Understanding our Faith – Advent II

One of the most prominent figures of Advent is John the Baptist.  We will hear of him in both the second and third week of Advent in the 2022-23 Year A readings.

John the Baptist is the last of the old testament prophets.  He, like them, is pointing ahead of himself to someone else.  Of all the old testament prophets, it is the prophet Isaiah who is constantly referred to in the readings we use throughout Advent.  Isaiah is used in 18 out of the 28 days of Advent.  He is the prophet who points ahead to what God wants for Israel.  He is the prophet whose writings also point towards a mysterious someone who is to come and bring about what God wants for his world.  Isaiah also points toward a suffering Messiah.

The Baptist is always pointing towards someone who is to come, someone of whom he gives vague descriptions even though such descriptions can be poignant, such as his referral to “one who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to carry his sandals” (Matthew 3:1-12).

‘Not fit to carry his sandals’ may have its vagueness, but it is a very significant description which highlights that the one to come is so much greater than John himself.  Not worthy to carry someone’s sandals is a mysterious but momentous description.  It means something like I am not worthy to be his servant or slave.

Yet John and Jesus are very different.  John is out in the desert in a camel-hair robe and eating locusts and wild honey.  Jesus is living an ordinary life for most of his years and then is out among the people in his public years.  There is something very new in the coming of Jesus and in the gospel of the third Sunday of Advent, we will see that John is puzzled by Jesus and his ways!

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin