John’s nativity had been prophesied for generations, that it would be a sign of the coming of the promised Messiah. The prophet Malachi had said, “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple.” Isaiah had spoken of the “voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord…’” St. John the Baptist was this Messenger. He was this voice. He was the one who came in the spirit and power of Elijah. His coming bore witness to the coming of Christ. He is the last of the Old Testament prophets, and the first of the New Testament prophets.
When John was born the people asked the question, “What kind of child will this be?” It was a strange event in which God’s hand was evident from conception to birth. The people had their answer in the words spoken by his father, Zachariah: “And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Most High; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins…” John would prepare the people to receive the Messiah and His mercy. John would, through his preaching, bring light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.
And so we find him going out into the wilderness until Jesus came. Why didn’t John stay in the town with his parents? He was from a priestly family. Why not serve as his father had in the Temple? What was it about the desert that called John? The desert is the place that has very little evidence of life. It’s a place of dryness and death. Indeed, it’s a place that calls to mind the darkness and the shadow of death to which John was to bring God’s Light. The desert is a place which describes the condition of this fallen world inhabited by fallen man. John didn’t go to the desert because he especially liked it there; rather, he went there because it was the place where his message needed to be proclaimed. It was there that he needed to cry out, “Repent!” It was there that he could point around him and tell people that this was a picture of their own souls, their own sinfulness, their own fallen state. It was there that he could be most effective in telling people that God will judge. And it was there that John could give them the hope of the Kingdom of God. He could tell them, “Your lives don’t need to be like this.”
And the scriptures foreshadow how powerful John’s message would be. Mountains would be laid low; valleys would be lifted up; crooked places would be made straight; rough places would be made smooth.
Did those things happen? We don’t read in the scriptures about mountains falling flat, or the floors of valleys being pushed up to the level of the mountains. They did happen – but not in our plain, human, worldly sense. These things happened in men’s hearts. Those people whose hearts were like mountains, puffed up with selfish pride – men who trusted in their own goodness - they were struck down by the crushing words of John’s proclamation. Those who were like valleys – those who lived in despair and who thought they could never achieve any righteousness – they were lifted up by the hope they found in John’s message. Hearts and minds which were crooked, were made straight at John’s call to repentance. Lives which had been made rough with sin, were smoothed out as they pressed towards John to let him wash them in the Jordan. It was by this message of repentance, by John’s preaching of the Law, that the way was made ready for Christ and for His Gospel. A highway was built in the desert. It was a highway for God Himself to come, and where He would turn the dry, dead desert into a place of life.
It was for this reason that John was born. It was for this reason that he went out to the desert. It was for this reason that he clothed himself in camel’s hair and ate locusts and wild honey. It was for this reason that he preached. It was all so that he could prepare the way of Christ. And that is exactly what he did. By his preaching of repentance, people were prepared for the One Who was about to come.
Of course, there were some who refused to listen. But for those who listened and believed, they were made ready to receive the Lamb of God who would take away their sins. And when the Lamb came, John pointed him out clearly. He proclaimed Him to all those who had, until now, been following John. And these disciples of John, having repented and turned away from their life of sin and death, found what they needed. They found forgiveness, they found life and salvation in Christ Jesus.
And that’s the way it is with us today. The message of John the Baptist still sounds in our ears through the preaching of God’s Holy Catholic Church. John’s task of preparing us for Jesus continues, but it’s no longer John who proclaims it, but it’s through the Church’s faithful preaching and teaching of God’s Word. And this teaching calls us to stop our sinning and to turn our hearts away from ungodly things.
If we have built a mountain of spiritual pride, we’re called to stop being self-righteous, trusting in our own supposed goodness, and to humble ourselves before God. If we have been common or crude in our thoughts, or speech, or actions, God (through His Church) calls us away from these things, and we’re asked to put them behind us. If our hearts have become crooked, we’re called to turn away from dishonesty. If our lives are rough, the Church calls us to become smooth, to strive for the good and the beautiful and the godly.
And this message doesn’t ask us to do something that’s beyond us. We’re not expected to remedy these things on our own. No, we’re asked to acknowledge our condition, and to repent, turning to God – and He’s the One who will give us the necessary grace and strength to do these things.
Through the Church’s continuation of the preaching of John the Baptist, a highway is laid down in the desert of our hearts. A path is made so that the Lamb of God can come in and change the desert into a garden. Just as Jesus was born soon after John’s birth; just as He came into the desert following John’s preaching in that place; so now He comes to us. Through the Sacraments and in the preaching of His Gospel, our Lord comes into the wilderness of our lives. He takes the dry, desolate soul, and makes it alive with His own presence. He forgives our sins of thought, word and deed. That which we could never overcome on our own, He conquers. That which we would never be able to change in ourselves, He changes. For the sacrifice of this Lamb was more than enough to atone for our sins; and not only for ours but for the sins of the whole world. It’s through the pure sacrifice offered on every Catholic altar that God sees us. Through our repentance and the absolution of the confessional, He sees us no longer as fallen and sinful creatures deserving of eternal death, but beloved children who have been washed in the blood of His Son and made clean and holy.
In God’s plan St. John the Baptist was born to prepare the way for the Eternal Son, so that where once there was only death, now there is eternal life – life first given in Baptism where water is poured on the desert of souls marked with the stain of original sin, but now cultivated by the teaching of Christ, and nourished by His Sacraments, so that we may join with Christ in making the desert of this world alive with God’s presence.
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people.” Amen.
_____________________________
Painting: "Infant Saint John the Baptist with the Lamb"
by Francisco Ignacio Ruiz de la Iglesia (1649-1704)