Christ the Cornerstone

A voice of hope calls us to prepare for the Lord’s coming

“John [the Baptist] was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light. But I have testimony greater than John’s” (Jn 5:35-36).

The Gospel reading for the Second Sunday of Advent (Mt 3:1-12) shines a light on the figure of St. John the Baptist, who was the last great Old Testament prophet.

Sacred Scripture first introduces us to John as an unborn child in his mother’s womb. As St. Luke describes the scene, “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, ‘Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb’ ” (Lk 1:41-42).

This same John later appears as a mature, charismatic figure preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Mt 3:2). People flock to hear his preaching and to receive the baptism of repentance that he administers.

As St. Matthew tells us:

John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins. (Mt 3:4-6)

This baptism of repentance is intended to prepare for the greater baptism that Jesus will institute as the first and most fundamental sacrament that his disciples will receive once the Church is born at Pentecost.

John is a precursor (forerunner) of Jesus. “I am baptizing you with water, for repentance,” John tells the crowds, “but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Mt 3:11-12).

Fire and the Holy Spirit are the gifts that Jesus will use to transform our hardened hearts and make possible the conversion of life that all of his followers are required to embrace.

During the season of Advent, we re-live the experience of intense longing that characterized the people of Israel who came to hear what John the Baptist prophesied. What John promised was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s vision as outlined in this Sunday’s first reading (Is 11:1-10):

Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips. Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. (Is 11:3-6)

The longed-for future will be radically different from the present. Peace, harmony, unity-in-diversity, and compassion for people in need is the promise that John the Baptist affirms through his self-denial, his preaching and his baptism of repentance.

Jesus himself describes John as “a burning and shining lamp” (Jn 5:35). But his light is only temporary. John prefigures the light of Christ, but he insists that the one who is to come is “mightier” than he is, and that the coming Lord will “burn with unquenchable fire.”

In the second reading for this Sunday (Rom 15: 4-9), St. Paul tells us that “whatever was written previously was written for our instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom 15:4).

This is what Advent is all about: Waiting in joyful hope for the One who is himself our “Blessed Hope.” He is the one whose baptism is not simply symbolic but is truly transformational and redemptive.

As St. Matthew says, it was of John the Baptist that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: “A voice of one crying out in the desert, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths” (Mt 3:3).

John is the voice of hope. He challenges us to prepare for the Lord’s coming, and he assures us that the prophetic vision of Isaiah will be realized in Christ.

This Sunday, let’s listen to the word of God as it invites us to be ready when Jesus comes again. And let’s pray that the Holy Spirit who has baptized us in Christ will enkindle in us the unquenchable fire of God’s love. †