At this time each year the Church offers John the Baptist, for our reflection. John was the hinge between the Old and the New Testaments. He was the very image of Elijah the Old Testament prophet. Unshaven and dressed in camel's hair, he was the picture of God's wrath. Add to this John's no-nonsense style of preaching and he was indeed a terrifying experience.
Even so, many people found John's preaching attractive because he spoke of God's justice and the coming of the anointed one. In John’s message the poor found hope. Things were not doomed to stay the same forever. God would respond to their suffering. There was still time to make oneself right with God and others before the coming day of God's wrath. John offered hope for those willing to change.
When the Pharisees and Sadducees came forward to receive John's baptism, he raged against them. "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance..." John knew very well what was in the hearts of the leaders of his people. He knew that they prided themselves on their ethnic identity and on their observance of the Law of Moses. John warned them that God had other plans.
Paul reminds us that by our endurance and the encouragement which come from the Scriptures we might find hope also. He prays that we might live in harmony with one another, recognizing that each of us belongs to Christ. Sooner or later we must realize that we do not live for ourselves. To be a Christian is to live for Christ. Everything we have in this world has been given to us so that we might come to know that we are a beloved manifestation of God’s glory in our world. Each of us, every living human being, manifests the mystery of God’s love in some totally unique and special way! If Christ has become our kin, then we are brothers and sisters to one another as well! Once this realization sinks in, our lives can be transformed. John the Baptist expected the Messiah of the Lord to come with angry judgment, instead Jesus came in perfect love. When he comes again he will judge the living and the dead!