Crying in the Wilderness

John the Baptist is one of my favorite stories.  And Jesus must have been most fond of him, as his final words are, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit".  The symbol of water and the word have become a most important event in the life of a Christian.  And now we promise our children when they are infants, that we will teach them to know Jesus and raise them in a Christian home.  Baptism requires no test and no proof that you believe Jesus is the Savior from your sins.  It is freely offered, and monitored by your own conscience.  The rite of Baptism lasts ten to fifteen minutes and your sins are washed away.  It is beautiful and life changing for many.  Jesus cousin John had a mission similar to Jesus; to teach, to heal, and to love. My impression was that John was more forceful in pointing out our wicked ways and need for change.  Then Jesus told us how to change.  Many of us find it easier to follow John's example and find fault in others and ourselves, but not to practice Jesus lessons of love and peace.  We all desperately want the security that peace brings.  It should be easy then to promote something everyone wants.  The cost is putting other's needs before our own.  Why then do we continue to seek material goods and personal power at the expense of peace?  Is it really our nature, our sinful nature, to go against the common good?  Then the meaning of life would be to constantly fight against our personal desires in order to strive for peace.  All the prophets proclaim that we will never have world peace, even though Jesus shows us the way.  So we strive for inner peace.  We will never hear the voice of God proclaim, "This is my son with whom I am well pleased," during a baptism.  That was for Jesus alone who invites us to be children of God.  We are brothers in faith, we are the branches on the vine that must bear good fruit.