John The Baptist Saw Something That Changed His Life

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

A few years ago, I made my profession of faith in a public way with my community in a large parish.  It was much different from the profession of faith I made before I was ordained a priest.  Then I basically recited the Creed and signed a document.  My recent experience was to say with concrete deeds how God was my father, what Jesus had saved me from and how the Holy Spirit guided me.  It was a very transforming experience for me and for all involved.

The important thing is not just to memorize the creed but to live what it says: God is truly my father; Jesus is the one who took away all my sins and leaves me free.  A Christian says the creed by the way he lives his life.  John makes his profession of faith when he says this man, Jesus Christ, is truly the Son of God.

The first step is to see that you and I are not God, which is not easy to do.  We may say it with our lips, but our actions show that usually we do what we want.  Often, we have the conviction we know better than anyone else.  Ask your spouse or a good friend if you are not so sure you act this way.  We are like Adam and Eve who in the end did what they wanted, what looked good to them.

In all this God doesn’t judge us and wants us to have an experience of Jesus Christ. To see him in our lives, to touch him, to sense that he is always with us. It is not an intellectual knowledge, but a true experience.  We say we believe in Christ as our Lord and the forgiveness of sins and of the virgin birth, but this is just an intellectual agreement; it is not faith.  Others may not see it in us.

John the Baptist saw something wonderful.  He saw the Holy Spirit come down upon Jesus Christ.  And he was told the one upon whom the Spirit descends, he will baptize with the Holy Spirit; he is the Messiah.  He is the one who will take away the sin of the world.  He comes to forgive not to judge.  This is possible if the Holy Spirit enters the heart.  John’s baptism doesn’t do this.  Their hearts are not changed; they remain the same.  The day we were baptized is the day we received the Spirit.

The problem is that we don’t live our baptism.  We can be very generous and dedicated but we don’t live as if we had the Spirit.  We need an initiation, an itinerary of faith that is not intellectual, but very practical.  It takes years, normally.  Parents and godparents and the children all need this.  To sprinkle water on the head of a baby when there is no initiation into faith, does nothing.  The point is to live our baptism, to receive this Spirit which helps us to be a witness by how we live.

Jesus takes away the sin of the world.  John doesn’t say he takes away the sins, but only the sin.  What sin is he referring to?  The sin of pride, as we said before.  I am God.  I know what is best.  All of our sins stem from this attitude.  It is unconscious but nonetheless it is true.

Let me give you an example.  When your son or daughter or a colleague at work challenges you or insults you or laughs at you what do you do?  How many dishes do you throw, or tantrums do you make?  God would never act this way.  He loves you, forgives you.  He washes your feet.  He takes the last place, like John the Baptist.  He became the last one, the lamb to wipe away our pride.  He is teaching us to love which we cannot do if we are in the first place.  You can only love from the last place, from a place of humility.

You can be a witness of this.  When your son does drugs or your daughter runs away from home or thinks that she is a man, a Christian loves and pardons them.  She forgives.  This is to be a witness of God’s love.  The world doesn’t know why it suffers.  The history of man is cyclical.  We think this new government will make things better or perfect, but no one forgives, nothing changes; things get worse.  No one take us out of this slavery.

The only one who can take away the sin of the world is Jesus Christ.  He is the only one who has the power to forgive sins.  This is the only problem of life.  Not that I was born in another country or that my father left or ignored me, or my spouse is a difficult person.  Your only problem is sin.  If the sin of the world is pardoned, your life will be solved.  How I wish that we all have this experience, and we can be a witness to the world that God exists and that he loves each one as we are.

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