JOHN THE BAPTIST, A FREE AND FEARLESS MAN
By his message and his character, John the Baptist still stands out today as an extraordinary man.
In a way, he was a strange man; one may even consider him to be crazy. Alone in the desert, surviving on a frugal diet of honey and locusts, and dressed in camel’s hair tied with a leather belt around his waist – what a frightful vision. However, appearances are deluding. And he was looked upon as a holy man, with plenty of people coming to him for guidance.
By his life, John was a protest and a challenge to the society, which he lived in. He rejected its values and its way of life, and showed it in everything that he said and did. He looked upon it as a rotten society that was interested only in the pursuit of pleasure, wealth and power. So he decided to run away from it. In him, we can see an angry man who dealt with his anger by going into the desert, instead of taking a sword in order to clean society in a blood bath. He wanted a radical change, but he would not bring it about by shedding others’ blood.
Surprisingly, his way of life was appealing to many people who started going to him, and for them he had a powerful and meaningful message: “Prepare the way of the Lord”.
John was a free and fearless man. Nothing was powerful enough to bring him into submission and keep his mouth shut. He lived by the truth, and he was ready to die for it. In his freedom, he would speak out and denounce the vices of the powerful, and he would call the common people to repentance and conversion.
Questioned about his own identity, he had a very simple answer: I am just a voice calling in the desert (Jn 1:23).
Looking at John, we should always remember that the word spoken in freedom and truth is powerful and effective and, sooner or later, it will bring change.
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