The Third Sunday of Advent is defined by the antiphon: “Rejoice! The Lord is near.” Thus, its name Gaudete (Rejoice) Sunday. That we may experience the joy of salvation, John the Baptizer prepares us for the coming of the Lord by his truthful witnessing to the Savior (John 1:6-8, 19-28).
A witness
John, called the Baptizer because his signature activity was to prepare the people for the coming Messiah by washing or baptizing them at the River Jordan, was a witness par excellence to the Mighty One coming after him. He was the last in the long line of messengers who proclaimed the Savior to come. The fourth evangelist purposely presents a string of witnesses and testimonies swearing to Jesus: first the Baptizer himself (1:6-8), then the Samaritan woman (4:39), Jesus’ own deeds (5:36), the words of the Jewish scriptures (5:39), the Advocate, the Spirit of truth from the Father (15:26), and finally the disciples (15:27), including the evangelist himself (21:24). In these instances, the testimony of the believer in Jesus moves others to see the truth and the light of faith, and to believe too.
John the Baptizer came “so that all might believe through him.” A witness points beyond oneself to somebody or something that really matters. John was sent to testify to the light, to the Word through whom came life and the joy of humankind. This light shines in the darkness, which has not overcome it.
In truth
John himself was not the light. The temple priests and the Levites sent to John by the leaders in Jerusalem were to make an official investigation regarding the person of John and his trending activities in the wilderness by the Jordan. The Pharisees also got into action, these self-appointed custodians of Jewish law and tradition. John must have been subjected to interrogations and inquiries one after another. The gist of John’s testimony to them and to the world clarified that he could be understood only in reference to someone he was not, the Messiah. John was the “voice in the desert” (Isaiah 40:3) crying and alerting the people to “make straight the way of the Lord.” John was only a precursor, a forerunner, a witness to testify to the eternal Word, the life and the light of the world.
John himself was never in doubt or confused regarding his own identity and his secondary role in the drama unfolding; he had no illusions about his importance. The categories of greatness in the eyes of his investigators, he turned down with ringing denials: No, he was not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet! And he explained the rite of washing he was doing to the people at the river as merely a water ablution symbolic of repentance for one’s sins. It was his and the people’s joint effort to make ready the way of the Lord, so that the long-awaited Savior could so-to-say come faster and arrive sooner. John was committed to prepare the hearts of his listeners, so that when the Word of God and the light of the world came, he would be recognized—the “One” standing among the people whom they do not know, the One whose sandal thongs John knew he was not worthy to untie.
Alálaong bagá, to be an effective witness with a credible testimony, John was the personification of truthfulness. In contrast to the “I am” the truth, the life, the light, the way, the good shepherd of Jesus Christ punctuating the fourth gospel, John the Baptizer had humbly and truly: “I am not” the Messiah, Elijah, the prophet. In plain truth, he said he was only “the voice of one crying in the desert.” We today do need more voices to bring us the good news of the One still unknown to so many, effective and credible witnesses, who live what they proclaim, to lead us to the light and the truth. Amid all the investigations and testimonies going on in our society and in the church, we still grope in the darkness of untruth and lies, fake statements and self-serving attestations into more and deeper chaos. It will certainly be a howling wilderness for our people if we continue to be deprived of witnesses in truth.
Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, from 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio streaming on www.dwiz882.com.