This weekend we hear about John the Baptist who was the herald of Jesus who said that there is one who is to come after me and I am not worthy to take the sandals of his feet. John’s task was to announce the coming of Jesus and to point to him when he came. John’s work was extraordinary. He was called to reawaken a sense of expectation among a people that had grown tired and distant from God as many have done in our present generation. John was called to bring renewal to institutional expressions of religion which, at the time, had become fossilized into mere formulae or external ritual again for many today that is also the case. John attracted thousands to come out into the desert to see him. Tradition sees the desert as the place where God speaks to the heart of his people. It is from this solitary place of spiritual combat, the desert bordering the Jordan, that John appears “with the spirit and the power of Elijah” (Luke 7:17). By his word and his baptism with water, john called the children of the covenant back to the Lord their God as he calls us today to come back to the Lord our God.
The figure of John serves as a warning, to all believers, to the Church and Church organizations that we need to draw our strength from Christ alone, rather than identifying with the cultural patterns or the Fads and fashions of the time, which in any case come and go. The Church is here in the present as it has been in past times to proclaim and live out the message of Jesus in every generation in season and out of season whether people at large like it or not. A great example of this is the teaching of the Church on the issue of Abortion and life issues. The Church that is the people of god, you and I are called to constant renewal, to tear ourselves away from conventional expectations, attitudes and superficialities and centre ourselves completely on God. The Church in every age must become like John the Baptist, an uncomfortable reminder of how we must allow the truth of Jesus to break into our lives to enlighten the darkness that can at any moment enter into our lives or the life of the Church as the scandals have painfully shown. As the journey of Advent continues, as we prepare to celebrate the nativity of Christ, John the Baptist’s call to conversion sounds out in our communities.
It is a pressing invitation to open our hearts and to welcome the Son of God who comes among us to make the kingdom of God manifest to all of us and to others through us. As we continue our Advent Journey let us stop and listen to the call of John the Baptist to prepare the way for the Lord and put it into action in our lives as we make our pats straight during this Advent time.
Fullerton T 