Heeding the Voices of the Water

Heeding the Voices of the Water

(A reflection by my friend Fr. Blesson)

Mark 1:4-6

Varattar, one of the branches of river Pamba in Kerala shed its last drop of tears because of the unnatural constructions including dams, bridges in river and huge buildings on their banks of Pamba from 1992.  After 25 years the river came back to its heritage as the result of the silent movement of the people and the government. This is not the only case in Kerala but also in other states as well. This invites the attention of the ecclesia or the Church as a whole to have a relook into the creation of God and the subsequent human activities.

The passage opens with a strong appeal and replica of Isaiah’s prophecy. It presses to make the way straight in the wilderness and the emphasis is not on the voice crying there. It clearly points that the focus is not on John the Baptist but on those responding to him. We are then told that John the baptizer was in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. There seems something radical about John’s message since his message encourages for repentance. In this sense, I would like to entitle my sermon as Heeding the voices of water. I would like to divide that into two.         

Firstly, Ecclesia: To Find Current Herodian Models

The destination Palestine is a strip of territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It is a holy promised land, the area for Israel’s experience of divine justice and faithfulness. The land as a living system and its soil yields crops and its rock formations retain water from the seasonal rains. It undergoes temporal cycles not only with agriculture and weather cycle, but also with the inheritance cycle that develops through marriages, births, and death with Sabbatical and Jubilee cycles of the Mosaic Law and with the tithing and taxing cycle imposed by the authorities. From the influence of Roman imperialism the place Galilee developed through different types. Herod Antipas changed the character of Jordan river again by building a new capital at Tiberias, on the south-western shore of the Galilee to attract those wealthy and well-connected travellers into his territory on their way to and from Jerusalem via Jordan valley. Before that there was no reason for the elite class to cross the Jordan valley into Galilee. In effect, when Antipas built Tiberias as a port of welcome to the land of Israel he Italianised the river and lower Jordan. For entertaining the elite international travellers at the Jordan valley invited the establishment of a new kind of industry that is imperial tourism at the cost of water sources.  Thereby changing the perceived character of the water. Here we can identify a geographical manipulation, thereby intentionally trying to commercialise the space and trying to dismantle the nature.  John the Baptist talks against the existing Roman Imperialism. He was the person of earthly centred because his dress and food was completely connected to earth. He used camel hair, leather belt, wild honey and locusts. He was person of courage because he questioned practise of social evil things by the dominant structure. He questioned the structural hegemony used by the tool of environment friendly objects. Antipas was not the only one who wanted to influence the pilgrims coming and going along the Jordan valley. “John the Baptist positioned himself and his challenge to Herodian authority right on the banks of Jordan river, spanning the pilgrimage route.”  In the words of Marianne Sawicki “This confrontation was the context for Jesus’ own baptism.” For Sawicki John the Baptist diverted the waterworks and died for it.

John the Baptist challenged the context where water has to become a commodity with price tag. He emerged as a threat to the existing dominant structures (Roman Empire) who were exploiting the water bodies as a source of income. The herodian model of converting the natural spaces for luxury and source of income continues in present times in various forms. Today, We see various issues like Deforestation, mining, agri-business, industrial forestry, dependency on fossil fuels, tube wells, and the privatization of rivers and lakes. Thus, Church should start to find those issues and start to address it.

Secondly, Water Rite: A Pilgrimage to Repentance

In Baptism, water is the medium of divine self-disclosure. Water is the symbol of new life in the sacrament of baptism. However, today for millions, water is the symbol of death. 1 billion people in the world do not have access to clean water. 3.5 million people die each year from water related diseases, of which 84% are children. This remains as a social reality which enables us in revisiting the ‘water rite’ John the Baptist initiated to challenge the dominant notion of Herod Antipas.   

The traditional understanding of the Baptism is to welcoming people into the believing community. After the baptism the person became new creation in Christ. He used baptism of repentance as the tool for recalling people from their present existence. From the historical reading of this text John the Baptist came from the desert or wilderness. The place of Jordan became commercialized by the power of Roman Empire Herod Antipas. The river Jordan was the connecting link between two regions and the river became one of the best tourist places under the empire. So the community of Israel became part of the dominant structure of the imperialism. John the Baptist effective opposition to this Italianization of Israel was spatially developed as well. John situated himself astride Herod’s little Tiber and used its very water to signal repentance literally it means “turning back”. Here mainly John the Baptist emphasised on turning back from the present culture that is the tourists and business travellers making their way between Tiberias and Jerusalem.

In this context we need a deliberate human effort to bring back the mechanism of ecological cycle. Humans need to be part of the divine vocation of the redemption of ecology. An act of repentance.  Here John the Baptist initiated baptism as a model ensuring repentance, may be understood as change of mind/ going to the past thereby being part of a community. In our midst many of the water bodies are privatize for our selfish motives.

John the Baptist was the part of a prophetic community, to fulfil the prophecy; his mission in wilderness, his identity including clothing and food habits reveals the true prophetic identity. John the Baptist placed himself in breach and initiated pilgrimage for Gods people in the banks of Jordan. He gave a novel implication in observing certain rites by challenging the existing Herodian models through the water rite. As Prof. George Zachariah says, a pilgrimage of justice and peace begins with a deeper experience of metanoia, and so, let us review ourselves and heed to the voices of water. Amen