Gospel (Jn 1,6-8.19-28) - A man sent by God came: his name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he had to bear witness to the light. This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent him priests from Jerusalem and stood up to ask him: "Who are you?". He confessed and did not deny. He confessed: "I am not the Christ." Then they asked him: «Who are you, then? Are you Elijah?". “I'm not,” he said. «Are you the prophet?». “No,” he replied. They then said to him: «Who are you? So that we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He replied: "I am the voice of one crying in the desert: Make the way of the Lord straight, as the prophet Isaiah said." Those who were sent were from the Pharisees. They questioned him and said to him: "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?". John answered them: «I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who comes after me: I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal." This happened in Bethany, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

«Always be happy in the Lord, I repeat to you: be happy… The Lord is near!». These words of the apostle Paul to the Philippians characterize this third Sunday of Advent. It is the invitation to rejoice. The Lord is near. We are not alone, abandoned. Never, in truth, has the Lord abandoned his people. The prophet Isaiah, sent to console the people of Israel in a difficult moment, reminds us of this. The prophet was sent to "bring good news to the miserable, to bind up the wounds of broken hearts, to proclaim the freedom of slaves, the release of prisoners, to proclaim the year of favor of the Lord".
This prophecy illuminates the time of this Advent and this Christmas even more. The Lord invites us to multiply the prophecy, to make it even brighter because of the "thick fog that envelops the nations". The figure of the Baptist that is presented to us again this Sunday indicates the insistence on increasing prophecy in our days. “There came a man sent from God: his name was John” (Jn 1:6). The Baptist gathers us to wake us up from the torpor of habit. He makes us raise our gaze to the crowds of the poor, who have grown disproportionately in our time, because we are "witnesses to bear witness to the light", to the Lord Jesus who comes. Pointing to the Messiah, the Savior, is the reason of the Baptist, it is the reason of the Church, of the community, of every disciple. Like the Baptist we were saved to be able to communicate the Gospel to the world. John is aware of this: he knows that his mission is to communicate the Gospel, not himself. He came into the world to indicate the one who was about to come whose sandal laces he was not even worthy of untying. A humility, exemplary for everyone, even for us. But this humility does not make him back down, nor does it push him to hide. And he says of himself: I am "the voice of one crying in the desert: prepare the way of the Lord". Faith comes from listening. The community of believers, the Church, lives by listening. But together there is also the responsibility of preaching, that is, of being a "voice". Several times in this season of Advent we have been reminded of the urgency of being a "voice", of communicating the joy of Christmas, of not letting any words fall to speak of the child of Bethlehem. Today there is a need for renewed attention to the Gospel: "Among you stands someone whom you do not know". The habit of focusing on ourselves, of worrying only about ourselves, clouds our vision and prevents us and others from seeing and enjoying the coming Christmas. Gregory the Great, commenting on this evangelical passage, warned the Romans of his time: "Be careful not to refuse your neighbor the alms of the word". And he continued: "In this way, that is, if you do not neglect to announce his coming to the poor as far as you are capable of doing so, you will deserve to be numbered by him, like John the Baptist, among the number of angels."