In the gospel today, the Jewish people sent priests and Levites to question John the Baptist about what he was doing in the desert. John the Baptist had a large number of people coming to him to be baptized in the desert and he was attracting a lot of attention. The priests and Levites were questioning John because they needed to give an answer to those who sent them. They demanded that he answer them, “What do you have to say for yourself?”
John the Baptist answered them by saying: “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’ as Isaiah the prophet said.” (Jn 1: 23)
There were some Pharisees in the group, (the gospel makes a point to mention them right about now), that asked John the Baptist, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet?”
John replied, “I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize.” Many of the Pharisees never did recognize Jesus Christ as the son of God, and yet God’s own son was right in front of them the whole time. Jesus performed many miracles that the Pharisees witnessed and yet they still never came to believe in him. What more could he have done to prove who he really was? Raising people from the dead, and healing the blind, and the leper, was that not enough to satisfy them? Sometimes we can also be blind to the truth because of our own misconceptions, or how we perceive the events going on around us. We interpret other people’s actions sometimes through the smudged lenses of our own glasses.
John the Baptist genuinely loved Jesus, but it was by God’s divine revelation that he came to understand that Jesus Christ truly was the son of God. Yes, Jesus was John’s cousin, but he didn’t know the truth about Jesus just because they were related. God Himself revealed Jesus’ true identity to John, even before either of them were ever born.
The most awesome thing about today’s gospel reading for mass though, is John’s humility. This wasn’t a fake or pious act. John recognized that for him to be in Christ’s presence, was like standing on holy ground, very much like Moses when he encountered God in the burning bush. John simply said Jesus was, “the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.”
It really wasn’t the Pharisees concern who John the Baptist really was though, or why he was baptizing people in the desert. The first reading for mass touches on this very subject: “The anointing that you received from him remains in you, so that you do not need anyone to teach you. But his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not false; just as it taught you, remain in him.”
For those of us who have received the sacrament of confirmation, we have received the anointing of the Holy Spirit too. The Holy Spirit leads us and guides us to do God’s will, if we remain open to the promptings of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit does indeed teach us many things that we may have never learned on our own, but there is so much noise, distractions and stress in our lives that is is difficult to become aware of the promptings of the Holy Spirit. It’s hard to even think straight sometimes in the fast paced, stressful lives that we lead, but that’s all the more reason to slow down, and take a little more time for prayer, maybe even for an extended period, until our center of peace returns to us. Jesus is the center of our lives. Jesus was the center of John the Baptist’s life too.
The first reading today ends with some really sound advice. “And now, children, remain in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be put to shame by him at his coming.” That is something John the Baptist never had to worry about because he publicly proclaimed Jesus Christ with all of his heart, his mind, his body and his soul. When Jesus spoke of John, he said of all those born of women, there is none greater than John the Baptist.
How about you? Have you remained faithful to the Lord by attending mass, frequenting confession and have developed a genuine relationship with him through your prayer life? If so, what about the rest of your life? Do you publicly proclaim Christ? Or is your faith a private matter that you keep to yourself? However faltering our steps may be, we are still called to publicly proclaim Jesus Christ to the world. John the Baptist was probably not a perfect person, but his love for the Lord was perfect. Jesus was the center of his life because he loved him. May the Lord Jesus become the center of our life because we love him too.
Daily Mass Readings:
1 Jn 2:22-28 / Ps 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4 / Jn 1:19-28
