When we talk about Epiphany, it occurs to our minds at first the personality of St

2. When we talk about Epiphany, it occurs to our minds at first the personality of St John the Baptist, the messenger sent forth by the Lord Jesus in front of Him to prepare the way before Him and to baptize Christ. It was an old tradition that the king or emperor sends forth he who prepares the way for him, as for our Lord Jesus Christ He had spoken by His prophets of "John the Baptist", the forerunner, as the angel of the Lord and the voice crying in the wilderness. Mark the evangelist says: As it is written in the Prophets: "Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You. The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight' ". These two prophesies about "Christ's forerunner" were borrowed by Mark from Malachi the prophet (3:1) and Isaiah (40:3):

3. He was called messenger (angel) for his angelic life and great honor as mentioned by Saint Theophylactos, Archbishop of Ochrid and Bulgaria. He might be called "angel" for the greatness of his message, for the word "angel" in Greek and Latin refers to "messenger"; he is sent forth before the Lord to prepare the way before Him through repentance. He might also be called "angel" because, in his first encounter with Christ, he did not see Him by flesh but by faith while he was still in his mother Elizabeth's womb where he leaped for joy as soon as the voice of St Mary, who bore Christ in her womb, sounded in her ears. (Lk 1:44) Tertullian adds: John was not only called a messenger for Christ, but a shining lamp before Him as prophesied by David "I will prepare a lamp for My Anointed" (Ps 132:17); he did not only prepare His way in the wilderness, but also pointed out to the Lamb of God, enlightening the minds humanity with this preaching of the lamb, spoken by Moses, who shall suffer.

4. That is if he came as an angel of mercy who reveals the Savior to us and enlightens our minds for the knowledge of the Lamb of God, he also came as a roaring lion with a fearful voice in the poor wilderness of our hearts lest we pretend not hearing his preaching. As an angel, he prepares our hearts for the dwelling of the crucified Lamb of God in us; and as a crying voice, he shakes our poor depths to await impatiently for the divine work of salvation. Saint Cyril of Alexandria distinguishes between Christ the (Word (Logos)) and His forerunner John (The Voice). St Cyril considers the First as a bright sun preceded by the bright morning star: « Isaiah the prophet knew of the evangelical work of John, as while the prophet calls Christ God and Lord (Is 9:6), he refers to John as a serving messenger and a shining lamp before the manifestation of the True Light. John was therefore the morning star who reveals the rising of the sun off the horizon sweeping the darkness of night watches. John was a voice not a word, preceding Christ, just as the voice precedes the word"

5. For the barren was not yet implanted in the midst of the foreignnations...and Hasn't yet come Himwho said: 'But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God' (Ps 52:8), and the heavenly vinedresser was yet to grant fruit to the branches (Jn 15:1).Therefore, the Voice resonated so that the wilderness bear fruit." What was that crying voice calling? "Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight" Archbishop Theophylactos considers that the 'way' of the Lord is His gospel or the New Testament, whereas His 'paths' are the prophesies leading us to Him; the goal of John the Baptist is that we accept the gospel of the Lord through the upright and straight perception of the Old Testament's prophesies and symbols. This voice leading us to Christ and His gospel is that of a revealed repentance, not through John's words only but also his cloth and food; This voice resonates in the wilderness for it is arid and does not have the Tree of Life in it as in the first paradise of Eden,aiming at revealing Christ the Tree ofLife implanted in the wilderness of our nature to make out of it a transcendental paradise through Hisdwelling init. Saint Ambrose added in his commentary on the divine words: "Theword of God came to John the son ofZacharias in the wilderness" (Lk 3:2), "Before the Son of God establishes themembers of the Church, He started His work inHis servant John, therefore St Luke revealed that the Word of God (The Logos) (I.e Christ) came upon John son of Zacharias in the wilderness...this was accomplished in the desolate wilderness, for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman to whom was said: 'Sing, O barren, You who have not borne' (Is 54:1)...

