SOLVE THE PUZZLE

3rd Sunday of Advent
Lk 3:10-18

A class of grade school students was given a test by their teacher.

“Class, I am giving each of you a jigsaw puzzle of the world,” said the teacher. “You are to solve the puzzle within thirty minutes. Anyone who solves it first will be exempted from taking the math exam,” she explained. Then the teacher distributed to each student the jigsaw puzzle. “Your time starts now,” she signaled.

After five minutes, one of the students raised his hand and claimed he already solved the puzzle. “But how did you do it in so short a time?” the teacher asked the boy.

The boy smiled at the teacher and said, “You see, Ma’am, I turned the puzzle over and discovered that there is a figure of a man printed on it. I solved the man and the world was solved!”

The problems of the world can only be solved by solving man himself. The solution to world crises is in getting man straightened out. This was what John the Baptist was trying to tell the people who asked him, “What must we do?” This was the answer he gave to the tax collectors and the soldiers who asked him the same question. This is what he is trying to teach us now through the Gospel today.

Just as we are part of the problems of the world, we are also part of their solutions. Let us straightened out our selves. Let us set our lives straight. Let us prepare the way of Lord. Keep it straight!