Are You Listening and Acting upon What You Listened from John the Baptist and Christ in Preparation for Christ's Coming? - Friday of the Second Week of Advent

As we continue to prepare for the coming of Christ, making the way of his coming to us, we must listen to John the Baptist and Christ? 

John the Baptist is the herald of Christ, speaking as the voice crying out in the wilderness (Isaiah 40:3), in the spirit of Elijah (Luke 1:17). He is the voice to prepare the way of Christ’s coming by way of mending ourselves to be the straight and smooth path for Christ to come through penance (Luke 3:3-5). 

Have we listened to John the Baptist as we have heard him in the Gospel Reading of the Second Sunday of Advent (Matthew 3:1-12(A)// Mark 1:1-8(B)//Luke 3:1-6(C))? 

The scripture readings of Friday of the Second Sunday of Advent is about listening! Listening to God and listening to those who are sent by God, such as prophets, including John the Baptist. Not to mention, Christ, whom the Father has sent to us in revealing His love for us (1 John 4:9). 

When he gave his testimony about John the Baptist, as the greatest among the old covenant prophets but the least among those who are in the Kingdom, which is contingent upon the new covenant, and the forerunner of Christ, prophesized by Malachi as Elijah (Matthew 11:10-14); cf. Malachi 3:1, 23, NABRE), Christ said:

Whoever has ears ought to hear.

To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, “We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn” (Matthew 11:15-17).

Jesus first called everyone’s attention and said that “this generation”, which was the generation of Christ on earth, responded to John the Baptist and Christ in Jesus with no interest. So, he compared them to the children in marketplaces, who did not dance when their playmates okayed the flute for them and did not mourn with them when they sung qinah (Jewish dirge), lamenting the Babylonian exile. 

The aloof children in marketplaces are people of “this generation” and those who played the flute and sung lamentation were John the Baptist and Christ in Jesus. 

“This generation” was not just indifferent to their “playmates”, John the Baptist and Christ in Jesus, but also a bunch of accusatory complainers about their “playmates”. 

Christ said:

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, “He is possessed by a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” But wisdom is vindicated by her works (Matthew 11:18-19; cf. Luke 7:33; Matthew 9:10-11).

Those who did not engage in their playmates’ flute by dancing and singing of dirge by mourning – those who did not listen to and engage in the words of John the Baptist and Christ in Jesus – also regarded John the Baptist as “possessed by a demon” and Christ in Jesus as “a gluttonous and drunk friend of those who were despised”.  It was obvious that they were unable to see John the Baptist as the herald of Christ and Jesus as the Christ. Nevertheless, those who had received wisdom were able to recognize John the Baptist as the harbinger of Christ and Jesus as the Christ, because wisdom vindicate John the Baptist and Jesus by revealing their true identities. 

This is why Christ upbraided “this generation” quite severely, for regarding them worse than Sodom (Matthew 11:20-24). It was more like saying that those who listen neither to John the Baptist nor Christ were regarded as worse than the orgiastic Sodomites, who were destroyed by God (Genesis 19:24-25), at the time of the judgement. And he also thanked the Father for His gracious will to reveal things leading to the truth and the wisdom in the saying of John the Baptist and Christ in Jesus, while keeping them from “this generation”, who thought of themselves too wise to deal with a “demonically possessed” John the Baptist and “gluttonous and drunk friend of tax collectors and sinners”, Jesus (i.e. Matthew 11:25-27).

In fact, this indicates that Christ already saw who are to be redeemed by him and who are not to. Obviously, those who are to benefit from Christ the redeemer are those who listen not only to Christ but also his forerunner, John the Baptist, so that they are able to better prepared to receive Christ and his grace to inherit the Kingdom. 

The First Reading (Isaiah 48:17-19) reminds us that Jerusalem would not have been destroyed and the Israelites would neither been massacred in Jerusalem nor taken to Babylonia, had they listened to God through the prophets, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, and acted accordingly. Rather than having been in exile for 70 years, God would have blessed them abundantly to let them prosper and to multiply greatly. Instead, they were reduced and impoverished. 

But because God is merciful (Psalm 103:8-10; 145:8-9), He did not abandon the Israelites in exile but promised to redeem them from Babylon back to Jerusalem. Thus, God said:

Go forth from Babylon, flee from Chaldea! With shouts of joy declare this, announce it; Make it known to the ends of the earth, Say: “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob. They did not thirst when he led them through dry lands; Water from the rock he set flowing for them; the cleft the rock, and waters welled forth” (Isaiah 48:20-21).

During the Second Week of Advent, we listen to John the Baptist to make sure we prepare ourselves properly for the coming of Christ. If we did not listen to him, then, we might become like “this generation”, not recognizing Christ in Jesus even he is here with us, but complaining that Christ is not here. 

As Christ has reminded, “Whoever has ears ought to hear”(Matthew 11:15). And the Father in heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him”(Matthew 17:5). Then, we need to do what we hear from Christ. So, the Mother of Christ said, “Do whatever he tells you”(John 2:5). So, when he plays the flute, we dance. When he sings dirge, we mourn and repent our sins. Let us keep this in mind as we continue to prepare ourselves for the arrival of Christ.