Baptizer is the shortest play in this repertoire. It is in one act, and its duration is forty five minutes.
There is a very good reason that it is the shortest because writing a lot about St. John the Baptist would have to be an exercise in fabrication. I don't like to fabricate. My job is to educate people to the truth as we know it. Revising historical facts to promote one's own agenda I hope will be severely punished in Heaven because it occurs to frequently here on earth and without consequence.
One thing we know for sure about St. John is that he is a very special person in Heaven. The Blessed Virgin Mary was his mother's cousin. The profits foretold his coming. "A voice cries out in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord." God's most special servant lived like an animal in the desert. A man who lived like an animal, but was the herald of the good news that God promised us in the Old Testament. Why was he not a priest in the temple? Why wasn't he a very important person in the city who was well respected by all its citizens? Instead it was a rough, coarse, and dirty man whose only cloak was an animal skin and whose daily cuisine was bugs. That was the man who introduced us to the Savior of the world by the will of God the Father who is in Heaven.
"For the longest time it was only the lizards and me." The desert was quiet too. St. John had uninterrupted conversation with God for years there. Listening for that tiny voice in the desert air to command him. Discern, discern, discern, listen, listen, listen, pray, pray, pray, repent, repent, repent repeatedly.
To prepare we had to repent. Repentance was and is God's will for us. Through repentance we are by the grace of God forgiven. God will forgive us our sins if we sincerely repent. We don't deserve it, but since He loves us, it is so. If we repent, and, if we are forgiven, then it follows that we will inherit eternal life!
I think it follows then that St. John is great because he lived like an animal so that we could live like saints.
