Having no children has not kept me from having grandchildren, at least the honorary kind. In fact, I have two sets. The Filipino ones live in St. Louis and the Norwegian ones in Denver. So perhaps you will understand when I say my fourth-grade Filipino grandson is a very swift runner. He is so good at racing that he says his real competition is himself. He keeps trying to better his own record - he is sometimes successful and sometimes disappointed. Although once he broke his leg skiing, he recovered to race again.
John is also a great soul. He has been centered in God since he was able to talk. At age 5, he declared his sister born on his birthday was in fact God's present to him. While in the lead with him during a race, a classmate had an asthma attack. My grandson pleaded with the other boy to stop and rest. John even assured him he did not want to beat his friend but was afraid for him and wanted him to take care of himself. They both continued, nonetheless, and all was well in the end. I am amazed at the capacity of 10-year-old boys for determination, compassion and resilience - the virtues of wild men. In their own way they have the capacity to be wild men, not just over-active boys.
Wild men are not much in favor in our contemporary church. It's too bad really, because without the wild men of Scripture we would not have a church. John the Baptist and many of the prophets were wild men. John lived in the desert, wore wild clothing, ate wild honey and bugs, and as a wild man prepared the way for Jesus. John is called the "forerunner."
Like John the Baptist, a true wild man shows his determination in competition with himself alone. This is possible because his center is the Spirit of God. What the Spirit of God sends a man to do is not in competition with the grace God gives to another. Gifts of the Spirit are as unifying as God is one. John understood this. He testified he was not himself the Messiah. He was willing to fade so that Christ could increase, to be a best man so that Christ could be the Bridegroom of his church.
Only a true wild man like John, who has been touched by the Breath of God, could live this kind of compassion. I imagine that is why he demurred at baptizing Jesus. John's baptism was for repentance and forgiveness of sins, but he was awaiting the One who would baptize with the Spirit of God.
Still, Jesus asked John to give in so that God's plan of identifying his Son with sinners could be fulfilled. The resilience John showed was to give in to this request he did not understand and baptize his Lord. The resilience of Jesus was to follow the path of obedience which would fulfill his Father's plan and in that way show him to be the Beloved of God.
As a forerunner, John preached the message Jesus in turn proclaimed: "Reform your lives, the Kingdom of God is at hand." And John preached the message with his own blood, anticipating the death of the Christ he pointed out as the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.
Like two young boys running side by side, John the Wild Man and Jesus the God-Man invite Christians to live their baptism as persons beloved of God. It is a life of competition, not with others but in growing beyond self in the one Spirit. It is a life of compassion, finding fulfillment in accompanying others along the way set out by God. It is a resilient life, one which promises God's love now and resurrection in the days to come. Living as beloved of God is a wild way of life.
Father Richard Chiola is a certified counselor, pastor of St. Cabrini Parish in Springfield and diocesan director for the ongoing formation of clergy.