Third Sunday of Advent, Year B

"There is one among you whom you do not recognize - the one who is to come after me"

Lectionary Readings for Third Sunday of Advent, Year B
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/3rd-advent-b.html

Although the gospel places John the Baptist in the center stage, we are called to discover that he represents Someone who is to come and whom John's duty is to prepare the way of the people. That is why when he was baptizing the people with water, and they asked him who he was, he said, "I am not the Christ, the Messiah". Rather, he states that "he is a voice in the desert, crying out: Make straight the way of the Lord!' " He was aware that his role is to decrease while Christ is to increase when Christ comes to be baptized by him in the river Jordan.

In the preparations for our Advent season, we are called to be like John the Baptist to our fellow Christians. By word and deed, we are called to point out the importance of Christ in our times today. Especially when people have forgotten to live a life in the spirit of Christ, this is the time when we are indeed called to live out the spirit of Christ through our simple and daily witness of family and work routines. Most often we make ourselves the point of reference of others for their source of information and knowledge, that we forget to point them to Christ as the Wisdom of God - the One whom John was leading the people to. Thus, the call for us this Advent season is to imitate the example of John by making ourselves always secondary in role to Christ and leading others to the Spirit of Christ, as He is revealed in many ways in peoples' daily family living and professional lives.