The Nazareth Page  - A gospel meditation for your home

December 7, 2025 – Second Sunday of Advent, Matthew 3:1-12

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
Download this simple process to Prepare for Sunday using the Observe, Judge, Act Method

For many years I have been writing these Nazareth Pages, and while they are saved somewhere in my computer, I compose each one fresh. As I reflect on the gospel for each Sunday, I approach it by thinking it’s my first time to do so. I read each Sunday gospel imagining that I am not the same person who read that gospel four years back.  So, I am receptive to noticing something new in the inspired word. And I am rarely disappointed.

This second Sunday of Advent, we are told of the time when John the Baptist was approached by local religious leaders who wanted to know if he were the Messiah, the one sent by God, No, he said. Rather I am here to prepare for his coming.  My baptism signified repentance from sin, but the true Messiah will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. It will be the beginning of God’s life-giving presence among us.  

God will come to us in the person of Jesus. This ‘incarnation” of God in Jesus means that God is becoming uniquely present to our world, active in our world and transforming those of us blessed with living in this world. Then and now.

We are invited to think of this new presence of God in Christ in our celebration of Christmas, a feast we all need to be quite intentional about because its true meaning seems only in the background. Many think of this feast day without its deep spiritual meaning due to the secularization of the day brought on by our commercialized culture.  

Back to today’s gospel reading with a thought about the idea of Jesus baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire. Why fire? Now comes my new thought. In the created universe, as we know it today, fire is absolutely needed for all life, especially human life. And the most important source of fire in God’s cosmos is the fire of the sun! If God had not arranged creation with the presence of fire, there would be no life.

So, joining the water of baptism with the fire of the sun (and all the billions and billions of stars in the known universe) life can exist.  And it does! Abundantly! As we experience life in ourselves and with others here on planet Earth, we are reminded of the deep source of our lives. We exist because of God’s loving us. And we are invited to be grateful for this gift especially when recalling that first Christmas.  As we prepare for this year’s celebration of the birth of Jesus, thank God for the gift of life! Yours and mine.  

David M. Thomas, PhD