John The Baptist PDF

UNIVERSITY OF SAINT LOUIS TUGUEGARAO Tuguegarao City, Cagayan 3500 Philippines SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, CRIMINOLOGY, ARTS AND PSYCHOLOGY CHRISTIAN FAITH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENCE LEARNING M...

UNIVERSITY OF SAINT LOUIS TUGUEGARAO Tuguegarao City, Cagayan 3500 Philippines SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, CRIMINOLOGY, ARTS AND PSYCHOLOGY CHRISTIAN FAITH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENCE LEARNING MODULE CFED 1013: God’s Journey with His People LESSON: JOHN THE BAPTIST, THE FORERUNNER OF JESUS TOPIC LEARNING OUTCOMES At the end of this lesson, you will be able to: 1. point out various elements needed when you prepare to welcome someone important in your life; 2. draw insights from John the Baptist’s act of humility in identifying himself as “forerunner of Jesus” to people; and 3. identify concrete and specific ways on how you could be an agent of Jesus’ presence to other people. Points for Reflection: What are the necessary elements you need in preparation for welcoming a family member, a friend or a visitor coming home from abroad or a foreign place? What should you consider as most important as you prepare for it? Hospitality is the common terminology that describes how Filipinos welcome visitors, foreigners or tourists visiting their country. This Filipino trait towards visitors is undeniably extraordinary. Whenever a visitor would stay in a Filipino home, for example, there would be a feast or a celebration as it is a tradition for them to prepare bountiful Filipino cuisine for visitors to have a taste of their culture through food. Moreover, a joyful family would naturally be ready to accommodate and bond with their visitors. Further, Filipino families are often more than willing to share not only their meals but their entire home as well. In fact, Filipinos would usually greet their guests with the phrase “Feel at home!” to make sure that they are comfortable during their entire stay. For Filipinos, it is always a pleasure and the country’s honor to accept foreigners as visitors and build genuine relationships and friendship with them. Hence, hospitality is undoubtedly a trademark of Filipinos. JOHN THE BAPTIST’S TESTIMONY TO JESUS This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.” Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John answered them saying, “I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” These things took place in Bethany beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.” John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:19-34)  God’s plan to save humanity which actually started with the calling of Abraham is about to be unfolded. As the Israelites were divided into many religious groups and in dispute on what group was the chosen people of God or will be saved, the perfect prophet, perfect king and perfect high priest was emerging in the person of Jesus Christ. This will be heralded by John the Baptist. JOHN THE BAPTIST: "YHWH HAS BEEN GRACIOUS" He is the son of the priest Zechariah and Elizabeth. His life would be a model of austerity. He called upon his listeners to mend their sinful ways in preparation of the coming of Messiah and the coming of the Kingdom of God. He performed an act of ritual cleansing called baptism (Greek ‘baptizein’, “to immerse”), which involved immersion in the waters of the Jordan River. This “baptism of repentance” was accompanied by confessions of sins. John the Baptist’s ministry was marked by humility, repentance and selflessness as clearly stated in John 3:30, “He must increase, I must decrease”. John 1:19-34 presents John the Baptist as having a clear sense of who he is and who he is not, of his role in manifesting God’s work on earth, of God’s presence and revelation when he sees it, and of his life’s work as a testimony to that revelation. He baptizes not to cleanse people from sin but to witness God’s presence in the world. The John the Baptist you find in John’s Gospel shows how what you do reveals to others what you believe. Have you reflected on your individual identities enough to have a sense of the talents you have, and those you do not have, to carry on the work of God in your own particular contexts? Are you aware of the sort of God you reveal to the world by your words and actions? Do your acts witness a God who takes away that which alienates people from God and each other, and does so not by militant violence but by sacrifice? Do you reveal a God who remains present in the world? CHURCH TEACHING: St. John the Baptist is the Lord’s immediate precursor or forerunner, sent to prepare his way. “Prophet of the Most High”, John surpasses all the prophets, of whom he is the last. He inaugurates the Gospel, already from his mother’s womb welcomes the coming of Christ, and rejoices in being “the friend of the bridegroom”, whom he points out as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. Going before Jesus “in the spirit and power of Elijah”, John bears witness to Christ in his preaching, by his Baptism of conversion, and through his martyrdom. (CCC 523) After agreeing to baptize Jesus along with the sinners, John the Baptist looked at Jesus and pointed him out as the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. By doing so, he reveals that Jesus is at the same time the suffering Servant who silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears the sin of the multitudes, and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel’s redemption at the first Passover. Christ’s whole life expresses his mission: “to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (CCC 608) John the Baptist is “more than a prophet.” In him, the Holy Spirit concludes his speaking through the prophets. John completes the cycle of prophets begun by Elijah. He proclaims the imminence of the consolation of Israel; he is the “voice” of the Consoler who is coming. As the Spirit of truth will also do, John “came to bear witness to the light.” In John’s sight, the Spirit thus brings to completion the careful search of the prophets and fulfills the longing of the angels. “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God... Behold, the Lamb of God.” (CCC 719) John the Baptist was the second person through whom the Holy Spirit prepared for the coming of the Savior. “Filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb,” John was sent before the Messiah “in the spirit and power of Elijah,... to prepare for the Lord a people well-disposed” (Lk 1:15,17). John was a “voice in the desert crying out: Make straight the way of the Lord”; a “witness to testify to the light so that through him all might believe” (Jn 1:23,7). John himself confessed: “I saw the Spirit descend like a dove from the sky and it came to rest on him... the Lamb of God... who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:31-34;29). (CFC 1293). From the foregoing, you are called to be witnesses of Christ and bearers of the true light to your family, school, friends and to the community through your commitment to the truth and the promotion of justice. Most especially, like John the Baptist, you have to manifest your willingness to prepare for the coming of the Messiah and work, on his behalf, towards the world’s experience of well-being. ** END OF LESSON ** REFERENCES: Catechism of the Catholic Church. (n.d.). http://www.catholic- catechism.com/ccc_408.438.486.523.536.608.613.713.719.1137.1286.1505.htm. Catechism for Filipino Catholics. (n.d.) https://justmehomely.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/chapter-22- the-holy-spirit-giver-of-life/. John the Baptist. [Online Image]. (2017). Hall of Faith: John the Baptist, the Forerunner. https://dianaleaghmatthews.com/john-baptist-forerunner/#.YPgSN-gzbIU