When John was about thirty years of age the "word of the Lord" (St. Luke
III. 2) reached him in his solitude, just as it had done all the
prophets of old from Samuel down to Malachias, but since then, that is
for a period of four hundred years, God had spoken through no prophet.
As a result of this "word" the "Prophet of the Highest" came into all
the country about the Jordan--a large area--and began his mission. His
arrival made a great stir and the people flocked to see and hear him.
There "went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the country about
Jordan." All classes went--publicans, soldiers, even the Pharisees and
Sadducees, for if this man were really a prophet sent from God, it
behoved _them_ to know all about him. What did the multitudes see? A man
wearing a "garment of camels' hair and a leathern girdle about his
loins," whose food consisted of locusts and wild honey--a man as the
Angel Gabriel had prophesied "in the spirit and power of Elias" (see IV
Kings I. 8). What did they hear? A voice of one crying in the desert:
"Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight His paths." (St. Matt.
III. 3). And what were their conclusions? That this was he who was
spoken of by Isaias the prophet (verse 3), that he was "sent from God"
(St. John I. 6) and that he "came for a witness, to give testimony of
the light" (St. John I. 7). What light? The "Light of the world." John
came to proclaim that the dawn which the world had been so long watching
was on the point of giving place to day, that the "Sun of justice" was
even now rising with "health in His wings" for those that feared God's
name, and that they must go forth to meet him (Mal. IV. 2).
I too must go forth. What am I going to do to-day which will prove to
myself, to my Guardian Angel, to my Patron Saint, to Mary my Mother and
to Him Who is coming that I am preparing the way of the Lord?