The Gospel of Matthew introduces us for the first time to John the Baptist (whose infancy is accounted for only in Luke), who appears in a camel-hair shirt with a leather belt, subsisting on locusts and wild honey, preaching in the desert: "Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand!"
Matthew presents him plainly as a loner, a drifter even, so apart from society that he eschews the customs of fashion; and so at one with the wilderness that his protein of choice is an insect whose Biblical history makes it synonymous with the word "plague."
Still, this loner has a message so powerful, so urgent, so resonant, that many people living in the region around the Jordan River are traveling there to be baptized by him.
As Isaiah prophesied, John the Baptist, crazy as he may look and sound, is the lone voice in the desert, crying out, "Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight His paths!" And for his part, he baptizes others to wash them clean of their sins, a ritual marking their repentance in preparation for Jesus' arrival.
In those days, perhaps only one so removed from community and tradition could dare to preach the coming of the Messiah. Today, we stand firmly on an ecclesial tradition 2,000 years and millions of people strong. It is a comfort John and others in the early Church did not have, but it also means complacency is a near companion to our faith.
Faced with great peril, the infant Jesus survived so that He could face His destiny to die for our sins. John the Baptist led an austere life and ultimately met his end for his righteousness, as so many martyrs and saints did after him.
This Advent season, let us not take for granted the arrival of the Christ Child, or the surety of our comfort in this great Church to which we belong. Christmas is a time of joyful anticipation, but also an opportunity for us to turn our watchfulness inward, that we may repent and be "trees that bear good fruit" as we make ready to receive Christ into our homes and hearts. |
