them, saying: I baptize with water; but there hath stood One in the midst of you, Whom you know not. The same is He that shall come after me, Who is preferred before me: the latchet of Whose shoe I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Bethania, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Why did the Jews send messengers to John to ask him who he was?
Because his baptizing and preaching, with his life of austerity and penance, made such an impression that the people took him not for an ordinary prophet, but for the Messias Himself.
Why did the messengers ask John whether he was Elias or the prophet?
The Jews believed that either Elias or another of the prophets would return to earth to prepare the way for the coming of Christ; and from St. John's denying that he was the Christ they concluded that he was either Elias or that prophet.
Why did St. John say that he was not that prophet, but only the voice of one crying in the wilderness?
He said so out of humility; but he uttered no untruth, since he was not the prophet predicted by Moses (Deut. xviii. 15), but only u the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord," as the prophet Isaias said (Is. Ix. 3).
How do we make straight the way of the Lord?
By sincere penance, which consists not merely in going to confession, and making hollow resolutions, but in bringing forth fruits worthy of penance (Matt. iii. 8; Luke iii. 8).
How do we bring forth fruits worthy of penance?
If we wish to bring forth fruits worthy of penance, we must endeavor to make amends for what is past, and use all possible means to avoid in future those sins to which we have been most given; we must love and serve God as much as and more than we before loved and served the world.
What was the baptism of John, and what was the effect of it?
It was a baptism of penance, for the forgiveness of sins; thus it was a preparation for the Baptism of Christ, through which sins are actually forgiven, and the Holy Ghost received (Mark i. 4, 5).
