Dear Friends in Christ
The Gentiles, like Luke himself, had believed in Christ on the testimony of others, not because they were eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life, ministry and resurrection. To build up their faith, Luke wrote down an orderly account of the events and encounters of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry ‘just as they were delivered to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word’. Luke’s Gospel shows the continuity between God’s promises made through the prophets and their fulfilment. 
Jesus, reading from the prophet Isaiah the promise that God would send one who would free his people from oppression and imprisonment, and restore their freedom and liberty, announced: ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’. His words electrified his audience. They had heard this promise many times before. But now Jesus, in front of their own eyes, was saying: ‘I am fulfilling this great promise of God. I am the Spirit-bearer foretold by Isaiah and, I am bringing in a new age of freedom and divine favour, restoring men and women to health, and casting out demons’. It’s not surprising that ‘the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him’. It’s also unsurprising that they could not accept him and ‘rose up and put him out of the city’.
Jesus now stands before us. He still proclaims the Good News, making us see with new eyes that we are loved and forgiven, and leading us into his Father’s presence as beloved sons and daughters. He restores to us our inheritance as God’s children, freeing us from oppression and liberating us from whatever imprisons us. Do we believe this and go to Jesus to receive his grace and life? Or do we not believe that he can do all things for us and so reject him? Jesus stands before us as he stood before his fellow townspeople and challenges us to come to him for healing and freedom. The choice, however, always remains ours.
Lord Jesus, you restore all things. You break the power of evil. You heal our sins. Help me to come to you with complete faith and confidence. Teach me to fix my eyes on you.
The changing of water into wine is many people’s favourite miracle. A wedding in first-century Palestine was a joyful occasion with plenty of food and wine, and lasted a whole week. Quite some party, that is for sure! Running out of wine was clearly socially embarrassing for the couple but a sign perhaps of how much people were enjoying themselves. The water that was changed into wine was not ordinary water – it was water that had been blessed for the ceremonial washing. This special water was not changed into 
was for repentance. The immersion in the waters of the Jordan was a sign of conversion, or a person changing direction in life. John’s message was addressed to tax collectors, soldiers and ordinary men and women. It was a message of moral reform, of preparing for the coming of the Messiah. Jesus’ baptism is a baptism of solidarity with sinners and began his public life and in this moment God is revealed as Blessed Trinity.
The coming down of the Spirit of Jesus’ baptism looked forward to the coming down of the Holy Spirit on us – a prelude, if you like, to the new creation. We commit ourselves to entering more deeply into the mystery of our baptism, praying about it, seeking to understand it and growing in our appreciation of this wonderful grace. 
We can be sure that the Holy Family was a happy family, but like all happy families their happiness was forged through trial and suffering and the ups and downs of domestic daily living. Today we cross the threshold into the tranquillity and holiness of Holy Family. Here we find the hearth at which Jesus lived his hidden years. Here we find the first domestic Church, a loving family devoted to God and to each other.
Today we celebrate the feminine genius of Mary and Elizabeth. These two giants of faith reveal in their encounter with the Holy Spirit so much of what it means to live a life of faith. These two women were joined in a sisterhood of faith; they were both on an adventure on which they were overshadowed and inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Today’s Gospel contains the heart of John the Baptist’s preaching. His message of repentance in preparation for the coming of the Lord resonated with the crowds who flocked to see him. Just as it stirred the hearers to long for the coming Messiah, so it moves us to worship. Jesus said of John, ‘among those born of women there has risen no one greater’. The effect of John’s holiness on the crowds can be seen in the response even in hardened soldiers and cunning tax-collectors. We might think that John had cause to be humbly satisfied at the success of his mission – what more could be asked for than genuine repentance and newfound faith?
Water has a purifying role in the Old Testament. The law imposed many ritual washings before worship, and the Pharisees baptised Gentile converts to symbolise the cleansing of their hearts and their joining to the people of Israel. John baptised people in the Jordan to symbolise their repentance, but he knew that something more than a symbol was needed to rescue humankind – they needed to be immersed in the Spirit of God.
The Gospel of mercy invites us into a new time of grace. During Advent God’s word challenges us to repent and be renewed: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight…The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth’. As we respond with sincerity, we shall ‘put on the robe of righteousness from God’. 