John the Baptist

Fr Maria Arokiam, during his sermon on the commemoration of the beheading of John the Baptist spoke of an interesting possibility.  He spoke of the probable crisis of faith that John underwent at some point or the other of his life.  John was all the time speaking of the coming of the Messiah and all that he would do.  But Jesus when he arrived on the scene did nothing much in line with what John was prophesying the Messiah would do.  He must have then had a crisis of faith, worse still in the prison for decrying Herod and his ways.

Was my life and shouting in the wilderness all for nothing?  Did I really point out to the right man?  Was it all worthwhile?  

While Fr Maria concluded that he somehow was assured by Jesus that he was right.  But I have my doubts if John was at all waiting for any assurance at all.  Suppose he did not get any comforting assurance from Jesus while in prison and later was released by Herod, would he have gone back to the 'normal' ways or continued being who he was?  I guess he would have been the same: wild, crazy and passionate.

Whether the Messiah was doing his work or not was not his concern.  Whether he was doing his job right and that too for the right reasons was all that mattered!