Dear Brothers and Sisters

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord!

Today, on this Sunday before Theophany, we read the first part of the Gospel according to St. Mark. In this very vivid excerpt we heard about John the Forerunner, about his ascetic life, about how he baptized the penitent Jews in the Jordan River, and of course the main thing, that One mightier than him, i. e. Christ, will come and will baptize with the Holy Spirit. In such, one could say, dramatic fashion today’s Gospel reading prepares us for the feast of the Lord’s Baptism and Appearance.

Today the Evangelist Mark reminds his readers of those Old Testament prophecies that talked about the Forerunner of the Saviour. He mentions the prophecy of Malachi (3: 1), “Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee,” as well as the prophecy of Isaiah (40: 3), “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” These words are familiar to all of us and when we hear them, we automatically remember John the Baptist.

Hearing about the wilderness in this prophecy we naturally think about the Judean or Jordan Desert where John lived and preached, but Blessed Theophylact offers another explanation. He says that the wilderness refers to the Jewish synagogue, since its members were lacking good qualities. Thus we can paraphrase this prophecy in such a way: John came to the Jews or to the Jewish religious community to shake them up, to awaken their conscience, so that they would bring forth at least some kind of fruits of repentance and become more able to accept the Mighty One, who was going to baptize them with the Holy Spirit.

Let us hope that the vivid image of the Baptist and his message that was drawn for us by today’s Gospel reading awakens our sleepy souls and shakes us into action, because we are in some ways like the wilderness or the Jewish synagogue, lacking in good character traits. Let’s prepare the way for our Saviour. Let’s set right our bad habits through repentance and make our souls straight. Let’s make the wilderness of our souls not parched and fruitless, but fruitful. Acting in such a manner, let’s hope that when we participate in the mysteries of the Church they will become for us not simply beautiful rituals or a habitual act of belonging to the Church, but truly a baptism of the Holy Spirit.

priest Alexis