Advent is lacking if John the Baptizer is not there to guide and lead us. He is the voice in the wilderness crying out: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.”
A personification of the message
John seems to have just appeared in the wilderness of Judea. The setting is of importance: in the desert outside the towns and villages, he makes a call for the people to purify their hearts, return to essentials, confront their inner demons, go beyond their present mindset and allow a new mindset to drive them to new actions. With this repentance (metanoia), they shall be open to the coming kingdom of heaven, for only the repentant will see and reach for the reign of God. John’s appearance recalls Elijah (1 Kings 1:1-18) passionately faithful to Yahweh and boldly challenging any king breaking the covenant with God. He is what he eats: locusts symbolizing divine judgment that John announces without fear, and honey indicating the sweet fulfillment in God’s love.
John is called the Baptizer because he leads the people to the one who is coming by actually baptizing and washing them clean with water at the Jordan. This is in the concrete, the task of clearing a path for the arrival of someone deeply desired, through a baptism of repentance confronting one’s sinfulness and trusting in the divine mercy. The people are attracted by the promise of fulfillment in repentance, as they acknowledge their sins that block them from God and their neighbors. But there are those who wish to undergo John’s baptism as insurance against divine wrath but without honest repentance, doing the external ritual without inner change, their hearts remaining untouched. Change in behavior, fruits of repentance, is proof of change of heart; not their physical descent from Abraham will open them for the coming kingdom.
A voice we heed today
Advent is joining John the Baptizer in the wilderness, so that he can lead us to a saving encounter with God. True repentance, that turning away from the world and turning to God, takes place in the heart where the deepest contact with both God and the world is made. It is God’s plan for His beloved: “I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart” (Hosea 2:16). John’s cry in his desert of purification is an invitation for us all, to join him and listen to God who calls us. Repentance is but the first necessary step in a process of fulfillment: letting go is so that we can receive, stripping away is so that we can put on new clothing, clearing a path is so that we can be united with the one coming soonest. In the desert of honest self-confrontation and in the chambers of our hearts we can be best with God in a transforming covenantal discovery.
John in the desert calling for repentance this season of Advent wants to lead us to our hearts where God speaks. It is the spiritual center of our being where we maintain conscious contact with God and out of which awareness we live and act. We need to be hearts-on-fire, baptized “with the Holy Spirit and fire” and living our spiritual life out of the awareness of God, our ultimate grounding, present in our midst. But we know our hearts can be hard too, without conscious contact with God, instead camouflaged with self-deceptions and sinful delusions, refusing to examine oneself in truth.
Alálaong bagá, there is no exemption to the divine command to change. The imperative of the desert is change and be purified now; do not delay or play games. The time is now; that is what Advent is all about. One cannot comply externally only, while remaining unchanged on the inside. Do not delude yourself with automatic privileges; produce or perish. The ax is already on the root of the tree that bears no fruits; the pitch fork is ready to separate the wheat for the barn and the chaff for the fire.
Let us have a heart-to-heart with God in the prayerful silence of a desert away from the madding crowd, by heeding the cry of the voice in the desert crying for repentance this particular Advent season.
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