{"id":9025,"date":"2019-12-08T00:28:57","date_gmt":"2019-12-08T08:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lubukhati.org\/?p=9025"},"modified":"2019-12-08T00:28:57","modified_gmt":"2019-12-08T08:28:57","slug":"like-john-the-baptist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/?p=9025","title":{"rendered":"Like John the Baptist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>2<sup>nd<\/sup> Sunday of Advent [A]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>December 8, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Matthew 3:1-12<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John the Baptist is a prominent figure in four Gospels, and he\npowerfully appears before Jesus begins His public ministry. But, who is this\nJohn the Baptist? His name is simply John, and the Church calls him the Baptist\nto distinguish him from other John in the Bible like John the son of Zebedee,\none of Jesus\u2019 disciples. John the Baptist is the miracle son of Zacharia and\nElizabeth in their old days. And since Elizabeth and Mary, the mother of Jesus,\nare relatives, John and Jesus are closely related to each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Certainly, there is something strange about this John. He is eating\nlocust and honey. Surely, it is an exotic food, but we need to remember he is\nliving in the desert, and this kind of food is common. He is wearing clothing\nmade of camel\u2019s hair and a leather belt around his waist. It is just a fashion\nstatement or he has nothing to wear. John\u2019s clothing reminds us of the things\nProphet Elijah wore in his time [see 1 Kings 1:8]. John is presenting himself\nas a prophet, and not any prophet, he is the new Elijah. The appearance of\nElijah is an important sign of the imminent coming of the Messiah [Mal 4:5]. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One thing for sure about John is that he becomes very popular, and\npeople from all over the country come to him, to listen to his preaching and to\nbe baptized as a sign of repentance. Yet, despite the great number of\nfollowers, he remains true to his mission. He is preaching on the coming of someone\nwho is much greater than him, even he declares that \u201cis unworthy to carry His\nsandals.\u201d He is God\u2019s instrument in fulfilling the prophesy, and he has a\nspecific role to play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, we know a little background about John the Baptist, what will be\nnext for us? Certainly, we are not called to follow him in wearing clothing\nmade of camel\u2019s hair or to eat locust everyday, but we are to prepare the way\nfor the coming of the Savior. How? Some of us are called literally to baptize\npeople like myself. Some are commissioned to preach and educate people. Yet,\nall of us are to live a life of repentance. The repentance has to be alive and\npenetrating all aspects of life. The word used by John in Greek is \u201cmetanoiete\u201d\nand it does not simply mean \u201crepent!\u201d but more precisely, \u201ckeep repenting!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first stage of repentance is certainly turning away from sinful\nlife, but it is more than that. Repentance is not about one-done-deal action, but\na life-long process. The word \u201cMetanoia\u201d is coming from two words, \u201cmeta\u201d\nmeaning \u201cchanging\u201d and \u201cnous\u201d meaning \u201cmind\u201d; Thus, \u201cmetanoia\u201d means changing\nof mind, changing of the way we see life and the way we live. Our mind is no\nlonger earth-bond, but fixed into God. The transformation is not from sinful\nlife to a good life, but a life that is even closer to God. It implies changing\nof priority. Do we make God as our priority? It entails holiness. Do we do\nthings that are pleasing to God? This presupposes love of God. Do we love God\nmore than other things, or do we love other things more than Him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2nd Sunday of Advent [A]<br \/>\nDecember 8, 2019<br \/>\nMatthew 3:1-12<\/p>\n<p>John the Baptist is a prominent figure in four Gospels, and he powerfully appears before Jesus begins His public ministry. But, who is this John the Baptist? His name is simply John, and the Church calls him the Baptist to distinguish him from other John in the Bible like John the son of Zebedee, one of Jesus\u2019 disciples. John the Baptist is the miracle son of Zacharia and Elizabeth in their old days. And since Elizabeth and Mary, the mother of Jesus, are relatives, John and Jesus are closely related to each other. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[57,58],"class_list":["post-9025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-renungan","tag-english","tag-sunday-reflection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9025"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9026,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9025\/revisions\/9026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}