38._ Apocalyptic

Continuing his work of incarnation, the Spirit lead Jesus to the "desert", to silence his senses to listen the "voice" of his Father, his vocation. During "forty days", that is to say during a long period, since his childhood perhaps, when "he grew in grace and wisdom" and he left his familiar atmosphere for "to lose himself in the Temple", to study the writings and to begin to take care of the "subjects of his Father".

He had doubts about using his faculties in own benefit, to become rich and powerful; he chose however to fulfill the will of his Father: to be a servant of all, to forget of himself for "to announce to the poor the good news, to give freedom to the prisoners and to proclaim the year of grace of Yahveh".

The first step of his public mission was his encounter with John the Baptist, a prophet who can be inserted in a current of the Jewish thought that is called "apocalyptic", in acme at the time of Jesus and preceding centuries, which remounts to the visions of Ezekiel and Zechariah, and to the book of Daniel, written in the days of exile or of persecution.

This thought gathered the logical reflections that inspired the violent opposition between the Promise of Yahveh, interpreted like triumph and prosperity of Israel, and the bitter reality of the exile, oppression, defeat and suffering.

It is a habitual reflection between the prophets of Israel, and their conclusion is that the guilt of it corresponds to the own town of Israel, by its unjust behavior, its infidelity to the alliance with Yahveh.

They proclaim that it is necessary to change of attitude, to make penance, to obey the Law, to practice justice, because if not so, the things will follow badly, and will even go to worse, as punishment of Yahveh. But also they think that God is merciful, and that He does not forget His promise of to save His town; for that reason He has given time for the repentance, and therefore He has sent the prophets, but the term is exhausted. The moment arrives at which Yahveh will act all His power, destroying to the opressing, and punishing to the unjust ones, but saving to the "faithful rest".

In the book of Daniel this message is expressed in form of visions --as it is habitual in apocalyptic literature ("apocalypse" means "revelation")-- of ferocious and horrendous beasts, which represent the pursuers, such as Babylonia or the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes; these will be destroyed by the power of God, and then the misfortunes and the sin will finish, and will come from the heaven a "Son of Man" --that is to say, not longer a beast-- that will establish the Kingdom of the Saints for always.

In the apocalyptic thought and sayings, the expressions abound of the "rage" of God, of the destruction of the nations and even of the world and the universe, the punishment to the evildoers, of a new Earth, a Kingdom of God presided over by a representative His, and of his eternal compensation to the right ones. That new Earth, and that Kingdom, are called "the New Jerusalem", that will be governed --or, in another prophetic image, "newlywed"-- by the "Son of Man", the Messiah.

To these concepts remitted the preaching of John the Baptist, who called to the conversion to which listened to him, to a change of life according to the justice required by God. And, as sign of it, to be put under a rite of purification and initiation: the baptism, that was the ritual immersion in waters of the Jordan river, which can be interpreted like death to the old life of sin (to submerge) and birth to a new life (to emerge); also it can make reference to the legendary pass of the Israelites through the Red Sea during the exodus of Egypt.

Under that baptism was put Jesus, not like signal of his personal conversion, but as announcement of the sense of his mission: he would bring a new baptism, nonsymbolic but totally effective, an effusion of the Spirit who would change the lives of all, of the death to the life, making therefore the plan of salvation of God.

Jesus preached an apocalyptic message: the coming of the Kingdom of God is imminent; this is the good news that there is to spread, and also is necessary to be prepared for changing radically of life. The time, the waited for moment, has arrived. The term for the accomplishment of the Promise has been fulfilled. One has to believe in this good news, to announce it, and to convert oneself to the practice of the good.