Sunday Meditation: John the Baptist Out of the Desert

Second Sunday of Advent, Year A, has one of the great passages in the New Testament.  A description of John the Baptist.  This is as great a description of a man as you will ever come across in literature.

 

John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea

and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!"

It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said:

A voice of one crying out in the desert,

Prepare the way of the Lord,

make straight his paths.

John wore clothing made of camel's hair

and had a leather belt around his waist.

His food was locusts and wild honey.

At that time Jerusalem, all Judea,

and the whole region around the Jordan

were going out to him

and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River

as they acknowledged their sins.

 

When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees

coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers!

Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.

And do not presume to say to yourselves,

'We have Abraham as our father.'

For I tell you,

God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees.

Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit

will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

I am baptizing you with water, for repentance,

but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I.

I am not worthy to carry his sandals.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing fan is in his hand.

He will clear his threshing floor

and gather his wheat into his barn,

but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

~Mt 3:1-12

There is so much in that to meditate on; I don’t know what to choose.  I just love the Baptist’s exclamation to Pharisees and Sadducees: "You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?  Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.  And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.'

I’ll let Bishop Barron focus on the rest of the passage.

 

So I looked up the John the Baptist image from the Chartres Cathedral.  Here it is.

 

What a remarkable sculpture.  I conceptualize John as having more of a mountain man physique.  This is more mystic, I think.  I also couldn’t figure out the animal he had in his arms.  At first I thought it was a lizard, then a dog, but now I realize it’s a lamb, the Lamb of God!