My Dear People,
John announces that the Kingdom of God is at hand, and asks the people to repent. The Greek for “it is at hand” is actually a verb meaning: “has drawn near! This could be translated, “has arrived!”. There appears to be great urgency in John’s message.
Matthew identifies John with Isaiah 40:3, “A voice cries out in the desert” “prepare the way of the Lord. . .” Interestingly, this was the same verse that the pious Essene monks of Qumran, who left us the Dead Sea Scrolls, quoted in their works to explain their decision to dwell in the desert. The fact that both John and Qumran monks identify their mission with this verse is probably too similar simply be coincidental—not to mention the fact that both were also strongly focused on water washing for repentance associated with eschatological forgiveness of sins and the coming of the Holy Spirit. The connection was made, probably, when John, who taught at the monastery at Qumran, was expelled and then later began his ministry.
Unlike other sects of Jews, the Essenes practiced extreme asceticism, including asceticism of dress. They wore only linen and would wear one garment until it wore out before changing it. We see asceticism in John’s dress, as well: camel’s hair, a rare material for fabric usually used only for structural textile like tents but not for clothing because of its coarseness. The hair garments and leather belts also associated him with Elijah (2Kings 1:8), as this was the prophet’s distinctive dress. In fact, dressing this way was like publicly broadcasting the fact that he associated himself with Elijah’s legacy. That was extremely provocative since the last of the canonical prophets, Malachi, predicted that Elijah would return before the day of God’s judgement on Israel (Mal 4:5-6; Mal 3:22-23). This, no doubt, was part of the reason John was causing such a stir.
Matthew remarks that John’s food “was locusts and wild honey.” Meant to indicate some typical foods, his diet was not entirely limited to just these two items. But this would mean he was living off the land, eating whatever was edible in the environment. Locusts and wild honey were clean foods and permissible according to Mosaic law. The Dead Sea Scrolls describe ritual procedures for eating locusts (another interesting connection between John and the Essenes). But there is more.
The historian Josephus (37 AD-ca. 100 AD) tells us that, upon entering the community, Essene candidates had to swear fearsome oaths, including a promise never again to eat food prepared outside the community. As a result, Josephus tells us, those who were excommunicated and expelled were forced to eat grass and nearly starved to death to avoid breaking their vow.
Matthew remarks that “Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan” were going to John to receive Baptism. That limits the area of John’s ministry to a narrow region because the Judean banks of the Jordan were only about ten miles in length extending from the north end of the Dead Sea in the south to a few miles north of Jericho to the north.
Our translation says they were “acknowledging their sins,” words equivalent to “confessing.” But, “acknowledging” is an acceptable translation and may even have the advantage of shaking us a little out of our usual religious jargon and getting us to think about what it means to “confess” our sins. A big part of confession is simply “acknowledgement,” or should we say, “recognition.” It is calling a spade a spade and recognizing truth for what it is.
When we confess our sins, then we are just agreeing with God, who tells us that our deeds are wrong. We are admitting that His classification of our behavior is correct. For the ancient Jews, however, it was a “big deal” to admit they were sinners. There was a certain amount of ethnic chauvinism that regarded Jews as “clean” and Gentiles as “unclean.” For Jews to admit they needed cleansing and to accept a ritual washing of their whole body is a dramatic acknowledgement of the need for total renewal and a great act of public humility. John must have been very persuasive to have this effect on the Judaean population. John, first of all, is preaching for a change in behavior. He tells the Pharisees and Sadducees to “produce good fruits as evidence of your repentance.” Any words not accompanied by a concrete change in lifestyle are empty and banal.
“We may have Abraham as our father,” and we might say “I’m baptized!”; or, “I’ve done twelve years of Catholic schooling!”; or “I wear a scapular!” These things can be fine, but if our life does not have “good fruit” as evidence of repentance, then we are actually sinning by presumption!
Even in his own day, John was universally regarded as a great prophet, revered by the people and feared even by the leadership. Nonetheless, the one coming after him is so great that John himself—a prophet to rival the great Elijhah—is not “worthy to carry his sandals,” (the task of a slave). Who is greater than the greatest prophet if not the one prophet, namely, God himself?
The Coming One will baptize “with the Holy Spirit and fire.” This is probably a literary device! (one meaning using two words). So, we might translate, “He will baptize with the fire of the Holy Spirit” or “the fire which is the Holy Spirit.” But John clearly associates the “fire” with eschatological judgment: “the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.”
This is interesting because it points to the sacraments as a foretaste of the final judgment. In a sense, we are wise to be judged now through the sacraments in order to be spared the judgment later. In Baptism, our sinful self is judged and killed through drowning so we don’t need to experience eternal death later.
In Confirmation, likewise, our sinful self is burned up through the Holy Spirit, so we don’t experience the flames of hell later. So, Jesus does “baptize us with fire” in an eschatological sense when we experience Him in the sacraments. The sacraments are a foretaste of the final judgment. This is also, by the way, the reason the Church sometimes practices excommunication: because unworthy partaking of the Eucharist is a dangerous pre-experience of the final judgment. That is the subtext of Paul’s warning in 1 Corinthians 11:27-32.
Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judge ourselves truly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened so that we may not be condemned with the world.
To reiterate, our Gospel text today presents us with Jesus through the eyes of John the Baptist, and John sees Our Lord as the eschatological judge who baptizes with eschatological “fire”. This presents us with a sobering perspective on the sacraments and motivates us to make a sincere examination of conscience and have recourse to the sacrament of Reconciliation lest we participate unworthily in any of the other sacraments, especially the Eucharist.
[Source: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings by Dr. John Bergsma]
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Vincent Clemente