6. his entire life was a crying voice leading the souls to Christ. Therefore, Mark the evangelist mentions: "John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins" (Mk 1:4,5) "And he preached saying, 'There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with Holy Spirit" (Mk 1:7,8). In this paragraph we notice that: The power of this baptism was not in itself but rather in what it refers to that of Christ, the same way the bronze serpent in the days of Moses carried a power of healing for it symbolizes the cross. Hence, John the Baptist baptized them to enjoy the baptism of Christ and to lead them to it not just for the remission of sins but the fellowship of His burial and resurrection and the acquisition of the newness of the resurrected life (cf Rom 6:4,5). St Jerome mentions: "as he [John the Baptist] preceded Christ, also his baptism was a preparation to that of the Lord"

7. St Jerome sees John the Baptist as a living icon of the ascetic life, his mother was righteous, his father was a priest; nevertheless he was not attracted by the emotion of his mother nor the rank of his father. He rather went to the wilderness seeking Christ with the eyes of faith and none but Him. And inasmuch as John abandoned the world, he was able to withdraw the hearts with him from the world to the wilderness, he withdrew all the land of Judea and those from Jerusalem through the fragrance of Christ that filled him St Ambrose portrays John the Baptist as the end of the Law in the way it leads all humanity to rejoice in Christ, the same way repentance leads to the grace of forgiveness: "The word came to John to call for repentance, thus he became - in the eyes of many - an icon of the Law which unveils sin but cannot forgive it. He who walks in the path of the Gentiles, the law turns him from the error of his way and iniquities, leading him to repentance to be granted forgiveness since 'The law and the prophets were until John' (Lk 16:16). Thus John prepared the way to Christ Jesus proclaiming the law, like the church proclaiming grace through repentance"

8. He prophesied through his clothing concerning the advent of Christ who bore the abominations of our unclean deeds ( as dead animals' leather belt) and the despised sins of the nations ( as camel's hair), laying that clothe of our flesh on the Cross. The leather belt points to the burden of the leather on the soul which changed with the coming of Christ, since He encompassed us with a power that burn us spiritually by girdling us with God's commandments with a strong watchful spirit and a free and ready body. Saint John abandoned the city's pleasures and flew to the wilderness, eating wild honey and locusts, attracting to Christ the spiritually dry nations as a delicious wild honey in the mouth of the Lord, and making out of the Jews - who resemble fallen locusts for their disobedience of the commandment – a delicious food! In other words, as we reject with John the world's delightful food, we win the souls of others as a delicious food to the Lord! St Ambrose commenting on John the Baptist's clothing and food as a prophetical preaching on the work of Christ, says:

9. "And with honey from the rock I would satisfied you" (Ps 81:16). Thus, the nations were satisfied with Christ the rock and the sweetness of His words registered by love on the cross and by power in His glorious resurrection. that his baptism is not like Christ's, and that he is less than to be compared with Christ. Concerning baptism, he says: "I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit". John's baptism was a shadow or a symbol touching the washing of the body, while Christ's baptism sanctifies indeed both the body and the spirit. As for John's food it has a sign of his work and a mystery… catching locusts is a useless task and locusts are noisy when flying from one place to the other, so were the nations like locusts, with no useful work nor a fruitful activity, ignoring life and becoming food for the prophet. The wild honey pictures the sweetness of the church coming from the wilderness, she reaps her deeds not from the binding cells of the Jewish law but rather from the extended fields and woods filled with shadows, as it is written "we heard of it in Ephratha; we found it in the fields of the wood" (Ps 132:6). John's food was a the wild honey pointing to the people who are satisfied with the honey from the rock:

10. While there are mighty people, like Satan for example "no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man" (Mk 3:27), there is no one mightier than Christ. John did not compare himself to Christ by saying "I am not worthy to loose His sandal strap" St Ambrose says: water and spirit are inseparable, while the baptism for repentance differs from the baptism of grace which comprises both elements, the first one includes one element. If the body and the soul share sins, purification is also mandatory for both. • Concerning the Person of Christ, he says "One mightier than I is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose". St Ambrose says:John didn't mean by this comparison to prove that Christ is greater than him since there is no comparison between the Son of God and a human.

11. As previously mentioned, it points to John's declaration of his inability to perceive the mystery of His incarnation, of how the Logos of God became man. Christ has indeed bowed His head beneath this humble hand to accomplish all righteousness as expressed by St John Chrysostom: The hand that he affirmed unworthy to touch His sandal was pulled by Christ on His head. Reference: Articles by Fr Tadros Yacoub Malaty