2017-12-17

朋友们，今天的福音指出洗者若翰是为耶稣铺路的信使。若翰说：“我是在旷野里呼喊者的声音：修直上主的道路。”他在说他要做的是为主的伟大来临铺好路。他要建好高速公路，好让主到来。变化将要出现、革命将至、一场灾难（陈旧的破除）将要发生。他要为主铺路。

 

以什么方式准备？即悔改的洗礼。洗礼—浸入水中—让公元一世纪的犹太人想起《出谷纪》中祖先穿越红海，背弃奴役。天主将轻易击败当权者，就像祂曾击败埃及人和巴比伦人一样。

 

而悔改？意思就是超越你现有的思想。我们的思想是如此受制于堕落的尘世啊！历史又是如此深深地塑造和妨碍着我们的期望啊！若翰在说我们是时候要有新思想、新眼光、新期望。

 

Friends, today’s Gospel presents John the Baptist as the messenger preparing the way for Jesus. John speaks: "I am ‘the voice of one crying out in the desert, make straight the way of the Lord.’" He is saying that his job is to prepare for the mighty coming of the Lord. He is to build the highway that will facilitate his arrival. A change is coming, a revolution is on the way, a disaster (the destruction of the old) is about to happen. Prepare the way of the Lord.

 

And what is the manner of preparation? It is a baptism of repentance. Baptism—an immersion in water—reminded first-century Jews of the exodus, passing through the Red Sea, leaving the ways of slavery behind. God would humble the powers of their time as he once humbled Egypt and Babylon.

 

And repentance? It simply means going beyond the mind that you have. How our minds are conditioned by the fallen world! How our expectations are shaped, stunted by what has gone before. It’s time, John is saying, for a new mind, a new set of eyes, a new kind of expectation.