The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
St. John the Baptist was a wild man. Literally. He lived in the wilderness, which by God’s loving providence lines up with the prophecy laid forth in the book of Isaiah that we heard in today’s Gospel. He overflowed with zeal, preaching with righteous anger, like that of an Evangelical pastor on Bourbon Street decrying the sins before him. I wonder if St. John would be received as such pastors are if he were alive today. While his keto-friendly diet is quite contemporary (locusts and wild honey), how would his message be received? In today’s cultural climate, I believe he would be regarded like such pastors mentioned before and cast off as a crazy Christian.
During my time in college I was only nominally Catholic, not practicing my faith at all. I would often see such preachers on campus, or at similarly unsavory places as that of Bourbon Street, telling us (or yelling at us) that we would be the “chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” My friends and I would laugh it off to mask the guilt we felt deep down within us. However, while these pastors lacked the fullness of truth that is the Catholic Faith, if I did not repent, what they said would be true. And though I tried to suppress this thought as best I could, eventually, it got to me. If I don’t repent, and I die tomorrow, where will I go? This led me to my own repentance, for I had finally come to see that the Kingdom is truly at hand.
I think one of the most beautiful words in this passage is the word “repent”, or more specifically, the original Greek word “metanoia”. Metanoia means to fundamentally change the way in which you think. Not only is it a calling to repent of sins and to do penance, but it is deeper and more profound; it is a changing of the mind, a conversion. It is turning away from sin, away from inordinate desires, and turning to God, to that which is good, beautiful, and true.
If we are to truly go out and “baptize all nations” as St. John the Baptist laid the groundwork to do, then we must all have a true “metanoia”; a full turning away from all that is worldly, all that is sinful, and fully give ourselves to Christ and His will for our lives. For we are called to “Prepare the way of the Lord.” We can only do so if we have turned entirely to Him and sought whatever it is He desires of us. While preaching fire and brimstone on your college campus, at the water cooler at the office, or your next family gathering likely isn’t going to be the most productive means of sharing the Gospel, we should however all seek to emulate St. John the Baptist in sharing the Truth as best we can, in love, regardless of the times. For as St. Paul tells us, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” So, let’s be a little wild like St. John, just hold the locusts.
Keenan Annicchiarico is a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston going into his second year of formation. As someone converted to a life with, in, and for Christ through the hands of Mary, he seeks to share his devotion to her and her Most Holy Rosary with as many people as he can. Ad Jesum Per Mariam! Check out his testimonial here.
