John the Baptist preparing the way of the Lord

It’s the Second Sunday of Advent and as we wrote last week, about the meaning of Advent, it comes from the Latin word “adventus” a time of expectant waiting in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. “Adventus” in Greek is “parousia,” which is also used to refer to the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is why our Sunday gospel today is the story of St. John the Baptist who prepares the Jews for the coming of the Messiah. You can read it in your Bible in Mark 1:1-8.

“1 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 the 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.”

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From what we read in the Bible, we all know a few things about St. John the Baptist … one is that he is the cousin of our Lord Jesus Christ, who when the Blessed Virgin Mary learned that her cousin Elizabeth was already three months on the way, she travelled to the hill country to visit her. That was a mystical meeting of sorts because as the Blessed Virgin Mary entered the courtyard of her cousin’s home and heard her voice, the baby in her womb leaped with joy and the Blessed Virgin Mary stayed with her for three months before returning to Nazareth.

Like the early childhood of our Lord Jesus Christ, little is known about how St. John the Baptist grew. Since Mama Mary was close to her cousin Elizabeth, there was a strong possibility that she went back to the hill country and brought the baby or the child Jesus to play with his cousin John. But as the gospel tells us, somehow John moved away from his family home and lived in the desert where he thrived on locust and wild honey. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not live in the desert, but whenever he wanted to pray or fast, he would go to the desert.

What is clear to us is that John was later known in Judea as John the Baptizer and his name became known to the Jews because he preached repentance of sins and baptized sinners in the Jordan River. While his popularity grew, he was humble enough to preach saying “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.”

By then Jews were anticipating the coming of the Messiah and as the Prophet Isaiah prophesied, “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.’” There is no doubt that the coming of John the Baptist was also prophesied by Isaiah.

Now whether he remembers that Jesus the Christ was his cousin, we don’t know. But what is sure is, he too had some doubts whether our Lord Jesus Christ was the Messiah. In Luke 7:20 he wrote, “And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another?”In verse 22, Jesus said “And he said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

John the Baptist sent his followers to our Lord Jesus Christ because he was already in prison and he wanted to make sure that Jesus was the Messiah because he wanted his followers now to follow Jesus. The reply of our Lord Jesus to the men sent by John the Baptist was of great comfort to John that indeed, Jesus was the Messiah and that his work is already finished.

In tribute to St. John, in Luke 7:28, our Lord Jesus told the followers of St. John, “I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” Just imagine he considered John the Baptist was a great human being, yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than St. John. This gospel teaches us lessons in humility. Few Christians have embraced or practice humility as a virtue. But we should remember what St. Paul said about humility, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

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