John the Baptist (Matthew 3)

“John said to the crowds…’You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance.’”. 

In Nomine etc..

     John has one message: a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. In this Advent season, when we prepare to celebrate the coming of the Incarnation, and we also look forward to the coming of Christ at the end of time, spiritual preparation is essential. In repentance, that is, in turning toward God and away from those things which obstruct our relationship with Him, we are following in the footsteps of the prophets and John the Baptist. Matthew himself makes the connection between the Baptist and the prophets, when he quotes the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah and John are not offering theological abstractions, but real actions, baptism, in the case of John,and the opportunity, in the case of Isaiah, to follow him on a straight path to God, free of obstacles.

    We can grasp the main point: there is actually no obstacle between us and our destiny in God.  The pathway before us is clear; all we have to do is take the first step, and more steps will follow. Once we set out on the path, there is nothing to stop us. The first step that John the Baptist offers is the baptism of repentance. And repentance is basically a choice: to turn toward God. That is all.

    “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness”...why the wilderness? The wilderness is that place where there are no distractions, no easy escapes from our spiritual journeys, where the paths are not yet straight,or where, perhaps, there are no paths at all. The wilderness, spiritual or geographical, is that place where we can more easily hear the voice of God. This is why people walk on pilgrimages through difficult landscapes, and locate monasteries, like St Catherine’s in the Sinai desert, in remote places. Geography and our passage through it are analogs of the spiritual life, which is always a journey, a journey from God and return to him.

    It is a journey where God is always present and waiting for us; always present, at the beginning through to the end. We know this because Isaiah says, “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.” This is a promise, without qualification, no exceptions. That being true, John’s baptism of repentance is a way of accepting that reality; it puts us on the right path, the crooked way made straight, on the journey to God. There God journeys with us, and where he is also waiting for us at the end of the road.

    “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” asks the Baptist. The answer is, John the Baptist did, and the prophets before him. There is a tone of seriousness, maybe even harshness, in John’s proclamation of repentance. The crowds coming to hear him are vipers, snakes! So, that’s what he thinks of them and their so-called “repentance !” “Bear fruit worthy of repentance!” But even that may not be enough: “Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees.” So much for the crowds' fruits of repentance.

    Repentance is not about making ourselves feel badly about what we’ve done or  haven’t done, but is about following the commandments.  

    The Baptist’s serious, warning tone reappears. “One who is more powerful than I is coming...his winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” We may understand this to mean that the chaff, along with the trees that don’t bear good fruit, are all those things that we repent of, all those actions and inactions that lead us and others away from God. Those actions and inactions are consumed in the unquenchable fire, which is nothing less than the uncreated light, the light of the divine radiance. We don’t have to hear this as  a threat of hellfire. The winnowing fork separates good actions from bad, and the good actions are taken up to God and add to the radiance; even bad actions, and inactions, are enfolded in the unquenchable fire and add to the divine radiance. So, when we “flee from the wrath to come”, we are turning toward God, toward repentance, leaving behind actions that get in our way, and in God’s way. May we heed the message of John the Baptist, and the prophets, this Advent and always.

    In nomine. Amen. (7.XII.19 Adv)