REFLECTIONS

"The Advent Witness of John the Baptist"

Mother Church places John the Baptist before her children precisely as we are preparing for Christmas for a good reason… His life and message remind us that Advent is not yet Christmas—that this penitential time leads to joy only if we heed its message. John the Baptist-who leaped for joy in his mother’s womb-is joy’s perfect messenger because he shows us its necessary elements: repentance, humility, and sacrifice.

First, repentance. We confuse joy with pleasure. [But] Christian joy is something deeper and more lasting...It is spiritual, not physical, something that does not depend on things outside of us but in fact works from the inside out. It can coincide with physical and even deep emotional suffering. Most of all, it comes about not because we get our own way but because God’s will is accomplished in us. In short, it comes from union with him… Thus John’s message of repentance...prompts us to leave sin behind and conform our wills to God’s, to reestablish union with him, our exceeding joy (Ps 43:4). Indeed, the mere knowledge of the possibility of being forgiven already causes rejoicing. The only sorrow greater than sin is not having a way out of it...John’s call to repentance announces the One Who alone can free us…

Second, humility...Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan went out to see him, and yet John directed all the attention, honor, and reverence to our Lord...His parting words say it all: He must increase but I must decrease (Jn 3:30)…Humility means to surrender our own space, not to be concerned about our ego, our own little world. Pride refuses the Lord entry out of fear of not having its own way. Humility rejoices in God-and therefore in all circumstances…

Finally, sacrifice. John’s asceticism is the first thing we notice about him. He did not live for this world. He was not out to make a name for himself, to become wealthy or popular or even comfortable. His life was constantly being surrendered as a witness to Christ...John the Baptist shows that we attain joy only by the giving of ourselves, by renouncing ourselves and our own desires in the gift of self to another. This renunciation witnesses to the truth of higher, even eternal, goods…John the Baptist extends to us the truest joy– that of being in union with our Lord, experiencing his increase in our hearts, and serving him generously.

FATHER PAUL SCALIA 
Father Scalia is a priest in the diocese of Arlington, Virginia, where he serves as Episcopal Vicar for Clergy and the pastor of Saint James in Falls Church.