The vocation of John the Baptist. An Advent figure.

During this liturgical period the Church proposes the figure of John the Baptist for our meditation. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he spoke of: The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight (Matt3:3).  

The Messiah’s coming was preceded by prophets who announced his arrival from afar, like heralds who announce the arrival of a great king. John appears as the dividing line between the two Testaments, the Old and the New. Our Lord himself teaches something about John when He talks about ‘the law and the prophets down to John the Baptist’. He is the personification of antiquity and the announcement of new times. As representing antiquity, he is born to elderly parents. As one who is a harbinger of new times, he shows that he has been a prophet from his mother’s womb. He has not yet been born when, at Our Lady’s arrival, he leaps for joy inside his mother (cf Luke1:76-77).

John is called ‘the prophet of the Most High’, because his mission is ‘to go before the Lord to prepare his ways, teaching the knowledge of salvation to his people (St Augustine, Sermon 293,2). 

The whole of John’s life is determined by this mission, even from his mother’s womb. This is to be his vocation. His whole purpose will be to prepare, for Jesus, a people capable of receiving the KingdomGod. At the same time he is to give public testimony of Him. John will not seek personal fulfilment through his work but has come to prepare a perfect people for the Lord. He will not do it because it appeals to him, but because it was for this very purpose he was conceived. This is what all apostolate is about: forgetting oneself and fostering a true concern for others.

John was to carry out his task to the full, even to the extent of giving up his life in the fulfilment of his vocation. Many came to know Jesus through John the Baptist’s apostolic work. It was through an express indication of his that the first disciples followed Jesus. And many others were inwardly prepared, thanks to his preaching.

With permission from Scepter UK. Short excerpt from IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD by Francis Fernandez.

Available at SinagTala or Totus Bookstore 723-4326 or at www.totusbookstore.com.

To subscribe or unsubscribe, please email info@defensoresfidei.com.

The DEFENSORES FIDEI FOUNDATION actively spreads Ecclesial Information, Catechetical Instructions and Apologetics in pursuit of making good Catholics better Catholics.  Any contribution to help this apostolate is heaven-sent. Please visit us at www.defensoresfidei.com.