval. For most of us the call to discipleship is a call to be sensitive to the needs of those around us and do what we can to help them.