God becoming human casts new light on our own identity.

Anyone who has heard confessions or done pastoral counseling knows how burdened and wounded so many people are by accepting false identities about themselves they assumed to be true in the course of their lives.

Life had never been comfortable for John; he would have seen no reason to set people at their ease with the little fictions that litter most conversations.

John is not the cause for joy. Everyone will have to wait, even if it is just for a little while. And that is the meaning and message of Advent.

What in your life is holding you a prisoner? What’s keeping you captive?

Those who are anointed by God are sent to proclaim Good News to the poor. May we be heralds of good news to an ailing world.

Bathing as an act of purification had a long history in Greco-Roman religion and the Hebrew Bible. John the Baptist preached a more symbolic baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

John is the voice, but the Lord is the Word who was in the beginning. John is the voice that lasts for a time; from the beginning Christ is the Word who lives for ever.  —Saint Augustine