December 9, 2001

John the Baptizer confronted his peers like the prophets of old with imagery drawn from the agricultural life around him – wind, fire, water, and the axe laid to the root. Nothing was more familiar that the sight of farmers winnowing their grain. First, they would thresh the grain to break down the kernels into their components of wheat and chaff, which, of course, remained a mix in need of sorting. That step took place on a windy day when they would heave forkfuls of grain into the air and the breeze would separate the good stuff from the useless. The lighter chaff would have blown off to the side, and the heavier wheat would drop back to the ground in a precious pile. Later, the chaff would be gathered and burned. So the grain harvest was a matter of gathering and sorting with the help of wind and fire. The fact that the same word, RUACH, meant both wind and spirit made it easy to use that threshing and winnowing process as a powerful explanation for the ultimate sorting of divine judgement.

In the Baptist's view, what especially deserved divine judgement was complacency. He was always looking for evidence that you would reform. John tells us in so many words that the people of God have a mission to be a light for the nations. Our Catholic claim is that we take as our own that universal call to become disciples of Christ.

What does this mean for us? St. Paul urges us to welcome one another, then as Christ welcomes you, for the glory of God. Christ became a minister of the circumcised to show God's truthfulness and universal desire for all of us to be one.

If we do claim the privilege of being the People of God, a signal to all nations, how then does the Baptist's wake up call pertain to us? The God of all nations, the one whose spirit sorts the wheat from the chaff, is also the one who offers the spirit and fire of renewal.

SO THE QUESTION: WHAT ARE WE DOING IN RESPONSE TO THE BAPTIST'S CRY OF RENEWAL IN OUR LIVES DURING THE SEASON OF ADVENT?

Click here to view the archive