DO

The title of my homily for this Third Sunday in Advent is, “Do.”

 

It’s a basic word we learn very early on.

 

It’s only 2 letters in English.

 

As in, "Do the dishes."

 

Or, "Do your homework."

 

Add a letter to the word "do" and you have a dog.

 

Add two letters and you have a door.

 

Kids start off learning - by learning the alphabet.

 

Then they learn sight words and phonics.

 

Sight words are just basic words you just have to learn. You can’t picture them or break them in half or into parts like you can do in phonics.

 

Sight words are words like AND or DO or YOU or PLAY or ONE. 

 

Kindergarten kids get a list of 100 or so of them or they have them on flash cands and you just have to memorize them.  You take a word like AND and you ask a kid to look at a page and find the word AND. Spot it. Sight it. "Ooooooooh!"

 

So – DO -  the title of my homily is a sight word.  It appears 6 times in today’s gospel: Luke 3: 10-18.  Another sight word in today’s gospel is “THE” which appears 9 times and “AND”  appears only 6 times.

 

That’s how we learn. That’s how kids learn. Slow and steady.

 

To be Christians  - to follow Christ – we just do basic things each day: share you coat – share your food – don’t overtax others – don’t extort -  don’t falsely accuse others – be satisfied with your salary – give good news.

 

Do – "poieo" in Greek – as in, "Do this in memory of me." Now, that’s life.