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| Cardinal Jean Danielou SJ |
Night Office Readings, Patristic Lectionary.
Jean Danielou, second paragraph merits lines as poem; 'One might say he was an educator of souls; his task was as it were to rough-hew them, to do the preliminary chiselling that would make them more receptive to Christ's message.
Our Lord's etching would have been too strong for souls not previously prepared for it.' (Mission of the John Baptist).
THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT Year I, MONDAY
First Reading
Micah 7:1-13
Responsory Mi 7:7; Gn 49:18
I will look to the Lord, + I will await my God and saviour.
V, I will wait for your salvation, Lord. + I will await.
Second Reading
From the writings of Cardinal Jean Danielou, S.J. (Le Mystere de l'Avent, 82-84)
The mission of John the Baptist
As John the Baptist was the Lord's precursor even before his birth, so also he was the forerunner of Christ's public life. After the desert period came the crowning moment of a life spent preparing the way for Christ. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came as a witness, to give testimony to the light, so that all might come to believe through him. He himself was not the light; his task was to bear witness to the light.
This text shows that the essential mission of John the Baptist was to bear witness to the light, to point to Jesus.
His was a pre-eminent role in the preparation for the coming of Christ and of Christ's own work.
John it was who paved the way for our Lord's public life and teaching by predisposing the souls of his hearers to receive it.
One might say he was an educator of souls; his task was as it were to rough-hew them, to do the preliminary chiselling that would make them more receptive to Christ's message.
Our Lord's etching would have been too strong for souls not previously prepared for it.
They needed some schooling in advance.
Their interests had to be redirected; it was necessary to wean them from worldly habits and to arouse a spiritual dissatisfaction in their hearts.
That was John the Baptist's assignment. Sent to people utterly heedless of the things of God, it was his task to awaken in them sufficient concern to disturb their settled ways and to stir up their initial goodwill, so that they might be capable of understanding Christ.
John the Baptist thus joins the long succession of those who have taken part in the work of preparing for the Lord's coming, those who, like John, were withdrawn by God from the things of this world and mysteriously admitted to the divine plans, in order that they might blaze the way for God among the people. John in his turn will move among his contemporaries to mark out the Lord's ways, smoothing paths and levelling hills. But for such a mission he must from the outset be utterly gripped by the inner vision he has received; he must be possessed by the Lord in the depths of his being, since it is a hard furrow he will have to plough. The people of the Baptist's generation were absorbed in the same pursuits as the people of our own day, Saint Luke describes them in a memorable passage, the soldiers engaged in violence and false charges, and the tax collectors in demanding more than their due.
Such is human nature. It was so in the time of John, and it is the same today. Preoccupied with worldly affairs, people are completely heedless of God. As one goes here and there in the world it is very painful to experience the utter indifference of the rank and file; to shake the world out of this indifference there have to be prophets, that is to say, souls possessed by the divine vision who can rouse the masses from their inertia, They have to be authentic witnesses. A witness is someone who has first been granted an inner vision; God has introduced him to the divine viewpoint so that he can pass on what he has seen to others.
So it was with John the Baptist. God first admitted him to his own counsel, revealing to him the mystery of the divine plan, drawing him into the desert to share with him his own joy; then came the essential part of his vocation: he was a witness to Christ, that is to say, he was the one who pointed out Christ to the people.
Responsory Lk 1:17.76
He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, + to turn fathers back to their sons, to restore unbelievers to the wisdom of the just, and to prepare a holy people for the Lord.
V. You, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High; you will go before the Lord to prepare his way. + To turn fathers ...
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