The preaching of John the Baptist

Today is the 2nd Sunday of Advent. Our Gospel reading comes from Mark 1:1-8 about the Preaching of John the Baptist.

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ (the Son of God). 2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;/ he will prepare your way./ 3 A voice of one crying out in the desert:/ ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,/ make straight his paths.’” 4 John [the] Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 People of the whole Judean countryside and all inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.

6 John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey. 7 And this is what he proclaimed: “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals. 8 I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

We’ve written about John the Baptist and his message of repentance. John was the cousin of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose mother Elizabeth was our Mama Mary’s cousin. The infancy narrative of John the Baptist can be found in Luke 1:5-25, very similar to the annunciation of the birth of Christ except that when John’s father Zechariah questioned the Angel Gabriel who heralded the birth of his son (because of his and his wife’s advance age), the Angel Gabriel shut his tongue until the birth of John.

When John was born and it was time to name him, his mother named the child John, but his relatives complained that there was no one in Zechariah’s family with that name. Then they asked the speechless Zechariah if it was true that he would be named John, his tongue was released said, “John is his name.” He wrote “The Canticle of Zechariah.” To quote his prophetic reference to the future of John:

“And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins, because of the tender mercy of our God by which the daybreak from on High will visit us to shine on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow to guide our feet into the path of peace.” It is very clear from this canticle that Zechariah was given by the Angel Gabriel more than just a name for his son John, but what would be his role in life.

It is very understandable that when John the Baptist finally lived in the desert to become the “solitary voice in the wilderness” preaching repentance of sins in order to make way for the coming of the Messiah, many in Judea even mistakenly thought that he was the Messiah, despite the fact that he looked more like a wild man, with camel’s hair, a leather belt, unshaven and living on locusts and wild honey. So many in Palestine expected the Messiah not to come from royalty.

But John was no pretender, he was very clear with his message saying “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Today’s Gospel talks about John the Baptist so we can use the preaching of John to prepare us for the coming of Christmas.

It is time for soul searching. Are we really prepared for the coming of Christmas, which is just 18 days from now? Most of us are busy these days attending various Christmas parties, even in this global recession. Yet the news reports show that the shopping malls are full and traffic in Cebu (and not just Manila) is as usual, “Jammed for the Holidays.” People are busy shopping for the Yuletide Season. Even Japan, which has a very small Christian population, is big on celebrating Christmas.

But amid the hassle and bustle of our Christmas shopping, we also must prepare our souls for the coming of our Lord Jesus. We’re merely repeating what Christians 2,000 years ago did, but for the year 2008. We need to examine our conscience and ask that poignant question that we used to ask when we were kids whether “Were we naughty or nice?”

There’s a good chance that we weren’t nice, so John the Baptist taught us to repent our sins and prepare the way of the Lord; make straight his paths. As his father Zechariah said, “because of the tender mercy of our God by which the daybreak from on High will visit us to shine on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow to guide our feet into the path of peace.”