Please read the passage above before reading the homily.
My sisters and brothers,
Who was John? He was not the Messiah, not Elijah, not the prophet. This person, the great John the Baptist, was only a voice crying in a desert. He was a voice, not a mouth, not a word, but only a voice. The voice baptized with water; the word would baptize with the Holy Spirit.
The voice came first, the word came afterwards. The voice would disappear; the word of the Lord would remain forever. The word was being heard after the voice. The word, like the light, is always existing.
The Jewish people from Jerusalem are asking us who we are. How do we answer them. We are not the voice; John is. We are not the word of God; the Christ is. We are the echo of the word of God. Whatever Jesus says, we say; whatever Jesus does, we likewise do.
It is Advent. It is the time of John the Baptist; it is the time for the coming of the Lord; and it is the time for us to announce the word of God and call all people to the Gospel of Christ who is the Word of God.
Through our actions, we have to make in the world the peace of Christ, the forgiveness of sins and the glory of God. The voice of John announced the coming of Christ; the Word of God has saved the whole Church. Therefore, we have to be the echo of the Word and the echo of the actions of Christ which have saved us.
God has called us so that we can proclaim God’s word and action to those who have not yet received it. Through what we do and what we pray, we echo Christ, making the presence of Christ himself known and our presence to them will be the coming of Christ into their lives.
John is the voice, Christ is the word, and we are the echo of Christ. We are women and we are men, sent from God to give testimony to the presence of Christ in the world of today.