Homily

We "modern" men and women are surrounded by a civilization of noise, a multiplicity of messages, a distracting chaos, and a kind of huge ephemeral amusement park, and it is not easy for us to understand the figure of John the Baptist. He is essentially a robust and severe man, but he can be a good companion in the search for the true meaning of life. He is one of the most venerated figures, after Jesus and Mary, in the collective imaginary of the Christian ecumene. His fame, strengthened by the proliferation of relics, has passed the borders of the Christian world. It is enough to think of Islam. It is striking to see the tomb of John the Baptist, around which still today many poor people gather, almost at the centre of the great mosque of the Umayyad in Damascus. John is a complex figure, a source of controversy from the very beginning. Jesus himself spoke about John to the apostles: "What did you go out into the wilderness to look at?" Mt (11:7). One feature in particular always characterizes the Baptist: he is a man who speaks. He speaks with a loud voice, and from a pulpit built on a severe and simple life he shouts at every man and woman that they should wait for the Lord.
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius... the word of God came to John, son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. So we read in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 3, verses 1-2. John does not speak on his own, but because he was touched by the word that specific year, the fifteenth, in that specific place, the wilderness. This means that the word is not a fleeting thing, a sort of vague, spiritual entity, nor is it a myth or an idea. No, it is a historical reality that comes down into the affairs of nations and is tied to human dates, not only the dates of the people of Israel, but also those of the Roman Empire and those of our time.
Moreover, the desert is not so far from us. It is the desert of our cities, where too often any life worthy of being called as such is a rare find. It is the desert of this world, where sin and loneliness lead to bitterness and death. John is a witness and a preacher. He is free from the depraved and sumptuous games of life, free from the intrigue of royal palaces, and free from the idle play of those who wear soft robes. He is a poor man, and his clothing shows his poverty. He wears only a camel-skin and a belt around his waist. He is also poor in what he eats: locusts and wild honey. But in his poverty, he is free.
John speaks vigorously and turns to the Pharisees and Sadducees and unmasks their aptitude for pretending to repent while staying the same as ever. He is not afraid of pointing out what happens in the royal palace, even if this courage will cost him his life. John does not justify the pride of those who feel secure because they live in - or at least near - a particular palace, nor does he justify the pride of those who feel secure because of some merit they might have, perhaps because they are "children of Abraham." Pride is far from John’s heart. "I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal" (cf. Jn 1:27), John says about Jesus. This humble man knows how to be firm and speak out against pride and self-sufficiency. Humility is not fear, silence, moderation, or an accommodating spirit. The humble person puts his or her trust in the Lord and in the Lord alone.
But strength and forcefulness do not make John inhuman or distant. John knows how to listen and talk, and he knows how to make gestures of forgiveness for the long line of men and women who have come to him to confess their sins and be baptized with the baptism of penitence. John is a prophet who cries out. He cries out because he has to make space for new life in the chaotic desert of this world. He wants to open the way of the Lord in the desert. Luke takes up the words of the anonymous prophet (Second Isaiah) describing Israel’s return from exile in Babylon. He tells of a straight, smooth road similar to the roads that led to temples in ancient times, the so-called "processional roads" that people walked on singing and rejoicing. There are so many rough places of pride and arrogance that need to be smoothed out. There are so many low places made of coldness and indifference that need to be filled. That is how to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. John, in his severe roughness, is a voice: repent because the Lord is near. It is a simple but radical message. An ear used to hearing these words might classify them among the words already known; but those who think they already know what the prophet is saying only add to the ranks of the Pharisees who are trying to avoid "the judgment of God." Perhaps we are also being asked to go to John in the desert and ask him for his baptism of repentance so we can hope and work for a different world. If we were to go, we would see a wide road open in the desert, where the only traffic jam - but it is grounds for rejoicing - is caused by the poor, the weak, and all those who are searching a word of salvation.