Biblical prophets were humble men and women of God who were granted visions of God’s expectations of peace and goodwill for all people. They perceived the ways the world, communally and individually, have departed from God’s glorious original intention. Enabled by God’s Spirit, prophets throughout the ages were called to courageously proclaim God’s vision, in bold words and actions, even when they felt incapable and unworthy.
This coming Sunday, Luke’s gospel (Luke 3:1-6) tells us that it was in the wilderness, the place of isolation, that God’s word came to the great prophet, John the Baptist. There, he saw the landscape of life in his days. He saw the political, religious, and social landscape of domination and injustice. He also saw the interior landscape of people’s thoughts and motives, devoid of God-centeredness, yet longing for something deeper and more meaningful. John was moved with a sense of urgency to exhort people to change, to take action to prepare the way of the Lord: to open and clear the pathway for Christ’s coming.
John traveled “the streets,” going into the regions around the Jordan River, zealously challenging people's lifestyles and exhorting them to prepare the way of the Lord. He urged people to prepare for Christ’s coming starting with cleansing the interior life. This meant honest soul searching, acknowledging and confessing to God, offenses of thoughts, motives, habits, and actions; self-centeredness, forgetting God in the dailyness of life. The “crooked way” is made straight as the effect of each person, each family, each Church, each community, each nation commits to turning away from the offenses of the world and toward God, is multiplied. Soul searching and confession culminate in repentance, a turning away from the old ways that offend God and a turning toward a new way of life rooted in God, and God’s promise of a kingdom of righteousness, peace, justice, and love, ushered in by Christ’s coming. John’s offer of baptism signified this new beginning, this turning. Baptism enables the baptized to continually strive to live into God’s way, by putting “on the robe of righteousness that comes from God.”
Clothed in this “robe of righteousness” from God, we too, the baptized, are called to be prophets who look around at the landscape of our days and discern the need for hearts to be prepared to receive Christ. We experience the pain of violence and social and political uproar. We see a multitude of ills. Looking at our world from the perspective of Christ’s love and compassion, we also see Christ calling individuals and communities to turn to Him. Today, we, Christ’s Body are called to be the prophet that proclaims God’s truth in words and deeds. Thanks be to God for his graciousness in inviting us, lowly unworthy folks, to participate in preparing the paths for Christ’s coming when “all flesh shall see the salvation of God”. Will we accept His call?
