III SUNDAY OF ADVENT (B)

Sunday, December 17, 2023
John 1:6-8, 19-28

«This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him: “Who are you?” He confessed and did not deny. He confessed: “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him: “What then? Are you Elijah?”. He said, “I am not.”, “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”. So they said to him, “Who are you? So we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said: “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert: Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.’ They asked him, ‘Then why are you baptizing if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”»
(John 1:19-25)

“A man sent from God”: this is how the evangelist John introduces the figure of the Baptist in the opening hymn of his gospel. This man’s mission is to prepare the way for the Messiah. The time was ripe for the visit of the One who was to come and had been announced by the prophets of the people of Israel since ancient times.

It is interesting to note how well-known John the Baptist was. He had aroused the interest of the religious authorities in Jerusalem, who send priests and Levites to question him. John forcefully emphasizes that he is NOT the Christ (i.e., the Messiah); he is not Elijah either, the prophet who was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot right in front of the city of Jericho, near the Jordan River. According to the prophecy of Malachi, Elijah would be sent again before the arrival of the Messiah to turn “the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 3:24).

John the Baptist is not even “THE Prophet” announced by Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-18), whom later tradition would identify with the Messiah.

In short, the identity of John the Baptist is revealed in the negative: he is “not…” what people think, and he denies being a figure foretold in the Old Testament: neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet… positively, he is the VOICE of one crying out in the wilderness! And he himself declares: “as the prophet Isaiah said (40:3).” In other words, the Baptist is a voice that echoes and, in some way, gives life to a text written by an ancient prophet. It is a voice at the service of the WORD.

Today there is an extreme need for ‘a voice’ that, together with others, becomes ‘many voices,’ a symphony of believers whose goal is to make Jesus welcomed, evangelizers in this desert that is the world.

You too are called to this! There is no need to be Elijah or a prophet… just be a Christian.

Fr. Giuseppe