Santa and the Baptizer - New Evangelizers

Advent is the season of preparation. Four weeks of tending our spiritual house, cleaning our spiritual closets, and dusting off our commitment to our faith in anticipation of Christmas. Christmas, the day we celebrate in Christ’s birth. We celebrate because we are also born anew as we travel the road to the hope and promise of Easter’s Resurrection.

I listened to the Gospel on the Second Sunday of Advent and my mind began to wander deep into thought. The reading was Matthew 3:1-12, the John the Baptist intro about locusts and honey, camel-haired clothing, and REPENT.

My thoughts? First, why isn’t this a selected reading for the first Sunday of Advent instead of the second Sunday of Advent? Second, and probably a deeper question, why isn’t John the Baptist included as the Supreme Patron Saint of Advent?

I went home and did a web search of “Patron Saints of Advent”. I found a list on a Catholic site, but no John the Baptist. As patron saints of Advent, we have Mary (who justifiably could be called our patron saint of everything) and the spirit of the season, St. Nicholas. The list also included the lesser known patrons, St. Francis Xavier, St. Lucy, St. Ambrose, St. John of the Cross, and St. John Damascene. They are all good choices to represent the season of Advent, for sure, but what about John the Baptist?

[Disclaimer: In the spirit of openness and honesty, I have to admit I am a HUGE fan of John the Baptist. He is one of the saints I can truly relate to. I don’t understand how a raving wild man, hanging out at the river, wearing camel hair with a leather loincloth, and eating locusts/wild honey does not carry serious Catholic street cred.]

The more I pondered John the Baptist, the more I came to appreciate his message for the Advent season. He is the perfect standard bearer for Advent. Comparing him to the venerable St. Nick may be unfair to jolly, old St. Nick, but they seem to fit together as reminders and promoters of the importance of the season.

Let’s have a closer look at the two saints by comparing two well-known descriptors of each. On one hand, we have the John the Baptist passage from the Gospel of Matthew. It does a magnificent job of describing both man and message. On the other hand is the modern, secular description of St. Nick in the Christmas song Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.

Comparison of Matthew 3:1-12 to Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town

In due course John the Baptist appeared; he proclaimed this message in the desert of Judaea, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.’   This was the man spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said: A voice of one that cries in the desert, ‘Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.’

You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

This man John wore a garment made of camel-hair with a leather loin-cloth round his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judaea and the whole Jordan district made their way to him, and as they were baptised by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins.

He’s making a list
And checking it twice;
He’s gonna find out Who’s naughty and nice
Santa Claus is coming to town

But when he saw a number of Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism he said to them, ‘Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming retribution?  Produce fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not presume to tell yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father,” because, I tell you, God can raise children for Abraham from these stones.

He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
Santa Claus is coming to town

Even now the axe is being laid to the root of the trees, so that any tree failing to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire. I baptise you in water for repentance, but the one who comes after me is more powerful than I, and I am not fit to carry his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Santa’s a busy man,
he has no time to play
He’s got millions of stockings
to fill on Christmas day
Santa Claus is coming to town 

His winnowing-fan is in his hand; he will clear his threshing-floor and gather his wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.’

Ohh! You better watch out!
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

Santa Claus is coming to town

Is there enough evidence to support elevation of St. John the Baptist to a greater importance in our celebration of Advent? Perhaps, perhaps not. I think his message of repentance and preparation for “the one who comes after me” is the very core of what the Advent season is all about. Advent fits John the Baptist like a glove.

I can almost see him and St. Nick working side by side, can’t you?

Copyright © 2013, Mike Hays

photo credit: Thomas Hawk via photopin cc

Mike Hays

Mike Hays is a husband, a father of three, a lifelong Kansan and works as a molecular microbiologist. Besides writing, he has been a high school strength and conditioning coach, a football coach and a baseball coach. His debut middle grade historical fiction novel, THE YOUNGER DAYS, is a 2012 recipient of The Catholic Writer's Guild Seal of Approval Award. You can find it at the publisher's website or on Amazon.