Our readings this weekend invite us to compare our Lord the Messiah with His forerunner or herald, S. John the Baptist. For the first reading gives us a rather vivid picture of the Messiah the Jewish people were expecting and the gospel message gives us a picture of the rather fiery character that John was/is. Let’s look at the Isaiah reading first.
“The Lord has anointed me, on me His spirit has fallen; He has sent me to bring good news to men that are humbled, to heal broken hearts, promising the release of captives, the opening of prison doors, proclaiming the year of the Lord’s pardon, the day when He, our God, will give us redress. Comfort for every mourner; Sion’s mourners, what decree should I make for them, what gift offer them? Heads shall be garlanded, that once were strewn with ashes; bright with oil, the faces that were marred with grief; gaily they shall be clad, that went sorrowing. Sturdy growths (men will say) that fulfil hope reposed in them, pride of the Lord’s planting! Theirs to rebuild what long has lain desolate, repair the ruins of past days, restore the forsaken cities that were lost, we thought, for ever. Strangers they shall be that tend your flocks for you, farm and vineyard alien hands shall till; for you, a higher name, a greater calling, priests and chosen ministers of the Lord our God. All the wealth of the nations shall be yours to enjoy, their spoils shall be your boast; for double portion of shame and contempt, you shall be twice honoured now. Twice happy that home-coming, eternal that content; I AM the Lord, that love to give each his due, resent the wrong, when men rob Me of My sacrifice. Faithfully I will give them their recompense, bind Myself, now, by an eternal covenant. Such a race shall spring from them, as all the nations of the world shall acknowledge; none that sees them but shall know them for a people the Lord has blessed. Well may I rejoice in the Lord, well may this heart triumph in my God. The deliverance He sends is like a garment that wraps me about, His mercy like a cloak enfolding me; no bridegroom so proud of garland that crowns him, no bride of the necklace she wears. See how yonder earth gives promise of spring, how the garden seeds give promise of flower! And the Lord God will make good His promise for all the world to see; a spring-time of deliverance and renown.“
Prophecy of Isaias, 61 [link]
What are the properties of the Messiah? First of all, he is anointed by God and so is ritually appointed to the task. What task? To reconcile the people to God, and in that way to free them from sin and death, and to declare a year of favour and pardon – a jubilee. The jubilee was an ancient institution in the Old Testament; it was a period of time when debts were forgiven, inheritances were restored. A jubilee brought parties of people together after years of conflict and misery. The jubilee of the Messiah was to bring the people together with God after the conflict and misery engendered by the sin of our first parents in the garden. The voice of Christ sounds from hundreds of years before His birth as the prophet declares that the Messiah is clothed in the garments of salvation or deliverance. What garments are those? The garments of virtue. The reading mentions mercy and integrity, but that is only a hint. Integrity comes with humility and a strong sense of trust in God and charity towards Him and to the people around us. The simplest description of integrity is being on the inside as you show yourself to be on the outside. The opposite of integrity is hypocrisy, deceit and treachery. God wages a war against these evils throughout the Bible, and Christ doesn’t cease to denounce them when He has a chance. Two-facedness God hates. Now let us look at John the Baptist, and we shall see a man not unlike the image of the Messiah given by Isaiah; it is no wonder that the people thought John might be the Christ of God.
“This, then, was the testimony which John bore, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem, to ask him, ‘Who art thou?’ He admitted the truth, without concealment, admitted that he was not the Christ. ‘What then,’ they asked him, ‘art thou Elias?’ ‘Not Elias,’ he said. ‘Art thou the prophet?’ And he answered, ‘No.’ So they said, ‘Tell us who thou art, that we may give an answer to those who sent us; what account dost thou give of thyself?’ And he told them, ‘I am what the prophet Isaias spoke of, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Straighten out the way of the Lord.’ The Pharisees (for they were Pharisees who had come on this errand) asked him, ‘Why dost thou baptize, then, if thou thyself art not the Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet?’ John answered them, ‘I am baptising you with water; but there is One standing in your midst of Whom you know nothing; He it is, Who, though He comes after me, takes rank before me. I am not worthy to untie the strap of His shoes.’ All this happened in Bethany that is beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.”
Gospel of S. John, 1: 19-28 [link]
John is a humble man and certainly appointed by God to a task. He had to bring the people to repentance, so that when they asked ‘what next?’ He could send them over to Christ. The gospel reading demonstrates a man who does no posturing, who doesn’t claim for himself any glory, any honour. Instead, he is rolling out a red carpet for Somebody else, whose own mission John knows little about. The Jews were expecting the Messiah – the anointed one of Isaiah – to come with or be preceded by two heavenly figures: the prophet Elijah and the mysterious Prophet that Moses had spoken of before he died. Moses had said that this coming Prophet would take up Moses’ own role of teacher of the people and lawgiver to them. So, the delegates from the Temple ask John: are you the Christ? Are you Elijah? Are you the Prophet? No, no, no, he said. Then how can you bring repentance and baptism? they asked. I’m doing what I was told to do, he replied, but I am nothing, not even fit to undo the sandals of the Holy One.
We are all called as Christians to carry out a priestly role, as John did, and prepare a way for the Lord into the hearts of the men and women around us, be they our family members, our friends, those within our circles of influence. We may not all have the strength of faith and the energy of the great missionaries in the history of the Church, but our witness is borne in our own communities in small ways. Look at the second reading from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians for some tips: be happy at all times, pray constantly, give thanks for all things, behave and act prudently, choose good, avoid evil – seek holiness.
“Joy be with you always. Never cease praying. Give thanks upon all occasions; this is what God expects of you all in Christ Jesus. Do not stifle the utterances of the Spirit, do not hold prophecy in low esteem; and yet you must scrutinise it all carefully, retaining only what is good, and rejecting all that has a look of evil about it. So may the God of peace sanctify you wholly, keep spirit and soul and body unimpaired, to greet the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ without reproach. The God who called you is true to His promise; He will not fail you.”
First letter of S. Paul to the Thessalonians, 5: 16-24 [link]
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 