ADVENT LESSONS FROM THE BAPTIST’S MINISTRY

Reflections on the Second Sunday of Advent (Baruch 5:1-9, Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11, Luke 3:1-6)

The second Sunday of Advent takes us to the banks of the Jordan River to reflect on the ministry of John the Baptist. Three evocative themes and symbols from today’s Gospel point to spiritual lessons that we can learn from the Baptist for our advent preparation.

The Wilderness Ministry:  

Luke begins his description of John’s ministry by describing its geographic, historical, political, and religious contexts. It is firstly a wilderness ministry. The desert is usually deemed a place of desolation and abandonment. However, like in the case of Moses and the prophets, the wilderness of John becomes the lieu (place) of the voice of salvation, change, and hope. Luke situates John’s wilderness ministry not just ‘in the desert’ around the Jordan, but in the desert of the political world, under the reign of the local Roman governor Pilate, the ‘ruler’ Herod, and the emperor Tiberius, who yields the final authority over them all. Luc also evokes the leadership scenario of the ‘spiritual’ or ‘religious’ world of John’s times. Annas and Caiaphas were leaders of the religious superstructure, whose office of the priesthood was subject to annual reappointment by the Roman authority.

Thus, the ministry of John is situated in a messy and disorderly world, in which colonial, temporal, and religious structures joined hands to form an unholy alliance of power. John’s wilderness ministry confronts his wounded and corrupt world. He distances himself from the religious and secular power centres of his times. Away from the cities, courts, palaces, and sanctuaries of religious, political, and social significance, John fulfils Isaiah’s prophecy about “a voice of one crying out in the desert”. His message is contradictory too. The Messiah, whose way he is preparing, does not come from the pyramidal power structures but from the below, the unknown, the anonymous, and the periphery.

The Baptism of Repentance:

In the thick of his world’s mess, John proclaims the Good News of the Lord’s coming and the need for the ‘baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’. John’s contemporaries knew at least two different kinds of baptisms. 1. The ritual baptism by which a non-Jew could be converted into Judaism thus opening the doors to the community. 2. The baptisms in the Qumran communities (Jewish monastic groups that lived on the shores of the Dead Sea) aimed at the purification of the repentant believer so he could become a “son of light” and thus become a member of their exclusive group which they believed to be the true Israel.

John’s baptism was characteristically different from both these baptisms. He did not mean his baptism to be a ritual of religious conversion or a hiring process for an exclusive cult. John’s baptism focused more on repentance, conversion, and returning to society with a new direction and purpose. He was also aware that his baptism was preparatory. As he declared, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me… will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). His baptism was preparatory in the sense that it pointed Israel to the spiritual disposition of openness and discernment needed to welcome Christ.

Preparing a New Way:

John’s ministry opens the pathway to Jesus’ ministry and public life. It also opens the path of a new pilgrimage to those he baptised, a path that was not evident before. John cites Isaiah to describe the transformative power of this path which could fill valleys, flatten mountains and hills, straighten winding roads, smooth out rough ways, and guide all flesh to the vision of God’s salvation. Here lies the possibility of an integral renewal that includes social, political, and religious dimensions. John’s ministry prepares the way for God to undo the hierarchical structures that dominate our political and religious institutions. They open the path to equality, bridging the gap between the rich and the poor, and the liberation of the weak.

This proclamation of a new path becomes Mary’s faith experience. As described in her Magnificat, the powerful will be thrown from their thrones, the lowly will be lifted, the rich sent away empty, and the hungry filled with good things (Luke 1:52-53). This is the transformative path that Baruch explains in the first reading. This path helps Jerusalem (the messy city) to take off the robe of misery and wrap herself in justice and glory. She is enabled to stand up and thus see better into the future when the Lord will lead Israel in joy and mercy. Let the counter-cultural message of the Baptist’s voice and ministry in the wilderness guide us on the path of repentance towards transformation.