The advent of Christ had been announced by a long series of patriarchs, kings and prophets. St. John the Baptist was the last of the line, a rugged austere figure suddenly appearing from the desert, where he had lived in mortification and hardship for thirty years, in intimate communion with God. He was the immediate herald of the Messias and the greatest of the prophets. Every one of them had represented the Redemption by some symbolic act. Noah had saved the elect in the ark. Jacob begot twelve sons as princes of the people of God. Moses had delivered the Israelites from the avenging angel, and brought them through the waters of the Red Sea to the bounds of the Promised Land. David established his throne in Jerusalem. Solomon, the prince of peace, built the temple. Elias figured the Ascension. To St. John was given the emblem of baptism. This was merely a baptism of penance, and was not for the remission of sins; it was of water only, and not of the Holy Ghost and fire like Our Lord's. It stirred men to a sense of their sins and of their need for a Redeemer, and revived their expectation and desire of the Messias. You in like manner have to prepare for the coming of Jesus in His Holy Sacrament and in death. Do not venture rashly and unprepared into His presence, but cultivate retirement and prayer, penance and desire, in imitation either of St. John or his hearers.
